Josh's Installation at Emanu-El

A week ago tonight, I had the honor of singing on the bima of Temple Emanu-El of the City of New York, and of blessing my husband Rabbi Joshua Davidson at the ark as he officially assumed the mantle of leadership of this great historic synagogue.  Thank you so much to the great Cantor Lori Corrsin for her graciousness and welcome, and also for arranging both the duet we sang together and the blessing I sang at the ark.

The night before the installation, I started having dizzy spells-- thankfully my parents were in town and they put Lena and Mikaela to bed for me!  I wondered why this was happening to me?  I was truly excited to see family and friends who came to celebrate with us from around the country, and had practiced my music enough that I felt very comfortable singing it.  There were a few reasons that I could think of:

First-- the ceremony in a way formalized and consecrated our relationship to Emanu-El and NYC in a way almost like a wedding does for a married couple.  In front of our community, Josh officially became the new rabbi.  We are invested, one in the other, for the long term, no more engagement!  His accepting the Torah from Rabbi David Posner symbolically showed everyone that things have changed-- both for the synagogue's leadership and for our family.  Our move to the city, I feel, now has a holiness and purpose to it that was shown in the ritual last Shabbat.

As I mentioned, friends and family gathered from around the country to be with us.  The last time this happened was....  you guessed it, our wedding ten years ago.  The evening (and the whole weekend, actually, ending with a Sunday brunch!) evoked a kind of "this is
your life" feel in me.  Looking out at the sea of people and recognizing my friends from high school to the present, congregants from Westchester Reform Temple and Beth El of Chappaqua, NY, and especially Josh's college roommates made a real impact on me.  What a joy to have such a cause to celebrate-- and thank you to everyone who came and increased our joy through your presence.

The girls incidentally were NOT there.  :)  They were home with our terrific au pair.  They did join for dinner Saturday night (Mikaela fell asleep on my lap!) and brunch on Sunday.  But I didn't think they would last through 10 minutes of the two hour service, and I didn't want to be distracted by worrying about them.  Sometimes the best thing you can do as a mom is to get a babysitter...  :)

Lastly, the most meaningful moment of the whole night was the blessing at the ark, that moment right after Josh received the Torah when my father-in-law, Rabbi Jerry Davidson, and I had the opportunity to bless Josh.  When I became a cantor in 2007, Josh and Jerry blessed me in that same spot-- and here I was, 6.5 years later blessing my husband.  I was overcome with emotion and the moment.

We are officially part of NYC!  More adventures to come...