This past summer, a bout of the flu landed me in the hospital. I felt anxious and alone, and then I remembered that a Maharat graduate, one of my students, Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn, was a chaplain in that hospital. I texted her and moments later she appeared at my bedside. I teased her, and said, “So nu, let’s see what you got?” and then watched as she transformed before my eyes. She took my hand, asked permission to pray, and offered both traditional and personal words of blessing. I found myself in tears, receiving exactly the care I didn’t even know how to ask for. My student had become my rabbi.

I have watched my Maharat students teach, officiate weddings, lead funerals, and inspire communities, but I never imagined I would be on the receiving end of one of their rabbinic gifts. Three months later, what stays with me about my hospital experience is not the illness but Rabbanit Thomas-Newborn’s kindness. Deep, instinctive, radical kindness.

At a time when the Jewish community is filled with internal divisions, when antisemitism grows louder, when Israelis kiss their loved ones goodbye not knowing if they’ll return from the front lines, and when hostages remain captive in Gaza, the need for radical kindness could not be more urgent.

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the Jewish community was at its most united. We were in the so-called “surge”: a renewed desire for community,........

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