Who is Rabbi Mayer from Bee Season: A Novel and what is their importance?

Rabbi Mayer is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Amicha Synagogue. Mayer is a rather large man with a "broad forehead" and gray eyebrows. His eyes are quite small as if "to take in as little of the world as necessary" (p. 13). While Beth Amicha would not have been Mayer's first choice as a rabbinical assignment, Mayer made his choice based on the steady income offered by presiding over a suburban synagogue.