CBI Blogs

I had the opportunity to sit down with Rabbi David Young, our new Interim Senior rabbi to ask him a few questions about his rabbinate, his life, and what he's looking forward to doing during his time in Austin. Please enjoy our brief interview!

What are you excited to explore in Austin?

All the tacos! 2 of my passions are music and food. What better city to explore someone’s passions than Austin?! Some of my friends gave me lists of places to eat and places to listen. I’m super excited to do all of that!

What drew you to CBI?

As an interim rabbi, I get to experience all kinds of different places. Sometimes places in transition have things they are dealing with that require an interim rabbi to hold their hands. CBI seems to be the kind of place where I get to be part of a really great team for a year and enjoy stretching my rabbi legs and serving a great community.

I know you love talking about Judaism and nerd-culture. Why?

One of my favorite things about teaching is finding the connections that might not be obvious on the first read. The “remez” as we call it. By making connections with our sacred text to things that already interest us in the secular world, we realize the text is relevant to us on every level, not just our spiritual and scholarly levels. Plus, it makes Judaism fun! If Judaism is fun, we will want to walk through the doors and participate as part of the community. More importantly, so will our children and grandchildren.

Speaking of teaching, what kind of topics do you hope to bring to CBI this year?

One of my favorite classes to teach is called “Reel Judaism.” We look at modern movies, movies that are not obvious (such as "Yentl," "Fiddler on the Roof," etc.), and find the connections between them and Jewish teachings, much like we do when exploring nerd culture. I would love to teach a cooking class. I am currently studying Daf Yomi, so I would also be happy to teach some Talmud. And, I would love to find out what people at CBI are studying and see if I can bring some of my own experience into that learning.

Every rabbi has that one sermon they give. What’s yours?

When I read the Torah or any of our sacred texts, I understand that everything in there is absolutely the truth. I also understand that almost nothing in there is a fact. To me, understanding the difference between truth and fact is the key to understanding our sacred texts, our news cycles, and the way we communicate with people in general.

Anything else you want us to know as we welcome you to CBI?

I love what I do. I love being a rabbi. I love being a teacher. I love being part of the community. And as such, I recognize that it’s important to hear what the needs of the community are. My door is always figuratively open. My inbox is always open. My voicemail is always open (once I learn how to use it), and I really do want to hear from you. When people have a problem with community leadership and they talk to each other about it and NOT the leadership, no positive change is possible. So, please come talk to me through any of these routes! I might not like what you have to say, but I will respect it, listen to it, and potentially make changes because of it. I am excited to be here and so thankful to the committee and leadership for giving me this opportunity!

We look forward to working together over the next year as Rabbi Young helps us through the next phase of our rabbinic transition. Please make sure to take some time to say hello and get to know Rabbi Young as well!

We hope you can join us this Friday, July 5 as we welcome Rabbi Young to CBI during Shabbat services at 6:30. See you then!