I’m proud to have recently completed my tenth year as the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Memphis (TN). During that time, it’s also been a privilege to teach Torah to high school students at Memphis’ Cooper Yeshiva of the South (CYOS). Before relocating to Memphis, I also spent a year teaching at a Jewish day school on Long Island, NY, as well as nine years of serving as a Shul Rabbi in Harrisburg, PA. Altogether, this amounts to twenty rewarding years spent in the Rabbinate and Jewish education.

Reaching this milestone caused me to reflect on my dual roles as a Shul Rabbi and Jewish educator. What do I hope I have accomplished in both of those capacities over the last two decades?

In discussing this with my wife Layala, I thought of a recently rediscovered picture from the summer of 1992. There’s a startling backstory to this picture of five smiling teenage boys posing at the open rear doors of a U-Haul truck. I’m the one at the bottom left. The faces of the other four in the picture have been obscured — as I did not track them down and ask for their consent in sharing the story that follows.

That picture was taken about a month after I graduated from Yeshiva high school in Milwaukee, WI. After four incredible years of learning and camaraderie, I left my friends and Rabbeim at WITS (the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study) feeling a great sense of accomplishment and optimism about all that lay ahead. I was excited that I would soon fly to Israel for a challenging year of Torah study at Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Yerushalayim. Little did I know that I’d first end up in the back of a U-Haul truck after getting thrown out of summer camp.

I spent the previous summer at home in Cleveland, OH working for a friend’s father who was remodeling houses. Concurrently, I took a lifeguarding course and passed a difficult certification exam. That same summer, a friend and classmate of mine at WITS named “Yosef” also became a lifeguard while he was back home in NY.

During our twelfth-grade year, Yosef and I often spoke about our plan to spend the coming summer working together as lifeguards at a sleep-away camp. We imagined having a fun time while earning some much-needed cash for the year of Yeshiva that would follow. I had no idea how to land such a job from out in Milwaukee, so I left that up to Yosef who had some ideas.

Shortly before we graduated, Yosef succeeded in securing positions for us as lifeguards somewhere in the northeast. However, it........

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