last word
Rabbi Saul Grife
COMES OUT OF RETIREMENT
TO RETURN TO RABBINATE
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
Courtesy of the Grife family
R abbi Saul Grife, 65, retired from
Beth Tikvah-B’nai Jeshurun in
Glenside in December 2021.

Then he returned to the rabbinate at
Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El in Elkins
Park in January 2023. But in between,
there was a liminal space.

In 2022, Grife took a year off after
spending 23 of them at BT-BJ. His first
move was to visit Israel for six weeks
in the spring, where he spent time with
his daughter Alana, who made aliyah,
and his granddaughter Lucy, named
for his late wife Linda. Grife also lived
on a kibbutz with a friend, watched
people celebrate Purim in the streets
of Jerusalem and sat for a seder with
his daughter’s family.

Throughout his weeks there, the
rabbi marveled. For 2,000 years, he
thought, Israel did not exist. And less
than a century ago, the Nazis wiped
out more than a third of the world’s
Jewish population in the Holocaust.

But today, Jews have a land and the
will to defend it.

Not long after he returned, Grife
realized that there was only one path
for him — returning to the rabbinate.

“I say that to people every Chanukah:
‘Be a modern Maccabee.’ It’s not just
an ancient story,” the rabbi said.

Leaders from Melrose B’nai Israel
Emanu-El reached out to Grife later
that year. The congregation of between
250 and 275 older Jews was going to
start gathering in the sanctuary again
and needed a spiritual leader. The
Wyndmoor resident guided his first
Shabbat service and lunch and learn
on Jan. 21.

About 25 of the rabbi’s friends and
former congregants came out, ate and
wished him well. Grife thinks some will
stay at the Elkins Park synagogue to
“check it out.” He also may reach out
to people in the neighborhood to see
if they are looking for programs for
their kids. If there is interest, he can
start with one class and build from
there. The Conservative synagogue
does not have a school because it
does not have any young families in its
congregation. “We’ll just see how that goes,” Grife
said. Grife is not Melrose B’nai Israel
Emanu-El’s full-time rabbi. He is
serving for six months while shul
leaders search for a spiritual leader.

Grife said he may want the position.

He will figure that out as he goes. But
right now, he’s just taking it day by
day. During his six months, he wants
to offer an experience that can attract
“very traditional” Jews but also Jews
“who are looking for something more
modern and liberal.”
Grife is a Grateful Dead-head on a
“45-year journey with their music,” he
said. And he relates Judaism to the
Dead and its devoted fan base in the
sense that they are both communities
on journeys. According to the rabbi,
“It’s all about the journey, man, one
day at a time.” “And hopefully we’ll
continue on the journey along life’s
path,” he added. “We only live once.

I’m grateful to be here every day. I’m
just hoping to be a part of the answer
and not the problem,” he concluded.

As a young man, Grife’s two passions,
Judaism and music, presented him
with a crossroads. He was either going
to pursue the rabbinate or play guitar,
hopefully one day “like Eric Clapton.”
But even if God had promised him that
he would get there one day, he would
have chosen the rabbinate, he said.

Back when he was making this
decision, Grife realized that if he only
helped one Jew as a rabbi, his journey
would have been worth it. Today, after
the rabbi officiates funerals, family
members of the deceased often
approach him. They say, “Thank you
so much for celebrating my mom’s life.

We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“That made it worth it,” he said.

In addition to returning to the pulpit,
the rabbi is returning to the Talmud.

Grife and a group of former BT-BJ
congregants are learning a page a day
and gathering once a week to discuss.

The cycle of reading all 2,711 pages
began in January 2020 and will end in
the middle of 2027.

Grife had studied Talmud before, but
he had never learned it in its entirety.

And both the text and the process of
talking about it are blowing his mind.

“It is amazing how we’re one world
but everybody takes something differ-
ent away from it. There is no one issue
where all the ancient rabbis agree,” the
rabbi explained. “Our Greek chorus
(in the group) became, ‘What’s the
answer to this question? Yes and no.’ I
love that, man. You can disagree but it
doesn’t mean that you’re wrong or I’m
wrong.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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