Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Moving the Furniture

I have the good fortune to be part of CLAL's rabbi's without borders student cohort this year. We are a group of a dozen or so rabbinic students talking about post denominational, post-modern Judaism and what it looks like. I love it!!

I also have the good fortune of having just been hired at the Director of Engagement and Outreach at The Temple in Atlanta GA, part of the Next Dor project. My job will be to serve as the rabbi for the unaffiliated Jews in Atlanta WITHOUT pushing them to join a synagogue. This model is amazing for everyone-both those in a synagoue and those outside of a synagogue (and if you want more of my thoughts on this, please, just ask!) This is a super cool position and I cannot wait to get started.

I recent posted to our CLAL RWB listserv the following question: What do I do with my office space? What should it look like?

Some conversation has been generated and below is my most recent response. I look to you for input and wisdom. What do you think?

I wanted to pose this question to generate a conversation about engagement *NOT outreach but rather engaging Jews (all Jews, all ages) where they are at. I am attaching a document which I shared in Atlanta with some ideas on how to approach the challenge of free-agent Jews in the community at large looking for meaningful Jewish connections

I agree, "unaffiliated" has a pejorative connotation-it assumes that one who is not a member of a synagogue some how falls short of some expectation...however, maybe we need a different term...the unengaged? I like how that puts the onus of responsibility perhaps on the Jewish people to ENGAGE the unengaged.

And one last thought to spur discussion...Rabbi Larry Hoffman had his spirituality class read a piece by William James (19th c. psychologist and philosopher and stunningly astute in his observations...) in it he basically says that there is the world we live in, the world of things (the ontological world, if you will). And there is the "something greater" (God, powers in the universe, prana, Jesus, fate, the gods etc etc etc-can we call it the spiritual world?). The ontological world (I think I am using the term correctly) only has meaning because of thespiritual world. James suggest that prayer, when it works, serves as a bridge between the ontological and the spiritual.

I propose that prayer is not the only bridge. If religion is a technology, its job to do is to bridge these two worlds. Judaism offers Torah (Study/thought/head stuff), Avodah (prayer/love/heart stuff), Gemilut Chasadim (good deeds, action, hand stuff) as three modalities for bridging. I further would add that today, given that Jews no longer live in isolated, Jewish communities we need a fourth modality of Kahal or community (Relationship/caring committees/social gatherings/home stuff).

So I see these four modalities as pillars or ladders bridging these two worlds. All four need to be employed to maximize conectedness to the something greater. If we only focus on one (and these days, we seem to exclusively focus on community) then religion is no different from any other club or organization. I think Judaism has the capacity to be about more....

*the language of "head" "heart" and "hand" I adopted from The Temple in Atlanta GA.

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