I am writing what may be my last column for The CJN. I actually don’t know yet if the paper will be saved at the last minute, and if it is, whether this column will be on the cutting floor?

So it’s never too early to say thank you. It’s never the wrong time to express gratitude. I’m reminded of the story of a man who was absolutely inconsolable at his wife’s funeral. His grief was boundless. The rabbi said, “I understand that you were married for a long time, and it’s like losing your best friend. But you had a beautiful marriage for 50 years. You’ve had a beautiful family. Let’s think about the good times.” To this the man replied, “Rabbi, you don’t understand. I loved her so much that I almost told her so once.”

I don’t wait to put out the good china. I don’t wait to hug my kids later. So I’m writing to say thank you. Not just thank you for being The CJN, and not just thank you for allowing me to write this column since 2006, but thank you for allowing –no, encouraging – the variety of viewpoints and often contentious or controversial stands I’ve sometimes taken.

I’ve cajoled us to support gay pride not because we are marching against Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and not to turn the parade into a political showdown, but because and only because we celebrate the sexual diversity of our community. I’ve written about agunot (women chained in marriage to recalcitrant husbands who don’t grant them Jewish divorces) and Women of the Wall, and received wonderful letters from Orthodox Jews supporting me on both. Women’s issues were turned into normative Jewish issues in my columns, I hope.

I celebrated the now-defunct Hadassah Bazaar and got scores of thank-you’s from those tireless and maligned “Hadassah ladies.” The next year I wrote a Mother’s Day column that stated Jewish mother jokes are sexist and self-hating, and in honour of our mothers, we should stop telling them. I should have added that “Hadassah lady” jokes are just as bad.

I’ve taken a public stand against the settlements in Israel and for a two-state solution while suggesting every trip to Israel is a “spiritual aliyah.” I’ve proposed that the Chief Rabbinate in Israel should be dismantled. Around Yom Hashoah I counselled us not to retain a “victim mentality” that turns off our young people. I’ve denounced Chanukah menorahs on city property, even when they make some folks “proud to be Jewish.” I’ve championed vegetarianism as an antidote to the horrible junk food that’s marked “kosher” and the poorly regulated kosher meat industry (à la Agriprocessors) and I’ve even admitted to eating kitniyot on Pesach. Yikes!

My favourite column – and probably my most disliked by kids all over – is about why Jews should not celebrate Halloween. I know it’s been photocopied and scanned and sent to many parents over the years all over Canada and the United States, and though I wrote it more than six years ago, I still get letters about it every year around October.

And I’ve been personal. I’ve written about my youngest child going off to university, advocated strict parenting, reminisced about my 30 years in Toronto, and shared my mother’s dementia and loss of memory.

Two things moved me to write for this paper. First, The CJN’s editor, Mordechai Ben-Dat, did not ask me to write about women’s issues. Thank you for not typecasting and pigeonholing me. Second, I was never censored, never told to “tone it down” or asked to change my topic. I would sometimes send in a particularly “hot” topic and The CJN’s news editor, Jeff Rosen, would write me back a quick note reassuring me that it was a good column and, in fact, a necessary voice.

So many times dissenting voices are stifled in our community. So many times more progressive Jewish ideas are cast aside in favour of the old traditional ways. I’ve tried not to be controversial for the sake of controversy, but for the sake of heaven, to advance Judaism and to keep our community vibrant and thoughtful. I’ve always taken my homiletics professor seriously when he said, “Your job as a rabbi is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Thank you, CJN, for helping me do it, for being the right vehicle for that holy and often lonely work.