Watch a brief interview with Rachel Brodie 

on "Let My People Know" 

where she was asked about Wide-Angle Judaism and working with "interfaith" couples.

Article Alert:

The NY Jewish Week posted an opinion piece co-authored by Rachel Brodie and Rabbi Adina Lewittes (Dini) on July 14, 2010.


The margins have become the mainstream—and the vast majority of Jews today are not actively connected with a “temple” (a.k.a. synagogue). So it seems unlikely that a mid-summer day of mourning for the destruction of two ancient temples in Jerusalem could have much to recommend it. Throw in the prohibitions on eating, drinking, and shmoozing and the ruin of Tisha B’Av itself seems certain.

Yet, the irony of lamenting the irrelevance of a day like Tisha B’Av (this year, from sundown Monday evening through Tuesday evening) to most Jews today is striking. If Tisha B’Av brought the Biblical model of Judaism, centered as it was on the Temple cult to an end, it also marks the emergence, phoenix-like, of Rabbinic Judaism, a system that has sustained the Jewish people for almost 2000 years. In the 21st century, the de facto reality of a tiny minority of Jews who, even under the broadest definition, follow rabbinic law (halacha) and defer to rabbinic authority makes it clear that the paradigm has shifted once again. To be sure, contours are unclear and leadership is fragmented, but the next era, a post-Rabbinic one, is already underway.

For all the genuine grief, despair and fear this engenders among the adherents and/or proponents of Rabbinic Judaism, it’s important for all Jews to consider that Tisha B’Av is just as relevant now as it ever was. Maybe even more so as we live through this time of transition.
Looking at the evolution of Tisha B’Av, it is relatively easy to make a case for its observance based on the value that continues to be placed on the commemoration of events that form part of our sacred history, such as the Exodus from Egypt and the victory of the Maccabees. Equally relevant is Tisha B’Av as an opportunity for reflection on the perpetuation of immoral and unethical behaviors that were said to have caused the destruction (baseless hatred, for example). Even so, Tisha B’Av is more than a Memorial Day and quite different from Yom Kippur.

The assault, both physical and metaphysical, that has characterized Tisha B’Av, is meant to be intense. Beginning with dirges chanted in darkness, fortified through deliberate dehydration, and concluding with a redemptive lightheadedness, those Jews who submit to its strict observance are led to feel more than just hot and bothered on that day.

While critics might be quick to dismiss the following approach as coddling the narcissism of contemporary Jews, in our experience as traditionally observant, highly educated, passionately committed liberal Jews, teaching and reaching “unaffiliated” or “disaffected” Jews on opposite coasts, a radical acceptance of today’s reality has led us to a new paradigm for revitalizing and re-imagining a vibrant Jewish future. This paradigm is the successor to the rabbinic paradigm of “asur” (prohibited) and “mutar” (permitted), which itself was the successor to the Biblical paradigm of “tamay” (impure) and “tahor” (pure). Based on our work — our successes and our struggles – and our experiences with those who are seeking, we propose a new paradigm, that of keva (established) and kavannah (intentional).

The new paradigm of keva and kavannah reflects the tension between tradition and innovation, objectivity and subjectivity, and between the communal and the individual. These dualities serve as shorthand for a value system that determines the behavior of individuals and groups of Jews. For example, the annual observance of Tisha B’Av among rabbinic Jews is made meaningful within the larger context of a commitment to a legal system (halacha) that has established certain rules. For the majority of contemporary Jews, however, unless it can be made personally meaningful in some way, Tisha B’Av won’t matter. Whereas a rabbinic Jew would need to know what was permitted and what was prohibited in the observance of Tisha B’Av, a post-rabbinic Jew asks “what was the intention of those who shaped Tisha B’Av?” and “Is there any way to make their intentions more meaningful to us by reimagining the rituals of Tisha B'Av rather than observing them just because it was always done this way?”

Today we hear a call for all our Jewish endeavors to be suffused with kavannah, in the sense of engaging people through Jewish experiences that are personally meaningful. Researchers, including sociologist Steven Cohen, tell us that Jews today are seeking spiritual direction from Judaism. The research indicates there is a deep hunger, but too many are not finding sustenance in the traditional spaces, literal and figurative, of our faith.

They seek not so much to abandon Judaism, we are told, but to refashion it to reflect their own personal narratives.  As part of a transitional generation of rabbinic Jews, we see ourselves as translators, bringing insight into the keva and kavannah of Rabbinic Judaism to contemporary Jews and bringing their experiences, challenges and needs to the discussion of our collective future.
In this spirit, we ask the painful questions about what is being destroyed and bring curiosity to all that is emerging. And this Tisha B’Av, we are asking our communities to do the same.

Article Alert:
A Letter to the Editor of the NY Jewish Week by Rachel Brodie and Rabbi Adina Lewittes, was published online today (4/20/10).  The piece is in response to Rabbi Elie Kaunfer's, "The Real Crisis in American Judaism."

If you didn't see Kaunfer's piece, an excerpt from his new book, Empowering Judaism, it's worth reading first. The response, as it appeared, is pasted below:

We read with great interest “The Real Crisis in American Judaism” (April 9), in which Rabbi Elie Kaunfer articulates his vision for responding to the disengaged majority of American Jews today.

As educated, engaged, empowered and professional Jews, our own starting place may mirror Rabbi Kaunfer’s. Our experience teaching and reaching “unaffiliated” or “disengaged” Jews on opposite coasts, though,has led us to believe that Kaunfer’s vision, while powerful and compelling for some, is too narrow for most.

The “building blocks of the Jewish tradition” that he mentions, such as Mishnah and Psalms, as well as the classical settings in which Jews encounter these sources of inspiration and authority, such as the synagogue and the study hall to which he refers, remain core to many of us. We actively support the measures he describes to improve and expand them.

However, the reality of American Jewish life today is one in which the rabbinic paradigm and the halachic system are at best irrelevant and, more often, anathema. In our experience, it seems highly unlikely that any amount of resources invested in “selling” or “enriching” these concepts will change that for the vast majority of Jews.

If the soul of American Jewry is at stake, then the “real crisis” is the blind spot that has eclipsed the existence of equally authentic and legitimate forms of Jewish expression practiced by most of these“disengaged” Jews, namely: the “serious, meaningful, and thoughtful”engagement with Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasadim [study, service and acts of kindness] through cultural and philanthropic activities, ethical and social values — which all take place “off the grid” and “off the page.” 

Kaunfer’s “Empowered Judaism” is thriving in places like Mechon Hadar, but also exists among Jews who are engaged in a search for “truth and divinity” in ways or places that are unrecognized or dismissed as superficial by those who themselves have been empowered through the rabbinic model. Unfortunately, all too often, these Jews have internalized the message that they are not “good” Jews and that, from our perspective, is more than a crisis of their own self-esteem, it’s a call to action.

A Call to Action
If you've ever worked in a Jewish communal setting this one's is for you....

Karen Erlichman's "Diversity and Inclusion in the Jewish Community" in Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture offers a pointed critique of the conditions created and endured by tens of thousands of people whose work lives intersect with Jewish communal organizations. While her "testimonial" surfaces a terrible truth about Jewish organizational culture it also offers a powerful vision for creating change.  "The best communities are built around respect and acceptance. According to Karen Lee Erlichman, Jewish institutions have to forcefully embody these ideals if they are going to survive."

The Call to Action
One need not focus on the negative behaviors that have brought us to this point, it is enough to acknowledge their existence and to commit to change as an individual and as an organization. To that end I encourage you to:

1. Read the whole article and examine her "Ten Guidelines for Jewish Communal Life" reprinted below.
2. Then (no matter where you work) bring it to a staff meeting, a board meeting, a classroom, a sanctuary; offer it as a discussion topic with family and friends...
3. And take up the challenge of gathering practical solutions and inspiring methods of concretizing these core values and then share them with others. In fact, we want to know what you're coming up with... why not leave your ideas in the section for comments here or on the Zeek site?

Ten Guidelines for Jewish Communal Life 
(Excerpted from Karen Erlichman's "Diversity and Inclusion in the Jewish Community" in Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture that appeared in Zeek online 4/21/10).

In the spirit of renewed commitment to these core Jewish values, I offer the following Ten Guidelines for Jewish Communal Life:

1.Derech Eretz
“The way of the land;” thoughtful conduct and common decency toward others. According to midrash, derech eretz preceeds Torah (Leviticus Rabbah 9:3); perhaps one might say Torah rests on the foundation of derech eretz. Our individual and institutional conduct as a Jewish community rest on the foundation of derech eretz in visible, tangible ways. We actually live up to the ethics and values we allegedly espouse.

2. Areyvut
Mutual responsibility; accountability. We hold each other accountable to “walk our talk,” and we are as invested in the success of other organizations as we are in our own success. Our practices are transparent and we are fully and equally accountable to constituents, donors, funders and colleagues.

3.Kavod
Honor and respect. We treat all of our colleagues with respect and dignity regardless of role, level of education, or economic privilege. Our respect for them is apparent in every encounter.

4. Mishpat v’rachamim
Justice and compassion. Justice and compassion are two critical cornerstones of our community values, and are evident in all of our interactions and institutions.

5. Hachnasat Orchim
Welcoming guests. We are genuinely warm and welcoming to everyone who enters our institutions; evident in every human interaction on the phone, via email, or in person, from the Board President to the administrative assistant. Hospitality is not just an industry; it’s a spiritual practice.

6. Chesed and Gemilut hasadim Acts of loving kindness. We extend ourselves to one another with kindness regardless of whether we have ever met before.We offer the same kindness we would want to receive.

7.Lashon ha’tov
“Good Tongue;” right speech. How many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t want to engage in lashon hara, but….,”and then launch right into gossiping about someone in the community?! Lashon ha’tov is more than just abstaining from gossip; it is also about the spirit and flavor of how we talk to one another. Lashon ha’tov is about listening and speaking from the heart.

8.Lo levayesh
Do not embarrass. Closely related to kavod, lo levayesh means that we actively engage in behaviors that are expressly intended to comfort, delight, protect and honor someone else.Specifically, we don’t behave or speak in a manner that would embarrass others or ourselves.

9. Parnassah
Sustenance; livelihood. All Jewish communal professionals are compensated sufficiently, with salaries that allow them not only to meet their basic needs, but also to participate fully in the programs, culture, education and services of the Jewish community.

10. V’ahavta l’reyacha kamocha and ahavat ger:
Love your neighbor as you love yourself, and love the stranger (ger). This mitzvah appears more often than any other in the Torah. It’s about love, folks—expressing love for our neighbors,ourselves, the Other. We are not only polite to one another; we are actually loving, warm and generous of heart.

Article Alert:
Rachel Brodie has co-authored a short piece about Intentional Judaism with Rabbi Adina Lewittes of Shaar Communities, in the new issue of Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility.


Intentional Boundaries

By: Rabbi Adina Lewittes, Sha’ar Communities and Rachel Brodie, Jewish Milestones. The authors are collaborating on a book about the issues raised in this essay, tentatively titled, “Intentionally Jewish.”

Confronting theological terror, spiritual shock, and growing panic about the survival of Judaism as they watched the Temple burn, the Rabbis of 2000 years ago courageously evolved a new framework in which to delineate the boundaries of what constitutes normative Jewish behavior, and by default created the framework for any discussion of Jewish loyalty that lasted until the Enlightenment. They achieved this by transforming the core Biblical binaries of tamay/tahor (pure and impure) to those that focused on asur/mutar (permitted or forbidden). This new paradigm secured the strength and vitality of Judaism for almost two millennia.  However, today we are confronting profound challenges to the theological and behavioral assumptions of Rabbinic Judaism—not to mention the authority upon which it is based.  But rather than abandon the vast majority of Jews today—those who have abandoned a Judaism that no longer engages or inspires loyalty in them—we need to ask: What now? Is there a new paradigm to be articulated that is both consonant with our past and can lead the way to a vibrant Jewish future that guides, inspires and unites most of us?

From our particular vantage point—that of traditionally observant, highly educated, passionately committed liberal Jews, who are teaching and reaching “unaffiliated” or “disaffected” Jews on opposite coasts—we have become keenly aware of a phenomenon that may point to a powerful, if not highly problematic in its own right, new paradigm. This paradigm is created from the tension between tradition and innovation, objectivity and subjectivity, and between the communal and the individual and may be best encapsulated by the binaries of keva/kavannah (what to do versus why do it, fixed versus fluid, pre-arranged versus intentionally created). Today we hear a call for all our Jewish endeavors to be suffused with kavannah, in the sense of engaging people through Jewish experiences that are “personally meaningful.” 

If this renewed emphasis on kavannah is what might delineate that which invites us into Jewish life today, keva is the other pole, one that might delineate what places us beyond Jewish life. The boundaries in this new paradigm are demarcated by a commitment to commitment itself and to the needs of others. Our demands for meaning and the value we place on our intentions must be matched by equally deep commitments to regular and shared Jewish engagement.  We must devote ourselves to building communities focused on creative Jewish expression, where connections between Jews can be nurtured, and through which our bonds to one another can ensure the unfolding of Judaism into centuries ahead. We must not only be prepared to speak a new language of Jewish experience, but to hear the ancient and eternal call to Jewish responsibility.

Exploration of this paradigm as well as other models that might serve us today are critical endeavors lest we lose the opportunity to renew Judaism and the Jewish people, and in so doing betray not just our history, but our destiny as well.

Jen Taylor Friedman's blog posting raises issues core to Jewish Milestones and to Wide-Angle Judaism:

"See, we have this little problem in the liberal Jewish world. We assume that anyone who's Jewishly invested must be on the rabbinical track. Not completely Jewishly illiterate? Surely you are in rabbinical school. Pray with tefillin? No one does that except rabbis. If Barbie is wearing tefillin and learning gemara, how can she possibly be anything other a rabbi?"

Tefillin Barbie's New Career, read the whole thing on the Jewish Women's Archive blog, Jewesses with Attitude. Jen Taylor Friedman is a post-denominational halakhically-observant egalitarian Jewish ritual scribe and scholar. She is notorious for having created Tefillin Barbie, and notable for being the first woman in modern times known to have written a sefer Torah. She blogs and sells Tefillin Barbie from www.hasoferet.com.


Rachel Brodie Takes up the Thread
Liberal Jews often assume that I am a rabbi.  Not just because I am invested and literate in the way Jen describes (above) but because I teach Torah and facilitate lifecycle rituals such as weddings, funerals, and baby namings but I'm not a rabbi.  "Then why not become a rabbi?" they ask. The assumption being that I must want to be a rabbi.  I don't, for many reasons, but mostly because I'm only interested in specific parts of the rabbinic portfolio--the teaching and the rituals--and I can do all that (and more) as an educated lay person. Unfortunately, as Jen points out, the "little problem" is that the way most liberal communities work the options are limited, sometimes by misperception and sometimes by design: you either are a rabbi or you shouldn't be impersonating one.

The important question is not "Why not become a rabbi?" It's "Why do you think I need to be one?"  After all, even according to strict interpretations of halacha (Jewish law) one doesn't need to have rabbinic ordination to teach torah, facilitate weddings and baby namings, officiate at bar/bat mitzvahs or funerals. Jen Taylor Friedman's post actually points to two distinct but related "little problems": the scarcity of educated and "invested" lay people and a distorted perception of the role of rabbis.

I've come to believe that a big part of the reason there are so few actively engaged and literate liberal "Jews in the pews" is because until recently there weren't options for adults who wanted to get a rigorous Jewish education unless they went to rabbinical school.  Happily, places like Pardes and Mechon Hadar have established substantive and immersive educational experiences that serve to satiate those with day school-envy or, like me, those who are just "sluts for Torah." I'll study with anyone!  Then again, as a highly educated and engaged liberal Jew, what leadership opportunities are available to me in a synagogue setting? I could serve on a board.  Maybe sub for the rabbi in leading a shiva minyan. But as a general rule people like me are systematically underutilized.

A solution? Power sharing. Make room for the Jewishly literate civilians (a.k.a. non-rabbis) to take on specific pieces of what is now included in the rabbinic portfolio. At Jewish Milestones we educate and train lay people to facilitate Jewish lifecycle rituals. Some do this within the context of a synagogue-based community. More often than not, these individuals are working with the "unaffiliated."  I'm all too aware of how threatened many of my rabbinic colleagues feel when they hear about Jewish Milestones' work.  This is despite the fact that many will concede to:
a) not having the capacity to meet the needs of every "non-member" who wants to be married or buried
b) that in certain cases a non-rabbi can actually be more helpful to the individual seeking ritual facilitation. (For example: someone with more time and a closer relationship with a couple that wishes to marry, or someone who is not limited by denominational strictures to act outside the proverbial box.)

Bottom line (this is a blog and not a book after all): A major need among liberal Jews today = Investing in the empowerment of lay people by providing them education and leadership opportunities inside and outside of synagogues. It'll be good for the Jews, even rabbis.

What's the Wide idea?

It's based on the work we've been doing at Jewish Milestones over the last six years.

In a nutshell:

Jewish Milestones is committed to exposing as many Jews as possible to “the possible” within Jewish life, and to advocating for what we describe as a "wide-angle lens” on Judaism, which suggests that Jewish life is bigger than any one institution, denomination, or historical moment can represent.

And we ask:

Of course, there is much more we could say about it but here's what we want to know: if that definition is all you heard, what do you think it means?