Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University

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or a teacher, they should always be addressed by their name; 2) when you knocked on a
door and someone responded ‘Yes” that meant “wait,” and did not mean “enter”; 53 3) one
should not enter a neighbour’s house without announcing oneself; 4) One should not use
indecent expressions even if more words were required to complete the sentence; 5)
when writing and speaking, one should use ‘he and I’, and not not ‘he and he’; one
should do not interrupt when someone is speaking and not monopolize conversation, and,
lastly, one should forget themselves and think of those around them. 54
This basic theme of “derekh eretz” was woven through nearly all thirty-odd years
of sermons on the three parshiot (Bereshit, Noach, and Vayera) that I received. He
further explored these same principles of human happiness, decency and respect in a
sermon on the wife of Abraham’s nephew Lot. Lefell used the image of Lot’s wife’s
“need to look back” upon the destroyed city of Sodom as his springboard for addressing
some of the possible psychological issues that inhibit people from being open (showing
hospitality of the heart) with the “other.” 55 He asked his congregants not to allow
themselves, like Lot’s wife, to be paralyzed by the past - but to move forward - and to be
both open to positive relationships and to engage with others. 56
Rabbi Leffell was ardent in promoting the synagogue’s relationship with the
United Synagogue Movement. Rabbi Leffell’s notes and sermons on the Seminary and
the United Synagogue, his high regard for these institutions and his frequent calls on the
congregation to participate indicate to some extent that he saw himself as creating new
social and religious possibilities through the synagogue’s relationship with the United
53
Ibid. 6.
54
Ibid. 7.
55
Rabbi A. B. Leffell, “Vayera.” (1958): 2-3.
56
Ibid.