I had the pleasure of meeting with Rabbi Rose to learn more about him and his vision for one of Baltimore’s fastest growing congregations.

Margie Pensak (MP): Did you always want to be a rabbi?

Rabbi Doniel Rose (RDR): After I finished wanting to be a baseball player? [He asks with a chuckle.] In my yeshiva days, I looked around at different ways to be mashpia and make a difference in Torah. I had a sense that the job the rabbonim did – being involved in people’s everyday needs with their family, with their nisyanos, their shailos, their children, their parnasa - felt like a very meaningful way to bring Torah into life because rabbonus is really where Torah meets what we do every day. Some people go into the rabbonus because they love halacha and paskening shailos; for me, it is more the ability to be able to help people with what they need  – yes, answering their shailos, but I hope that it  encompasses being there for the full range of their ruchniyus needs, as well, to help them grow and learn, to help their children, their families, and to fill as much of their lives with Torah as they want me to do.

MP: Where did you daven as a young boy?

RDR: The first place I went when I was old enough to appreciate the importance of a shul was Rabbi Goldberger’s shul. He was my first rabbinic model. When I was in yeshiva, I would come to local shuls only when yeshiva was not in session. I davened in other shuls along the way, but would come to BJSZ from time to time just to see how Rabbi Hauer spoke and guided the shul.

MP: Please tell us about your career path?

RDR: After T.A., I went to Ner Yisroel for high school, beis medrash, and kollel with a break in the middle to learn in the Mir for a year. About 10 years ago, Rabbi Hauer agreed to take me under his wing as the assistant in the shul. I never dreamed that I would be here for 10 consecutive years; that was not at all the plan, but Hashem apparently knew something I didn’t. In between then and now, I have done a lot of other things. I’ve written for Artscroll, including their Mishnah Elucidated. I also wrote a book about the Torah view of marriage called Building Eternity. I teach a class at Maalot. And for the past few years,  I have also worked for Seasons Hospice as the director of their Jewish Hospice program.     

MP: How many children do you have?

RDR: Seven children, ka’h, six sons and one daughter. My oldest is 14 and my youngest is 4 months.

MP: Can I ask how old you are?

RDR: 36   

MP: At what point in your career were you when Bnai Jacob and Shaarei Zion merged?

RDR: I was a yeshiva bachur in my first year of Beis Medrash when the shuls merged. I remember seeing the sign up in the hallway announcing the hachnases sefer Torah, of sorts -- they carried the sifrei Torah from Bnai Jacob down Park Heights to the new merged shul building. I remember seeing that sign and thinking how wonderful it was that Baltimore had a new vibrant makom Torah, and no, I did not ever dream that I would be the next person to become rav of the shul.

MP: What made you choose Rabbi Hauer as your mentor?

RDR: Rabbi Hauer is a very unique person and he stands for something very unique within even the world of rabbonim. His website is called “Toras Chaim”, which in general means Torah is relevant to everything in your life and the job of a rav or teacher of Torah is to show his congregants that no matter  what you are thinking about or experiencing – whether a personal or a national issue -- the Torah has something to say about it and that is where we turn for our guidance. He has a way of bringing Torah to life within a community. I first started learning with Rabbi Hauer once a week, when he started a chabura for Kollel yungerleit who wanted to go into klei kodesh. He would talk about the realities of being in this field and different lessons and values that should guide someone who is in a position to guide and influence people. I was part of the original chabura, though I think there have been seven or eight generations since then. That is how I first got to be a student of Rabbi Hauer.

MP: Rabbi Hauer’s shoes are pretty big to fill. What are your thoughts on this?

RDR: I am not filling Rabbi Hauer’s shoes; they are impossible shoes to fill. The best I can do is to do what I can do in my way. He set a very clear path of values for the shul and a vision of how a community should look. My job is - with my kochos and contributions - to bring the shul to its next level based on the example he set. 

MP: In the beautiful letter you sent out to BJSZ’s members after your appointment, you mentioned that you are excitedly looking forward to the shul’s future. What do you have in mind for it?

RDR: We have a tremendously vibrant shul and there is lots of room for us to introduce many new opportunities to give people more chances to connect more deeply with the shul, to make it even more a part of their lives. We want to take advantage of all those opportunities – from new ways to participate in learning Torah, to creating new programs to help build our sense of community, to a new focus on the youth of the shul, to new models that will help everyone feel that they belong and are important. And with all the activities we have going on, we want to be conscious about making sure that they are relevant and convenient so that everyone can take advantage of them.

MP: How many members does BJSZ have?

RDR: We have 280 member units, which works out to over 500 adult members. Geographically, while we have many members who live in the neighborhood around the shul, we also have many members who walk some distance to come to shul. People are really committed to what the shul stands for and they are a part of it because they believe in our values.

MP: Is your shul a mix of ages?

RDR: It is diverse across every kind of diversity – different ages and backgrounds. We have lots of people who went to yeshiva and Kollel, and lots of people who are baalei teshuva who never went to yeshiva. We have many older members, with a variety of backgrounds, and we also have many younger members, some who live in the neighborhood and some who live farther away. We really cover the spectrum and we aim to be a shul where everyone can feel at home. That is an important value for us. We try very hard to make everyone feel the value that we place on their presence and their contributions. Everyone brings something different to the shul and we want people to feel that it is not the same without them, because it’s not.

MP: Do you have a Daf Yomi in the shul?

RDR: We have three Daf Yomis for this cycle. We also have a whole list of shul activities as you can see from our shul bulletin.

MP: What do you feel is a strength of BJSZ?

RDR: One thing I found during this whole transition process is that, obviously, people have different opinions and different things they would like to see, but generally, it is truly a shul comprised of people who are nice and want to see shul affairs conducted with derech eretz. Many issues came to the fore and many things were discussed and people want lots of things that are not always the same, but there is a real general desire to do things like mentchen and do things with kavod and derech eretz. That’s a special aspect and I feel very blessed to have a shul of genuinely nice people.

MP: What do you see as the shul’s vision?

RDR: If that the Torah says that a value is good, beautiful and important, we want to take that value and embrace it and live it to the greatest extent we can. The Torah says community is important and making everybody feel like they are welcome is important, so we want to take that seriously and build a real community where people really feel welcomed and special. The Torah says learning Torah and filling your life with Torah is of primary importance, so we are going to develop many different opportunities for people to learn and to see how the Torah informs everything we do. The Torah says Eretz Yisrael is a central aspect of our identity, so we want to embrace it and make Eretz Yisroel a living and important part of our lives. The Torah says tefilah should be alive and meaningful, so we want to have the most beautiful davening in town that everyone can look to as a model. If the Torah says it is good, we want to live it as fully as we can.

MP: What is your family’s reaction to your appointment?

RDR: My children already think that I am the last person to leave the shul building every Shabbos - which is basically true – so they are somewhat used to sharing me with the tzibur, knowing that I am always talking to people and life is busy.

MP: Do you have any closing thoughts?

RDR: I want everyone to know that, as much as I know the congregants casually because I’ve been here, my top, top priority is to get to know everybody much more meaningfully and much more deeply. My door will be open and my phone will be on, and I want to be as much of a resource for anyone as I can. I hope to get to know everyone – not just to get to know their kitchen – but to get to know them as people, as well as their children and families, so we are part of each other’s lives.