With our 2022 Ordination-Graduation ceremony approaching, we are highlighting members of the graduating class. Click here to see all of the posts in this series.
Today we’re talking with Rabbinic Graduate Michal Morris Kamil
1) With the ceremony approaching, what emotions are you feeling?
Self realization would be first and foremost. We are a continual work in progress. As we mature, which is throughout our lifetimes, we are given opportunities to discover new worlds rich with new learning and re-visiting what we thought we knew, now through new perspectives and a refreshing openness for broader and deeper exploration. And all of it, we then process and reflect through our inner development and growing understanding and appreciation. As I reach the eve of this most meaningful benchmark on my journey towards becoming a Rabbi, I am in awe of the world that I have experienced and learned from, from engaging with a very broad and diverse range of texts, approaches, and traditions,from my teachers and fellow students who have taught, guided, and nurtured me every step of the way, and I am grateful for every single person who helped me reach this point, being blessed that there are so many. As the Rabbinic Semicha-ordination approaches, I pray and hope I will do justice to the title of ‘Rabbi’ in the service I will provide the communities I will be engaged with, fulfilling the expectations of this responsibility and providing for the the needs as they arise, spiritually, educationally, and through the leadership I can humbly and with humility offer.
2) What is one learning from your Academy experience that you will take with you after graduation?
I also learned how to practically apply Buber’s I-Thou relationship in chevrutah frameworks through the study of texts to a far greater skill and depth, and in the tradition of our Talmudic sages for thousands of years. My Talmud studies, Hassidism classes, Liturgical studies, Homolitics, Chaplaincy, Counselling, Spiritual development-you name it, these discussions, dialogues, shared spaces of interpersonal engagement using the sources, old and newer, have been transformative. I have worked in. Jewish education for decades, trained teachers, led schools, and still have been amazed by the growth and sensitization I have experienced in these areas through discourse, listening, reflecting, and processing.
3) Is there anything you learned at AJRCA that truly surprised you?
4) If you could go back in time and tell your pre-AJRCA self one thing, what would that be?
ONE? CAN’T DO ONE. Trust the process, have faith, and continue being you at your core-hard working, loving, inspired, and filled with the joy of the experience of learning and growing with the community.
Congratulations Michal!
Wow Michali, can’t wait to call you Rabbi! רבה
I’m looking forward to hearing/reading your sermons and hopefully sitting in your congregation while you’re leading the service! Much Love to you and so much pride!!
בהצלחה!!
אוהבת, דינה