2 voices of rabbinical experience

Rabbinical experience comes in many shades and sizes. Recefntly two distinguished rabbis, each with a direct connection to our Five Towns community, penned essays dealing with the challenges faced by rabbis in today’s world.

This week’s column briefly presents their contrasting points of view. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to evaluate the justice of each rabbi’s opinion.

Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka is rabbi emeritus at Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, Ontario, hosts “Sunday Night With Rabbi Bulka,” has contributed to the “Ask the Religion Expert” column in the Ottawa Citizen since 1994, chairs the Trillium Gift of Life Network that is responsible for organ tissue donation and transplantation in Ontario, and is a member of the board of the Canadian Blood Services. He received his semicha from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on New York’s Lower East Side in 1966.

Rabbi Bulka is married to Leah (Kalish-Rosenbloom). They are blessed with many children and grandchildren and a great grandchild. Next month, G-d willing, the rabbi’s granddaughter, Rivka Devorah Bulka, the daughter of Chani and Shmuel Bulka, will be getting married to David Daniel Ash, son of Yola and Dr. Zev Ash of Cedarhurst (thus the Five Towns connection). 

David Daniel is also the grandson of Joseph Ash, of blessed memory, who was a leading partisan during the Holocaust. Joseph Ash was a dear friend of mine and for many years he was a prominent member of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Borough Park.

Rabbi Bulka’s recent essay, “Reflection on a Changing Rabbinate,” at JewishIdeas.org, was edited by Rabbi Marc Angel. Within this essay, Rabbi Bulka reflects on the current state of the American rabbinate, including the many changes he and his colleagues have faced over the past half century in which they observed ritual observance decline, rise, and in many cases, level off. He writes in a straightforward manner reflecting a realistic view of the chaotic and violent world about us. Consider the following same of the rabbi’s astute scholarship: