Ma Hamatzav? (Was’ Up?)

Newsweek just published their (now annual) list of top rabbis in America. This year they split the categories into Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America and Top 50 Influential American Rabbis. I had planned to leave this alone (except for a post on Synablog because many of the rabbis are associate with Synagogue 3000), but after reading Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ post on jspot.org and Tamar Fox’s post on jewcy I couldn’t help myself.

Last year when the list came out, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin wrote a great piece in the New York Jewish Week entitled, “Solace For Rabbis Not Among ‘Top 50’.” I won’t try to rewrite or even paraphrase Salkin’s article but he makes several points worth quoting - and remembering.

“Impact? Influence? What possible way is there to gauge the influence and impact of rabbis who, quietly and without fanfare, teach Torah every day of any week in any synagogue?” How many thousands of American Jews have been touched by an interaction with a rabbi who changed their life? How on earth could we possibly measure this kind of impact?

“Newsweek.com’s list of top rabbis should not only cause concern for rabbis, it should cause concern for lay leaders as well. The making of a Jew is a slow and laborious task, and most of the work happens out of anyone’s range of sight.” Agreed - this list only makes it harder for ‘in the trench’ rabbis to do the excellent work they do, every day, every week, slowly forming individuals.

And finally, “And so, to my colleagues who are peeved that they didn’t make the list, despite their contacts, and to those Jews in the pews who are miffed that their rabbis’ names somehow got left on the cutting-room floor, do not despair. Like the afikomen at the Seder, the real goodness that happens is often hidden — it’s just waiting for someone to find it.”

This is all true - unless I’m on the list next year!

This piece from NBC’s morning show debunks a lot of myths and assumptions about Chassidic Jews. This is a wonderful example of ‘tikkin olam.’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23590816#23590816

Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. King said, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Not the number of people who support the evil versus those who oppose, but especially note the number of those who choose to remain silent.”I’m afraid we’ve not gotten too far from the bigotry and narrow-mindedness Dr. King described. Watch this video and make a sound judgment by asking yourselves, “is this American?”

Rabbis for Human Rights North America and K’vod Habriot have joined with the National Religious Campaign Agains Torture (NRCAT) to bring the anti-torture message to congregations across the country. Get your synagogue to order a Stop Torture banner to hang in your community!

What are the goals of K’vod Habriot?

1. Build the first-ever, national network to mobilize Jewish commitment to human rights.
2. Strengthen Honor the Image of God: Stop Torture Now, A Jewish Campaign to End U.S.-Sponsored Torture.
3. Mobilize the Jewish community to address other human rights issues.

K’vod Habriot Statement of Principles:

• “Every human being is created in the image of God” Bidmut Elohim asah oto: It is incumbent on each of us to act in a way that affirms the fundamental dignity of every human being. Respect for each human being is the foundation of Jewish ethics.
• “[We must] do what is just and right.” La’asot Tzedek U’Mishpat: For a nation to have legitimacy, it must enforce a system of law that is fair, equitable, and just.
• “Do not oppress the stranger, orphan or widow.” Ger, Yatom, V’Almananah Al Tonu: We have a duty to promote a society that cares for the economic well-being of all of its members, especially those who are most vulnerable.
• We believe that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights flows from these Jewish values, as well as from our own historical experience, especially that of the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Therefore, it is incumbent on us, as Jews, to defend the human rights of all who are oppressed.

Just replace ‘church’ with ’synagogue’ - these rules apply! Kudos to Tony Morgan of New Spring Church in Anderson, SC wrote this post on his blog. It’s so nice when someone else confirms what I say. Thanks Tony! 

The New York Times ran a piece today on Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, Jr. Funnye is the first African American admitted to the Chicago board of rabbis. I’ve followed Funnye and his congregation, Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation for several years. A Chicago television show did a piece on the congregation several years ago.

Last November at the Hallelu Atlanta event I got to see and hear Joshua Nelson, ‘The Prince of Kosher Gospel Music.’ Nelson brought the house down! All 4,500 attendees were dancing in the aisles to his brand of Jewish gospel music. After the concert I heard more than a few people asking why our synagogue music isn’t as exciting and inspiring.

Black Jews have been around for, well forever! Some posit that our Biblical ancestors were dark skinned. Makes sense to me. It’s unfortunate that the Jewish community has shown a level of bias akin to racial descrimination. The Jewish world is more than Ashkenazim. We can learn a lot from our black brothers and sisters. They are as much a part of k’lal Yisrael as we are!

 My friend Rabbi Hayim Herring recently wrote a piece on the Co-STAR blog entitled “Real Leaders Are Not Loved By All.” Hayim reminds us that the final sentence of the book of Esther says,

For Mordecai the Jew ranked next to King Ahasuerus and was highly regarded by the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brethren; he sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all his kindred.

It’s pretty clear that the Torah is inferring that while Mordecai was popular with some in the community, he wasn’t so with everyone. Hayim’s commentary reminded me of one of my favorite books. It’s a small book written for churches, entitled Rocking The Church Membership Boat: Counting Members OR Having Members Who Count.” Author Jan G. Linn posits that strong congregations are those who have a clear sense of who they are and attract congregants of a like mind.

These mission-focused congregations have requirements of members - and not just monetary ones. Members come into covenantal agreements with the congregation to be vital and viable members. This may include a certain number of service hours, teaching, committee and governance work. And if they don’t fulfill their end of the agreement, the congregation has the prerogative to ask them to leave. Can you imagine a synagogue asking a member to leave because they’d consistently failed to fulfill an agreement?! I can’t, and that’s an indication of part of our community’s problem. We’ve become ‘fee-for-service’ institutions that both cater to the whims of a select few and fail to be sensitive to the needs of the many. What would it mean if we stopped counting members and began creating kehillath kedoshim, sacred communities of members who count?

There is a website resource I often recommend to congregations looking to develop their own sites. It’s called Web Pages That Suck, http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/. As the name implies (not so subtly), it is a review of websites that don’t quite measure up to Vincent Flanders’ (and the world’s) idea of decent websites. Flanders includes some great tools to analyze ones own site.

In the spirit of avoiding lashon harah, and without getting too judgemental, you can guess why I recommend it to congregations. There are a lot of bad church websites. Proportionally, there are even more bad synagogue websites.

This post was spurred by a recent email to me from Monique Cuvelier of Talance. Talance is a web development company and Monique has taken on the daunting task of working to improve synagogue sites. Her email asked if I had any exemplory synagogue sites to recommend. My reply was that I didn’t even have any really good sites to recommend. Sure, there are some nice, slick looking synagogue sites out there, all of which are based on Web 1.0 - ‘here’s my information, come look at it.’ While much of the church world has embraced Web 2.0 philosophy (see my post on Cyberculture, http://mahamatzav.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/cyberculture), I’ve yet to see a synagogue use web technology as a way to elicit or solicit information from readers.

I’m encouraged to see that many rabbis are now blogging. That’s a start! Let’s all encourage Monique by reading her blog and taking her suggestions, http://talance.com/blog/!

….and  want you snuggly and secure! http://www.markfiore.com/node/958

This is a word that I throw around casually. But if viewed critically, it’s almost an oxymoron. Cyber: of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (as the Internet), Culture: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group (both definitions from m-w.com).

 It’s not hard to see that all things cyber have become part of our culture. If I take a step back though, this wasn’t the case even 5 years ago. What happened to move technology past efficiency tools to becoming integrated into culture? This isn’t a rhetorical question - I really want to know the answer! Well, OK - I do have one theory. Web 2.0.

Wikipedia says (at least as of this writing) “Web 2.0 is a trend in World Wide Web technology, and web design, a second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies, which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users.” They key is facilitating creativity, collaboration, and sharing. For me, when we stopped using computers as passive ‘users’ and started using them to create, cyber began influencing our culture.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but was led to write about it today because of a Facebook group I just discovered. It’s called “I love cutting edge Judaism” and rather than being a religion, culture, or society group it’s listed under “Type: Internet & Technology - Cyberculture.” As one who works with congregations and technology, I’m somewhat sheepish to admit I missed this transition. I’ve been focused (and writing about) technology as a tool for congregations with little to say about how technology is redefining congregational culture. It is obviously redefining religious culture.

The group has a YouTube video listed that I think may be the best explanation of Web 2.0 I’ve seen (heard, read, listened to, etc.). Kudos to Michael Wesch at Kansas State University!