Posts Tagged ‘Rabbis’

 

Incomprehensible: My Reaction to Cyd Weissman’s Blog Post

Posted on: March 11th, 2013 by Hayim Herring

 

I read a blog post by a friend and very talented colleague of mine, Cyd Weissman, titled, “Surprisingly East to Quit My Synagogue” with disbelief. Perhaps I could have understood the response of her clergy if it was 2000 and not 2013. But while I try to be respectful of my fellow klei kodesh (clergy), their response to Cyd’s request is incomprehensible to me. And I say this as a former congregational rabbi who, already in the mid-1980s, was working in congregation that already had multiple happenings on Shabbat morning.

 

I’m only going to list three reasons why I find their response so baffling: (more…)

Your Opportunity to Make Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today a Reality

Posted on: January 21st, 2013 by Hayim Herring
Tomorrow Synagogue Today

Tomorrow Synagogue Today

 

With the support of The Alban Institute and UJA-Federation of New York, I am writing a resource guide for my most recent publication, Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today. Creating Vibrant Centers of Jewish Life. I wrote this book as a thought piece, but the statement of the classical Rabbis, “The purpose of learning is action”(Avot 1:17), motivates my writing. If you’ve found the book worthwhile, you’ll have the opportunity to apply some concrete tools and resources to its ideas with this resource guide. Several people have written to me privately about how they’ve use the book. For example, I’ve heard that a number of people are either discussing it at staff meetings or congregational board meetings.

In an effort to make this resource guide focused on real world application, I’d appreciate your answering the following questions:

  1. If you’ve used the book in a group setting, how have you done so?
  2. What are the kinds of practical resources that would help you bring some of these ideas into practice?

 

Even if you haven’t read the book, or have not used it for study, think back to other books on congregational life that you’ve used and respond to these questions.

 

Thank you for your help,

 

Rabbi Hayim Herring

Revolution in Rabbinical School Training? Not Yet, But

Posted on: December 17th, 2012 by Hayim Herring
Revolution in Rabbinical School Training? Not Yet, But….

photo from: erglantz, flickr.com

On December 3, the Jewish Daily Forward published an article about alternatives to accredited rabbinical ordination. Some alternatives are at best dubious and at worst potentially harmful to communities that these rabbis serve. While accreditation can’t guarantee the religious and ethical qualities of a rabbinical graduate, it does make a powerful statement about the quality and qualifications of rabbis. But are the accredited seminaries putting themselves at risk with their current model of education?

Accredited rabbinical programs typically run between five and six years. That’s already on top of an accredited four-year undergraduate degree, an entrance requirement for rabbinical seminaries. Rabbinical students carry a heavy course load while in school and have a heavy debt load when they graduate, despite working a significant number of hours as students. In a contracting job market, with downward pressure on salaries, high-quality rabbinical schools may be financially freezing excellent future rabbis out of their programs.

This problem is not unique to rabbinical schools, as a recent New York Times story illustrates, although the Forward article doesn’t provide broader context. Developments like the Open Courseware Consortium, Coursera, and the UnCollege Movement foreshadow major changes that are likely to hit higher education as we know it–including accredited rabbinical education. And if future students decide that they want to be rabbis but can’t afford the time and money of rabbinical programs as currently structured that will be a real loss to the American Jewish community.

How do I know? Over the years, I’ve worked with students, graduates and faculty members from all of the accredited seminaries in various programs for rabbis and rabbinical students that I’ve helped to develop. And without exception, I’ve never worried about the quality of their education. Seminary leaders still have time to think about how to maintain the quality of their programs and rethink their structure and required full-time residential requirements. That’s why Hebrew College’s recently announced pilot four-year ordination program for advanced students is welcome news. Hopefully, it will start an overall conversation about rabbinical education in general.

The Relationship between Sight and Vision

Posted on: October 24th, 2012 by Hayim Herring
The Relationship between Sight and Vision

photo from: alban.org

In last week’s Alban’s Weekly Newsletter, Alban Field Consultant, Linda Rich, wrote a thoughtful post on the use of the metaphor of site and seeing to capture the multifaceted roles of today’s rabbis. In the coming weeks, as we read those weekly torah readings (parshiyot) dealing with our founding matriarchs and patriarchs, our first leaders, the use of the Hebrew word for “seeing” is especially pronounced. For example, God commands Abraham to journey to a land that God will make show him (Genesis 12:1). Likewise, at the end of his life, Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on an unknown mountain that God makes visible to him on the third day of his journey. Sarah sees Yishmael interacting inappropriately with Isaac (Genesis 21: 9), causing Hagar to flee to the desert with her son. When she runs out of water, she can’t stand the sight of Ishmael perishing from thirst (Genesis 21: 16), and although a well of water is in front of her, she doesn’t see it until God opens her eyes (Genesis 21:19). And Rebecca is able to perceive which of her twins is the most fit heir to traditions of Isaac and Abraham (Genesis 27). Our roots began with visionary leaders, and Rich’s article reminds us that rabbis are heirs to that tradition.

Jews, Tattoos & Holocaust Taboos: Some Possible Implications

Posted on: October 10th, 2012 by Hayim Herring
Jews, Tattoos & Holocaust Taboos: Some Possible Implications

photo from: nytimes.com

My daughter and I were discussing a story that recently appeared in the New York Times about younger Jews inventing new ways to remember the Holocaust and communicate its history to people who either don’t know it or want to forget it. Some have decided to have their forearms tattooed with the same number of surviving older family members. They’ve done so in the spirit of zakhor-remembering Nazi genocide and making sure that horrific atrocities are not perpetrated again. (No comment now about democratic nations standing idly by the blood of Syrians being massacred.) This imperative is even more essential as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles while the prominence of Holocaust deniers increases.

I’m going to leave the Jewish legal issues aside on the question of permanent tattooing. If you want to learn more about them, just search online for “Jews, tattoos, rabbis and Jewish law” and you’ll see the opinions. The bottom line: the weight of Jewish legal precedent is against permanent tattooing and has generally viewed tattoos as desecration of the body and not “body art.” Note-there is a minority view, never adopted, that prohibits only those tattoos used for idol worship, a view that some rabbis are now re-examining to reconsider their stance against this practice.

My daughter’s thoughts moved my needle from “opposed” to “uncertain” about how I feel about Jews taking tattoos with the numbers of Jewish Holocaust victims. I do think this phenomenon should awaken us to the feelings about tattooing that younger generations have and their admirable response to taking up the challenge of remembering the Holocaust in their way, in an age when there will soon no longer be living survivors. But I also think that we need to think further into the future about possible implications. For example:

What’s your thinking on this issue? Please respond- remembering Holocaust genocide in a post-survivor era, when governments still brutalize populations, is a pressing matter.

If I Had a Pulpit… (And You’re Invited to a Webinar!)

Posted on: August 2nd, 2012 by Hayim Herring

hayim’s new book

Hayim’s New book: Tomorrow Synagogue Today

 

 

Imagine that it’s Rosh ha-Shanah and you’re about to give your sermon. You and your board have been working hard on fundamentally rethinking what it means to be a congregational community in the 21st century. And, now you have the ideal opportunity to share it.

You look confidently at the congregation, and in a tone that reflects your excitement (but masks your nervousness), speak from your heart and say:

I don’t need to spend much time outlining the issues confronting our society. They are many and serious. And one of the most frustrating challenges is that people on one side of an issue always seems more interested in proving that the other side is wrong than finding common ground. Maybe we can’t heal the world, but we can start with our congregational community and learn how to work together and make progress on some of these issues. And after much work, as professional staff and board members, here’s our vision for our congregational community:

Our community aspires to become a model of a perfected world. Drawing upon the Jewish tradition’s optimistic belief in the power of individuals and communities to change the world, every member of our congregation is invited to participate on his or her own terms with others who want to turn this aspiration into a reality. Our congregation is always open to ways to involve young and old, Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and secular, learned and just learning, committed and seeking to use their unique gifts to make our community and our world more perfect. By engaging in this work, always guided by our Jewish tradition, we create rewarding, purposeful relationships that remind us why the power of many is so much greater than the power of any one of us alone.

In order to work seriously on this mission, you and the board have concluded that the typical descriptions that apply to a congregation’s missions are inadequate. Worship, study, acts of kindness–tefilah, avodah and gemilut chasadim–these are all essential functions that will happen. After all, you are a synagogue! It’s just that they need to be reinterpreted and refocused in a way that aligns with what is both meaningful for people and still authentic to the Jewish tradition.

You lay out four centers around which your congregation will be reorganized:

  1. Healthy Living, which includes issues like diet, exercise, sustainable food production and cultivating a spiritual dimension to life;
  2. Rich Interpersonal Relationships, which includes teaching people to rediscover the difference between a Facebook connection and a face-to-face friendship, and engaging in learning and work that help deepen relationships with family, friends and fellow congregants;
  3. My Relationship to My Local Community, which focuses on working together to ameliorate significant local issues through the congregation; and,
  4. My Relationship to My Global Community, which encourages a cross-fertilization of learning on how Jewish communities in Israel and across the globe deal with a range of issues like care for the elderly, social justice and Jewish education. These are the kinds of issues that lend themselves to shared learning exchanges and potential joint action.

Without going into great detail, you also explain how, over time, board members, committee and staff will be reorganizing the congregation around these four centers of life. But, you emphasize that everyone has a role and a stake in this new enterprise, because it takes everyone’s talents and time to create a just, compassionate, caring world.

The work that you and the board have done is a bold effort to create a model for re-conceptualizing the purpose of a congregation today. And you, as the rabbi, have shaped the vision from your own theology. God gave us a world that was inherently good and that goodness is now at risk. But you believe in your core self that we have the power and responsibility to act as a community to begin restoring and investing in positive action in the world. We are charged as a Jewish community to use our influence for good and it’s time to step up and act more intentionally on this commandment.

You’ve concluded your sermon and one thing is clear – no one is napping during the sermon. You can almost visualize the thought bubbles above different congregants’ heads. One says, “What’s Jewish about this?” Then there was another one floating nearby that says, “Well, this makes me want to be Jewish so much!” Another one says, “Time to send the rabbi on a permanent vacation,” while the one next to it says, “Better extend the rabbi’s contract for a long time. We can’t afford to lose her!”

At this point, you’re unsure if you should discuss how this re-envisioning the community will affect how the work of the congregation is done. You decide to leave that for another time, but provide a hint: the congregation is no longer just a building. It’s a platform that supports the rapid mobilization of people to organize, explore and express how to claim their Jewish selves within these four centers of Jewish life.

Register for “Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today” Webinar

A new conversation about the intersection of theology, organizational structure, mission and vision for the 21st century congregation are some of the issues that I explore in my recently published book, Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today: Creating Vibrant Centers of Jewish Life. You are invited to join me and other colleagues on a webinar where you can explore these issues on Wednesday, August 29 at 10:00a Pacific, 11:00a Mountain, 12:00p Central, 1:00p Eastern. Space is limited, so register early.

Special for Blog Readers

Use the promotional code HCNBLOG to receive free registration.

Why Your Rabbi Can’t Lead

Posted on: November 2nd, 2010 by Hayim Herring

On October 13, I attended a conference on continuing rabbinic education, sponsored by The Alliance for Continuing Rabbinic Education. I was also a presenter on a panel, where I spoke about an inherent tension in the role of a congregational rabbi which often prevents an effective exercising of rabbinic leadership. Based on some feedback from the presentation, I decided to blog about the presentation, and my post can also be found on the website of the Alliance, along with video excerpts from the other panelists, Dr. Jonathan Woocher and Rabbi Marc Margolius.

I hope that this post will foster some open conversation!

Thank you, Rabbi Herring

—

In 1893, Ahad Ha’Am, a proponent of cultural Zionism, wrote an essay entitled, “Priest and Prophet.” The gist of this article was that Moses, the Prophet, was an idealist. Therefore, he was uncompromising in his expectations about God’s demands the Jewish people.  On the other hand, Aaron the Priest, the older brother of Moses, was a popular leader.  He worked in the messy, real realm of people and was a pragmatist. Aaron was beloved, while Moshe was respected and feared. It took an idealist and a pragmatist, leaders with two distinct roles, to lead the people from Egypt to Israel.

And that’s one of the reasons that rabbinic leadership is complicated today. Idealist and pragmatist have been fused into one role for rabbis. Their training makes them idealists, but living in community of real people, they have to be caring, kind, compassionate, forgiving pragmatists. Jewish communities need both leadership qualities to have a dynamic community.

If it took a Moses and an Aaron to forge a community, why do we expect that one person can embody both religious personalities in today’s Jewish communities? There are others in Jewish communities who have the training or could acquire the training to provide the pastoral, the organizational and even spiritual dimensions of Jewish community life. They can be the primary pragmatists. But only rabbis have the breadth of Jewish learning to provide authentic leadership at the current turning-point in history. (By “authentic,” I mean ideals, ideas and insights that reflect an understanding of an almost 4,000 year-old multi-layered historical, textual, spiritual and intellectual journey).

I think that rabbis and volunteer leaders have some soul-searching to do. Volunteer leaders often express concern about a lack of rabbinic leadership, when at the same time they can be punitive when rabbis actually lead with their ideals. Rabbis seem to be more concerned at times with making sure that people feel comfortable, instead of challenged. This dynamic creates equilibrium at a time when the Jewish community would benefit from a little imbalance created by an injection of fresh thinking and reinterpretation of classical Jewish ideals.

Rabbi Hayim Herring, Ph.D.
President, C.E.O., Herring Consulting Network
“Preparing Today’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Organizations™”

Wanted: More Spiritual Dreamers!

Posted on: March 23rd, 2009 by Hayim Herring

Before the current economic crash, we were in the middle of a tremendous generational transfer of wealth. The majority of that wealth circumvented the synagogue community. Why was that the case? One of the reasons was that major funders considered synagogues to be too parochial and uninspiring for their tastes.

Imagine the challenges which synagogues now face. Synagogue list serves have been abuzz with stories about staff cuts, salary freezes, and impending synagogue closings. Rabbis are really going to have to work harder to articulate inspirational dreams even to maintain the support of their current community, let alone funders with greater financial means, who could offer budget relief.

I have no hard data on this, but it often feels that rabbis don’t dream expansively enough. Perhaps our training doesn’t sufficiently encourage us to create compelling narratives about Jewish life, or maybe it’s that synagogues tend to be risk adverse and push back against big dreams, or maybe it’s just the times in which we live — but where are the spiritual visionaries of today who will cultivate the most noble aspirations that we have as a people?

Let me cite a couple of examples of what I mean by big dreams:

The synagogue will become a microcosm of a just and perfected world. All people who walk through its door, regardless of status and ability, will be treated with the dignity to which they’re entitled because they’re created in the image of God. All synagogue staff members will respect one another and the members of the community they serve. Instead of looking for people’s flaws, members of this community seek to shine the light on the unique contributions that each individual has the potential to offer.

Another example:

The synagogue will become a model of a diverse, multi-generational community. While few places in society today enable individuals from different generations to meaningfully and regularly interact, all aspects of synagogue life will truly embody the phrase, “from one generation to another,” l’dor va-dor. By doing so, the community will be an evolving repository of Jewish wisdom and help all people enrich the passages of life.

Clearly, each congregation must envision its ideal picture of its community’s future. A significant part of the rabbi’s work is to lay out the possibilities of a big dream and then empower the congregation and staff to work together on achieving it. While I’m fully supportive of getting every member of the congregation to light Shabbat candles and study Torah daily, those are not big dreams—they are discrete Jewish practices that don’t point to larger meaning and purpose in life.

As a people, we have a history of knowing how to dream with great imagination. Reclaiming that capacity is going to be one of the most important roles for contemporary rabbis if we want vital institutions. So rabbis—please share your big dreams for the Jewish community or your congregation (or other institution) here. And others—let me know what you wish your rabbi would dream!

Rabbi Hayim Herring

image from flickr.com muha…

Is Your Rabbi an Excellent Teacher?

Posted on: March 16th, 2009 by Hayim Herring

Did you know that most rabbis have little formal training in education?  One of the most pervasive aspects of the rabbi’s job is teaching, but aside from a required course in education, most rabbis learn how to teach on-the-job. Imagine teaching a group of preschoolers in the morning, seniors at lunchtime and middle-school aged children in the late afternoon and teens in the evening. That’s not an unusual schedule for a congregational rabbi.

I’ve personally witnessed rabbis inflict painful learning experiences on congregants (and I admit, I did in my younger days!)  One morning, I watched a rabbi interact with preschool age children using words and concepts that were appropriate for older teens. Later that evening, I heard another rabbi speak to adults as if they were children.

In a book of Jewish ethics (Pirkei Avot 1:4), rabbinical students are instructed to sit at the feet of their teachers and “drink their words” up. The image is hierarchical, with students sitting on the ground and their teachers sitting or standing above them, in a privileged position because of their learning. And after 5-6 years of most rabbinical schools experience, I wonder if that’s the image that some rabbis carry around in their heads when they are teaching: I (rabbi) am up over you because I’ve got the knowledge; you (congregant) are beneath me because you don’t.

Some rabbis intuitively begin to understand that different strategies and approaches are needed depending upon the developmental stages of their audience. But, even when rabbis become good educators, many have the potential to become outstanding ones with just a little training and mentoring.

Rabbis: what “aha” moments made you realize that there were better ways to teach and what did you do about them? Others who aren’t rabbis—what suggestions do you have to help rabbis become more impactful teachers?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Rabbi Hayim Herring

Image from Flickr: .:Axle:.