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Trying on Historic Personalities
One must be made to feel trusting, so that one โdoes not fear that he will be stripped of his emotions if he beยญcomes Maimonides and re-experiences his Judaism: he is not concerned less he abandon rational thinking because he temporarily refeels the mystic fervor of Isaac Luria.ย ย ย He can be both the Vilna Gaon poring over the folios of the Talmud and the Baโal Shem Tob who communed with all that is.ย ย ย He can do all this because he has grasped the fact that Judaism is the historical rendition of manโs groping with life and hence it has been as manifold, contradictory, and conflicting as that groping itself.
Ellis Rikin
The Wall of Wisdom Building Experience
โWho is truly wise, who can learn from all othersโ Ethics of the Fathers. As a first step in an organizationโs process improvement, and or strategic planning initiative, this workshop evokes input from participants toward building a โWall of Wisdomโ. During the experience, the various inputs are then gathered into meaningful target groupings for further deliberations. The emphasis is on a non-judgmental collection of ideas, suggestions, and wishes that could be then combined into various subsequent action plans.
Entering Moments of Our History as a Problem-Solving People
ย There is much to be learned from Jewish history: Despite great odds and powerful forces, the Jewish people has survived for thousands of years. During its historical experience it has mastered the art of change and continuity as its members have lived in both times of tranquility and times of crisis. It has survived among its many variations:
- The transition from being a rural agricultural people to an urban merchant class, and expanding its horizons in the medical, scientific and intellectual field.
- The transition from being a land rooted people to a people in exile from its homeland.
- The transition from being โat homeโ and prosperous in countries from which it was then forced to leave under great duress.
- Migrations to the new frontier of the American shores
- The transition from being victims of mass destruction to being cultivators of the desert, being rebuilt as a people even as it converted the barren land to the biblical land flowing with โmilk and honeyโ
- The transition from being the โpeople of the bookโ to being masters of scientific and technological innovation
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The ability of the Jewish people to survive and make these transitions is based on its being a problem-solving people with a flexible set of creative strategies that support both change and continuity.
These same creative strategies are available to organizations as they cope with their futures and their need to adapt to change.
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Among the creative strategies that have supported the Jewish people in their response to changing circumstances, and the need for problem-solving have been:
- The need to adapt to forced moves from the familiar to unfamiliar and even hostile surroundings.
- The need to choose unconventional paths and livelihoods
- A willingness to consider innovative approaches to problem solving
- Attention to life cycles and seasonal cycles and their impact on lives
- Teaching techniques for considering and analyzing multiple approaches
- Learning from surrounding cultures and absorbing elements while maintaining Jewish continuity
- Mastering new thinking and new technologies as they evolve
- A willingness at times to break with tradition for the sake of continuity
All these challenges and creative strategies can be applied to an organizationโs strategic planning process.
You and Your Significant Other โ Creating a Celebratory Experience!
Relationships between significant others are valued within the Jewish tradition and our contemporary Jewish community. Whether for those walking the traditional path of Jewish significant others (to be) blessed by clergy and by state, LGBT couples, couples of mixed religious backgrounds, or couples wishing to somehow mark their relationships, this program builds on the Jewish notion of the sanctity of the individual, the creation of a significant other relationship contract honoring the uniqueness of each other, and the affirmation of the relationship witnessed by others.