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August 30, 2002
A new rabbi, a new life
Dr. Barry Leff traded a high-tech business for a pulpit.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
He has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, is an experienced sailboat
skipper, an experienced SCUBA diver, a double-diamond level skier,
a certified flight instructor and he spent several years in the
U.S. army in communications intelligence.
Sounds like his dream job would be something along the lines of
a secret agent – kind of a cross between Austin Powers and
James Bond. Instead, five years ago, when Dr. Barry Leff was looking
for a career and lifestyle change, he headed to the Ziegler School
of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles,
Calif.
On Aug. 1, just two and a half months after completing his training,
he took over the pulpit of Beth Tikvah Synagogue, a congregation
that had been without a rabbi since Martin Cohen left three summers
ago.
Leff, like a lot of young Jews around the world, had lost his connection
to Judaism after celebrating his bar mitzvah.
"I went 25 years without setting foot in a synagogue, except
for a friend's wedding," said Leff, 46, sitting in his new,
yet-to-be decorated office, in the synagogue that he will now visit
every day.
During these years, he focused on what became a successful business
career that saw him running his own telecommunications infrastructure
company; a company that was worth approximately $10 million before
he walked away from it. He also spent time in an executive marketing
position with Philips Semiconductors, leading a division that brought
the company more than $100 million a year in revenue. However, over
time, his work became less satisfying and the high-tech world that
once seemed so exciting had become tiresome to Leff.
"After a while, I was feeling pretty burnt out," he explained.
"Twenty years of doing that had been enough. So I asked myself,
If I won the lottery, what would I do?"
Around the same time, Leff's wife, Lauri, had decided that she wanted
to convert to Judaism and was in the process of taking intense conversion
classes. In order to keep up with his wife, Leff began doing some
of his own studying and his interest in Judaism began to grow.
"I really fell in love with studying Torah and pretty quickly
all my non-work-related reading became Judaic in some form or another,"
he said.
As he studied, he began to feel a stronger desire to participate
in tikkun olam, making the world a better place. These feelings
helped Leff confirm his desire to take his career, and life for
that matter, in a different direction.
"In high tech, if I got hit by a truck, they would have just
reached into the next office and pulled a guy out of there, put
him into my chair and that's it," he said. "Being a pulpit
rabbi, you have a real opportunity to make a significant difference
in people's lives."
With a shortage of Conservative rabbis around the world, there was
no lack of opportunities available for rabbinical students in their
final year of studies. However, because of Richmond's West Coast
location, the availability of the Richmond Jewish Day School, which
his own children will attend, and the size and enthusiasm of the
congregation, Beth Tikvah soon became the top choice for the San
Francisco native.
"The congregation is big enough to have the critical mass to
do things and put on programs, but it's not so big to be overwhelming
for my first pulpit," he explained. "There also seemed
to be a lot of eagerness for learning and bringing more Jewish things
into [the congregants'] lives. So it seemed like a really good fit."
Leff said he plans to take advantage of that eagerness in the form
of adult education – his self-proclaimed passion. After all
it was adult education that brought him back to shul after a 25-year
hiatus.
"In a way, I have the missionary zeal to go out and show all
these Jews all the cool things that they have in their own heritage,"
he said. "That's where my passion is and it will be reflected
in some of my priorities."
Leff already started offering Torah study sessions that follow Shabbat
morning services every week. He also plans to begin a series of
six Tuesday evening classes in October that will focus on connecting
with God.
"There are so many different ways in the Jewish tradition to
conceptualize God and different ones work better for different people,"
he said. "There is no one right answer."
Some of the classes will focus on meditation, using mitzvot to connect
with God and different techniques for praying.
"It's like, if you want to learn how to play golf, you learn
the right way to swing," he said. "If you want to learn
how to pray there are techniques you can use.
"Just picking up a siddur and reading isn't praying,"
he explained. "Praying has to somehow involve your heart and
your soul and we don't often get shown how to do that."
Leff and his wife have five children: Kiri, 20, Heather, 15, Katherine,
6, Elizabeth, 4, and Devorah, who is just 16 months old.
For more information about Leff's adult education programs or the
synagogue, call Beth Tikvah at 604-271-6262.
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