KINGSTON — Keren Green read tehillim before her wedding for luck. Now she’ll be reading them to try to save a life.
Rabbi Daniel Elkin, centre, who will be undergoing brain surgery, officiated at Keren and Alex Green’s wedding this May. [Hudson Taylor photo]
Green is one of dozens of students who will be part of a tehillim circle for Rabbi Daniel Elkin of Beth Israel Congregation in Kingston, who will undergo surgery at Toronto Western Hospital for a brain tumour at the end of June.
The growth, which is near the rabbi’s pituitary gland, is likely not cancerous, but can be dangerous if not removed.
“I’m a little bit more tired at this point, but it’s not a rapidly growing growth,” Rabbi Elkin said, adding that “It’s got to come out.”
Rabbi Elkin, 66, has been spiritual leader at Beth Israel, one of two shuls in Kingston, for the last 13 years. The former teacher and social worker grew up in Montreal and studied and worked in England, Israel, New York and Seattle before settling in Kingston, where he became involved not just in community life, but in student life.
For Green, who studied drama and Jewish studies at Queen’s University in Kingston from 2004 to 2008, he was more than a religious leader. He was, and is, a friend.
“My first Shabbat in Kingston was during frosh week in September 2004. Because I’m observant, I didn’t want to be part of frosh week,” Green, who moved to Kingston from Toronto, said.
Instead, she decided to visit the Beth Israel Shul, a modern Orthodox synagogue.
Rabbi Elkin was the first person she met.
“I walked in and Rabbi Elkin was standing in the hallway. He turned to me and said, ‘You must be new here…. here, this is Leah, you guys can be friends, sit beside her. I’ll take care of you,’” she said. “There’s seriously not a bad bone in his body. He’s one of a kind. He’s a really, truly amazing person.”
Rabbi Elkin, who found out that he had a brain tumour in mid-May and told his congregation soon after, said even though he’s received a positive prognosis, he appreciates the students’ support.
“I can use all the prayers I can get. Brain tumours are not small things. It’s not supposed to be life-threatening, but you’re going under the knife. The doctors don’t give you a 100-per-cent guarantee,” he said.
Green is studying for her master’s of education degree at the University of Toronto now, but she still sees Rabbi Elkin, who officiated at her wedding on May 2, as her rabbi.
“I always come back [to Kingston] because I miss the shul. Queen’s was fine, but it was the shul that made it for me,” Green said.
And she’s not alone.
The rabbi reaches out to Jewish students at Queen’s through Shabbat dinners and Talmud Torah, a school that several university students taught at. Rabbi Elkin is also involved in Hillel and the Hillel House is on Beth Israel’s property.
So when his congregants, many of them students, heard about his surgery, they reacted the only way they knew how – by organizing a traditional prayer circle and reciting passages from Tehillim, the Book of Psalms, for someone who is ill.
The tehillim circle will function both online and in the form of a group reading in Kingston the day before Rabbi Elkin’s surgery, on June 27.
The entire book of Tehillim will be split into parts and read both in Kingston and by former Queen’s students in other cities, possibly through social media sites and Skype.
For Shira Sasson – who, along with Eric Chapman, will be Queen’s Hillel president next year – Rabbi Elkin is an important part of student life.
“The students were able to get a sense of a Jewish community around them when they were in Queen’s. That was through Queen’s Hillel, but also through the rabbi’s help,” said Sasson, who is helping to organize the tehillim circle through social media sites such as Facebook.
She added that, since the rabbi and his wife are firm believers in prayer, this initiative seemed most appropriate.
“It would be so meaningful for him to see everyone joining together, using the strength he’s given the community to pray for him and his family,” said Sasson, who next fall will be entering her fourth year studying history at Queen’s. “It’s a Jewish way to respond.”
Rabbi Elkin will be going for a consultation on the day of his surgery to make sure doctors can operate on the tumour.
“It’s only about 95 per cent sure I’m going in for surgery. If they don’t like me, they’ll do a botched job,” he joked, adding that he plans to continue his work at Beth Israel after the surgery.
“My contract is for 140 years,” he said. “God willing, I’ll heal and be able to continue.”
For more information about the tehillim circle, visit the Facebook group Tehillim for Rabbi Elkin, which has more than 70 members.
