Margot Stein: As parents, we must continuously pay deep attention — to interaction after interaction — or risk becoming irrelevant in our children’s lives. They, and we, are works in progress: they grow; I grow. It is their growth that initiates my growth as a parent. As long as they keep growing, I do, as well. … More »
Wandering Toward a Promised Land
Menachem Creditor: We change; our synagogues and what we want them to be changes. Each generation rejects the model it inherited and then — with some moderate or radical changes — becomes a version of that model. … More »
‘Siyyum’: Closing the Book
Dorothy Richman: I don’t like endings. I try to avoid goodbyes. But after completing the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud, my siyyum haShas was a real ending. … More »
A Changing Landscape
Paul Scham: I came to realize that my vehement arguments in favor of the war were contradicting my own values and they weren’t convincing me, whatever effect they might have had on others, that the war was justified. Though I continue to explain Israel to others, I have to understand it. And though once I think I did, I really can no longer understand, at a fundamental level, why Israel resists taking available chances for peace. … More »
Michelangelo’s Marble
Jeremy Kalmanofsky “Kol Adonay Ba’Koach,” says Psalm 29, a familiar Shabbat text. “The voice of God lies in power.” But, with a small re-punctuation of the last word in this phrase — merely switching the patach beneath the bet to a shva, and removing the dagesh (the dot) from the kaf — the verse could … More »
Michelangelo’s Marble
Jeremy Kalmanofsky “Kol Adonay Ba’Koach,” says Psalm 29, a familiar Shabbat text. “The voice of God lies in power.” But, with a small re-punctuation of the last word in this phrase — merely switching the patach beneath the bet to a shva, and removing the dagesh (the dot) from the kaf — the verse … More »
Discussion Guide - Works in Progress
1. Are we each works in progress? If so, explain yourself through this frame.
2. How do we know when we have arrived at an ending? How does Judaism help us to create closure?
3. How do communities reinvent themselves as priorities and resources change?
4. The Torah is codified and stable, and yet it continues to emerge as a text and a guide. How does this tension manifest itself in study and practice?
5. Organizations — such as synagogues, schools, and start-ups — go through stages of development and, sometimes, of decline. How does the leadership distinguish between productive and unproductive chaos? What are some best practices for adaptation?
… More »
Works in Progress
1. Are we each works in progress? If so, explain yourself through this frame.
2. How do we know when we have arrived at an ending? How does Judaism help us to create closure?
3. How do communities reinvent themselves as priorities and resources change?
4. The Torah is codified and stable, and yet it continues to emerge as a text and a guide. How does this tension manifest itself in study and practice?
5. Organizations — such as synagogues, schools, and start-ups — go through stages of development and, sometimes, of decline. How does the leadership distinguish between productive and unproductive chaos? What are some best practices for adaptation?
… More »
Opening New Windows
Ruth Weisberg The creation of every work of art should be both a challenge and a pleasure to the artist and his or her audience. I am referring to pleasure as the profound feeling of completion or the discovery of new meanings and possibilities. This may be more likely to happen when the artist works … More »