Some call it fate, others destiny or karma. In Spanish it’s destino, but in Hebrew, “bershert” is the word that means “it was meant to be” – always in a positive sense.
And so it happened that just when the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation (LCJC) was searching for a new service leader, Aaron Katz, an ordained rabbi, scholar, teacher, and a bit of an entertainer, was himself searching for a new congregation to lead.
Hiring just the right person was no easy task for a small congregation set in the mountains of Mexico. Because the Torah reading is a central part of the Jewish liturgy, a service leader has to be able to read aloud ancient Hebrew from the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), which is an enormously long scroll of parchment, inked by hand in tiny Hebrew letters. That was the minimal requirement, but of course, LCJC was also looking for someone who spoke English, was willing to relocate or commute to the Chapala area and would fit seamlessly into our Jewish congregation and the community beyond.
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