Chapter 7: Created in the Divine Image – Kavod/Dignity and Honor
This is an excerpt from Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change “Marlene Juarez worked as a nanny for a family near Boston, taking care of four children ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years old; she organized play dates, cooked,...
Standing with the Stranger
A Spiritual Practice for Personal and Communal Healing Why empathy and action for asylum seekers is a spiritual practice During its first 80 years as a sizable minority in the United States (1900 – 1980) the American Jewish community featured prominently in the major social justice efforts of the century,...
Ideas for Democracy on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
Given that Rosh Chodesh Tammuz and US Independence Day coincide this year I wanted to share a thought about religion, spirituality and democracy. Many traditional religious structures, with their hierarchies and emphasis on obedience and authority, don’t align so well with the flattened hierarchy of democracy, where the common citizen chooses...
The growing world of spirituality and social change
The Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project is part of a larger ecosystem made up of organizations and people of many faiths who are all interested in exploring and building on the intersections between spiritual practice and social change. In the Jewish community these include Reconstructing Judaism and their Reset Project and their Hashivenu...
Receiving and Passing on Torah in Sivan
Today is Rosh Chodesh Sivan – only five more days until Jewish communities around the world celebrate the gift of Torah. And, I have an exciting announcement: Please mark your calendars for the next Kirva Teshuva Workshop coming up on September 11 and September 19 at Mishkan Tefilla in Brookline! Webinar dates...
The Opportunity and Challenge of Power
Thoughts about Power and Ethics on Jerusalem Day Yesterday was Yom Yerushalayim/Jerusalem Day, the day in the Jewish calendar that celebrates Israel’s sovereignty over the holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and Western Wall. With Israel’s victory in the Six Day War and control over the West Bank,...
Reaping what you sow in Iyar
The steady path to freedom through Tikkun Middot Today and tomorrow are Rosh Chodesh Iyar, days 1 and 2. I hope to see many of you at the Boston Mussar Conference this afternoon (12 – 5 PM, 384 Harvard Street in Brookline, MA). More information is below! We are right in...
Holiness in Hidden Places
Holiness in Hidden Places: Our Spiritual Task in the Face of White Nationalism I want to draw your attention to several resources and events: Inside Out Wisdom and Action will make an official launch on May 20th – stay tuned for details… Judaism Unbound just released an interview with me about the...
Freedom is possible in Nissan
This Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Nissan is an incredible month, comparable only to Tishrei, and the top competitor for the title of “The First Month.” Nissan is known as the month of redemption/Ge’ula, features Pesach, and commemorates the dedication of the Mikdash/Tabernacle one year after the Exodus from Egypt. The...
Climate Activism is for Everyone!
We all hear about climate deniers and climate activists. There is another category – folks who know climate change is real and dire but who feel they are too busy working on other important issues to focus on climate. I fall into that category. If you are like me, I...
Spotlight: Yani Burgos, Christian Contemplative Practice, and Justice
This blog is intended to feature community members and leaders doing great work related to the concepts from Changing the World from the Inside Out. If you missed our first spotlights, on Rachie Lewis, Liz Aeschlimann and Sophie Schoenberg, check them out (Rachie, Sophie). This entry features Yani Burgos. Yani...
Adar II - A time for something new: A spiritual technique for renewal
Today is Rosh Chodesh Adar II. Last month I wrote to you about the spiritual qualities of Adar 1 – self-forgiveness and preparation. Adar II is different. Please bear with some brief Kabbalah background information: In Kabbalah, the four letter name of God – Y-H-V-H can be arranged in different...
Purim and International Women’s Day
I want to draw your attention to several events we are highlighting this month regarding women’s leadership and liberation. The Jewish Women’s Archive is hosting a zoom eventon rethinking Jewish women’s history in America and the University of Michigan is holding a forum on Jewish women’s activism in the United States. Despite the...
A Spiritual Practice for Black History Month
Today is the beginning of Black History Month in the United States. I know for me, in the past this has meant reading more about the experience of Black American’s, especially important historical figures like Jackie Robinson, who’s 100 birthday just passed. I was moved by an experience this past week to...
Increasing Light in Shvat
Today is Rosh Chodesh Shvat, 15 days until the new year of the trees. One of the things I love about this time in the Jewish calendar is that it really is a spiritual turning point in the year. According to Shammai, Rosh Chodesh Shvat is the new year of the...
Renewal of Spirit and Renewal of Body in 2019
Happy 2019! I like to think of the secular new year as a time to renew our commitment to our bodies and to physical health. Yes, I did actually join a gym last week. What do weight machines and an elliptical have to with the inner life and social change? Its...
2018 Year in Review
We are pleased to share a brief overview of Inside Out Wisdom and Action’s activities this past year – the year we officially launched as a project! To read a full description of what the IOWA Project is all about, click here. Since launching, we have had a number of exciting developments. By...
Spotlight: Rachie Lewis and the IOWA Project
This blog is intended to feature community members and leaders doing great work with the concepts from Changing the World from the Inside Out. If you missed our first spotlights, on Liz Aeschlimann and Sophie Schoenberg, check them out here and here. This entry features Rachie Lewis. Rachie is an organizer at...
Spotlight: Sophie Schoenberg and the IOWA Project
This blog is intended to feature community members and leaders doing great work with the concepts from Changing the World from the Inside Out. If you missed our first spotlight, on Liz Aeschlimann, check it out here. This entry features Sophie Schoenberg. Sophie is a JOIN Alumna who has been...
How to Generate Miracles in Kislev
Today is Rosh Chodesh Kislev – Chanukah is 25 days away! In this message I’ll share some thoughts about miracles, Chanukah and how these relate to our spiritual practice. For those who want to learn Rebbe Nachman’s Hitbodedut practice, or want a refresher, I invite you to join an on-line practice course...
Spiritual Tools for Responding to Pittsburgh
Like many of you, I’ve been consumed with the terrible shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend. At the same time, I’m trying to keep my attention on the midterm elections next week. This November newsletter focuses on these two issues and is dedicated to memory...
The Spirituality of the Ordinary
Today is Rosh Chodesh Mar Cheshvan. I think of Mar Cheshvan as an invitation into the “spirituality of the ordinary.” This last month was filled with one spiritual peak after another – Rosh Hashana and the Shofar, the Ten Days of Teshuva, Yom Kippur and for some, building a sukkah, getting the...
Grab Your Shofar!
Entering Elul and Committing to Spiritual Preparation Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the 40 day teshuva period climaxing on Yom Kippur. For thoughts about the spirituality of preparation see my newsletter post from August 1 here. In synagogues around the world this morning we began blowing the shofar...
On your mark, get set….. Preparing to Prepare for the New Year
Greetings from Jerusalem, where I am teaching in the Pardes Institute summer program and reconnecting with so many fabulous people here. While we are deep in the summer, the Jewish new year, Labor Day and the start of school are not that far off. Indeed, the Hebrew month of Elul...
Hearing with an Open Heart in Av
Wisdom for Listening in the New Month Today is Erev Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av – also known as Yom Kippur Katan, the monthly time set aside for reflection and teshuva to boost the atoning and renewing power of Rosh Chodesh. The quality of hearing is the Tikkun for the month...
Staying Politically and Spiritually Engaged in These Times
Welcome to the first newsletter of the summer! I want to share some thoughts about seeing the hard things that are happening in the US. I also want to remind you that now is a great time to register for the Teshuva workshop and Webinar. In the Jewish world we begin...
Fight Like a Mensch: Integrated Social Change
By Rabbi David Jaffe, Rabbi Rachel Timoner and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. June 13, 2018 This article was originally posted on eJewish Philanthropy. What was the program at the J Street National Conference, held in April, that was so pressing that every seat was taken, the floor was filled to...
On Shavuot: "Re-Covenanting" as a Unified People
This originally appeared on the blog of ReformJudaism.org. And Israel encamped [at Sinai] as one person with one mind. -- Rashi on Exodus 19:3 Remarkable unity characterized the Jewish people in the days before receiving Torah at Sinai, an event we commemorate on Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. As a student...
How will Torah enter your heart this Shavuot?
Today is Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the month of Shavuot, when we celebrate receiving the Torah. The primary spiritual practice for this month is Torah. This is the time to rededicate to learning Torah and to pray that Torah enters your heart, and the hearts of all your loved ones in just...
Creating Spiritual Community
In the Jewish community this is the month of lots of awards dinners and galas honoring people for their communal contributions. This got me thinking about the tension between personal spirituality and community. I was once traveling with my friend Steve and we were nowhere near a Jewish community. It came...
Walking the Path of Teshuva in Iyar
The month of Iyar has a lot in common with Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days of the festivals of Passover and Sukkot. Just like these two week-long holidays start and end with holy days, with several week-like days in-between, so this time of year is bookended by major festivals with a...
The Soul Curriculum of Your Organization
This article was originally posted by The Jewish Federations of North America as part of their series Ideas in Jewish Education and Engagement. The school management team’s off-site annual retreat was about to descend into chaos as two key players representing opposing interests, the chief financial officer and the dean...
Spotlight: Liz Aeschlimann and Changing the World from the Inside Out at Vassar
This blog is intended to feature community members and leaders doing great work with the concepts from Changing the World from the Inside Out. Read on to get a sense of the ways in which these concepts come alive in community! Here, we get the chance to learn from Elizabeth Aeschlimann,...
MLK and Mussar on Society’s Priorities- A Warning Worth Heeding
It is 50 years since the greatest social justice prophet of our time, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. One year earlier, on April 4, 1967, he gave a powerful and controversial speech about the Vietnam war that linked the civil rights struggle and the...
Embodied Freedom: The Traditions of Passover
BY DAVID JAFFE This article was originally posted on Shambhala.com. The Passover prayer book, or Haggadah, that my family used when I was growing was in English, Hebrew, and transliteration of the Hebrew. The story told is that when I was nine years old, I cut out strips of white...
How Purim Can Fill an Emotional Need for Connection
BY RABBI DAVID JAFFE , 2/28/2018 I never really “got” Purim as a young adult. The endless noisemaking during the M’gillah reading felt tiresome and the need to feel happy at the parties reminded me of the same pretense as New Year’s Eve. It was only during my rabbinic studies in Jerusalem that I...
A Tip for Feeling Joyful
The Talmud tells us, “When Adar Enters, Joy Increases.” The question remains, how do we feel joy? Is joy some objective thing that happens, or is it a subjective feeling? Even if it is an objective reality, if you are not feeling it, what good is it? I wanted to offer a...
Change is Possible: Thoughts for Adar
The Talmud tells us that Haman was pleased when he picked the month of Adar to destroy the Jews because Adar seemed to have auspicious qualities for his evil plan. It was the month that Moses died and there were no other holidays. His thought process assumed that the nature...
Keep your inner fire burning during the winter months: Jewish spiritual wisdom for renewing deep motivation
Early February in the Northern hemisphere, particularly on the East Coast of the U.S. can be a trying time. Day after day temperatures below freezing with short days and long nights. From my time working in a high school, I know that these are the months that students struggle the...
Reflections for Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat
Some thoughts about the spiritual qualities of Sh’vat: According to the mystical tradition, the stomach is the body part associated with this month and the water bucket, or dipper, is the astrological sign. It is also the new year for the trees. What is the connection between these symbols, trees and...
MLK Day #TorahFortheResistance
Is Putting One's Life on the Line to Stand Up To Oppression a Jewish Value? Reflections on Non-Violent Resistance on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day This blog was originally posted on Jewschool as part of their #TorahFortheResistance series. To see the original post, click here. In the November 22, 2017 on-line...
How Many 100 Days are there in Four Years?! A Program for Comfortable Liberals
This week marks the end of President Trump’s first 100 days, the traditional time-unit for measuring a new leader’s success out of the starting gate. No matter how history evaluates this new President’s beginning, for Liberals, these past three months saw a relentless assault on our deeply-held values. Now, liberals...
Inclusivity and Exclusivity: Passover, the Jewish Community and the U.S.
Jews around the world will say the following words at the opening of their Passover seder: “Let all who are hungry come and eat; Let all who need come and join in the celebrating of the Passover.” This declaration of radical inclusivity stands in stark contrast to the restrictions as...
National Jewish Book Award
I am honored to announce that Changing the World from the Inside Out won the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice. It is particularly meaningful to me that this is the Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award. As many know, Myra was a life-long Jewish communal...
Be Inspired This MLK Day
In synagogues around the world the following words were read this morning from the Book of Exodus (Exodus, chapter 1), “A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.” There is a debate in the Talmud (Sota 11a) whether he really didn’t know Joseph, or he just acted...
Happy Chanukah
Tonight we light the first of the Hannukah candles. The common practice around the world is to increase those lights one at a time each night until next Saturday night the Menorah will be fully lit with eight candles, celebrating the eight nights the small container of oil miraculously lasted....
Parshi’ot of Mar Cheshvan and the New Year
Rosh Chodesh Mar Cheshvan 5777 It is Rosh Chodesh Mar Cheshvan and we are just out of the starting gate of the new year. Still, it is useful to take a few minutes and review your goals from the workshop. Have you identified one or two kabbalot (small challenges) to...
Practice Sovereignty With Humility
Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 5775 Chodesh Tov! I want to share some brief thoughts about this season inspired by my own practice and living in Israel. As I mentioned last month I’ve been combining the sefira for the week of the omer (eg. Chesed, Gevura, Tiferet) with the middah that is...