To view supplemental materials, select the month below.
Click here for Aseret: The Big Ten supplemental materials.
Standard: Rites of Passage
Rites of passage mark transitions between different stages of life. Jewish tradition wisely understands that rites of passage, even those that are filled with joy, can be both exhilarating and disorienting.
13 Amazing Coming of Age Traditions From Around the World – Judaism’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah can be seen as one of many coming of age rituals.
‘Passages’ Author Reflects On Her Own Life Journey – Gail Sheehy is famous for her in-depth profiles of influential people, as well as her 1976 book on common adult life crises. Read her reflections on her own life journey.
Ritualwell/Traditions and Innovation – Great sources for marking Jewish milestones in your life.
Donating to the poor is not a prerogative act, but rather an expected act of each and every Jew. Jewish law has set clear priorities in terms of giving food, clothing, shelter, and medicine to fulfill the obligation to save life and preserve health. Jewish law is concerned with meeting the needs of the poor and at the same time safeguarding the dignity of those in need.
These interesting and varied sources will help you give some thought to giving:
How Far Will You Go to Give? Judaism and Organ Donation – Have I given more than I’ve taken, or taken more than I’ve given? Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz examines this questions by reflecting on his own experience with kidney donation.
Yossi Prager: What’s in it for Me? Selfishness in Philanthropy – Is altruism the best reason for giving? Yossi Prager argues that, in fact, selfishness is a better motivator for giving.
Bill and Melinda Gates on why they give – Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we’ve done.
10 Quotes about Tzedakah from All Kinds of Sources – Classic Danny Siegel
The Jewish Funders Network – Wonderful organization that encourages people to give Jewishly and provides many resources for doing so.
10 Facts About American Workers – Interesting compilation of statistics from the Pew Research Organization on Income Inequality.
Standard: Individual and Community
Ted Talk Monica Lewinsky: The Price of Shame – “Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop,” says Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, she says, “I was Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously.” Today, the kind of online public shaming she went through has become constant — and can turn deadly. In a brave talk, she takes a hard look at our online culture of humiliation, and asks for a different way.
Ely Talk Seven Habits of Highly United Jews: David Bratslavsky – How often are we conscious of our group identification as Jews? How can we use it to create real unity and work toward shared goals together? David Bratslavsky answers these questions by exploring by exploring concrete ways to cultivate unity and peoplehood, laying out examples of successes froma ll areas of Jewish life and detailing the benefits of bridging the gaps that divide us.
Eli Talk The Dignity of Difference: A Place for Everyone at the Shabbat Table – Are our Jewish institutions reflective of the diversity we see in the Jewish community? Abby Knopp challenges the audience to recognize diversity within their own communities and questions whether our Jewish institutions are as inclusive as they could be. Ultimately she asserts that individuals and professionals can do more to practice the Jewish values of hachnasat orchim (hospitality) and ahavat Yisrael (love of fellow Jews).
How to Accept and Embrace Disagreement – Accepting and embracing disagreement is difficult for some people who seek harmony and cooperation all of the time. Yet, without dissent and differing opinions, the world would be a very bland and conformist place. Embracing disagreement is a valuable way of learning new ideas, tempering your own ideas into workable outcomes, and reaching solutions that everyone can benefit from. Learn how to change your perspective about disagreement and your interactions with others will improve greatly.
Quotes from great authors thinkers and everyday people on disagreements – These will resonate with the texts on tochecha you will study.
Mussar: Compassion/Rachamim
Karen Armstrong, a scholar whose work is on the interconnectedness of world religions, won the TED prize in 2008. With that $100,000, she created a movement on the interfaith value of Compassion. You can read more at charterforcompassion.org. You can also read and sign the Charter of Compassion.
Some believe that empathy can prevent compassion. For more on this idea, read Rabbi Geoff Mitelman’s essay, When Empathy Prevents Compassion.
COMPASSION IT is a nonprofit organization and social movement that inspires compassionate actions. Go to www.compassionit.com for ideas for building compassion.
For information on how mindfulness meditation might help to cultivate compassion, check out this link.
Compassion towards Animals: The Jewish Vegetarian Society of North America.
Standard: Interpersonal Relationships
Interpersonal relationships between parents, children, and friends are complex and evolving, involving tensions around favoritism, competition for attention, and tensions between generations. These interesting and varied sources will help you further explore the relationships of family and friends.
The Secrets to a Happy Life, From a Harvard Study – This Harvard study reveals that strong social networks are the best predictor of life span and happiness over money, and fame.
Parent as a Verb: Our Adult Children – Anita Salzman Silvert, formerly of Chai Mitzvah, addresses the topic of how we create relationships with our children to sustain them long after we have any meaningful control over the details of their lives.
Excerpt from The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Wendy Mogel, PhD – The sages advise us to study Torah lishma—“for its own sake”—rather than to impress others with our scholarship. A paradox of parenting is that if we love our children for their own sake rather than for their achievements, it’s more likely that they will reach their true potential.
Teen Friendships in the Digital Age – From measuring teens’ internet usage to finding out what devices they own, Pew Research Center has been examining the digital lives of teenagers for over a decade. The latest report focuses on how teens, who often live tech-saturated lives, develop and sustain friendships in the digital age, including where they meet, communicate and spend time with friends.
Six Lessons for the Sandwich Generation – As a member of the sandwich generation, Charles Passy has come to realize that his daily “burden” is also a daily reminder of how blessed he truly is.
Mussar: Spiritual Friendship/Chevruta
Information available soon.
Standard: Mindfulness/Conscious Living
Sometimes we need to turn off our “autopilot.” This month we focus on what it means to live a mindful/conscious life and some of the tools Judaism provides to help us be more aware of the small details of our daily lives, so that we can be more grateful for our everyday blessings.
We begin with two organizations (among many) that are dedicated to the practice of Jewish Mindfulness.
The Jewish Mindfulness Network – Rabbi Jill Zimmerman talks about what mindfulness is – she says “Jewish Mindfulness is about bringing to life ancient Jewish practices that can make our lives meaningful each day, each moment. As we have done everywhere we have lived, we also have borrowed and blended other spiritual practices into Judaism and made it our own.”
Institute for Jewish Spirituality – Those at the Institute have been introduced to mindfulness meditation as a path that can support and sustain their Jewish lives and the fulfillment of our Jewish values.
Two Great Cognitive Neuroscience Researchers doing important work on the use of mindfulness techniques to create healthier lifestyles:
Dr. Richard J. Davidson – Dr. Richard J. Davidson is a pioneer in the field and a confidant of the Dali Lama. Learn more about Richard J. Davidson, a highly sought after expert in human flourishing, including meditation and related contemplative practices.
Dr. Judson Brewer – Great Ted Talk on using mindfulness practices to break a bad habit by renowned researcher Dr. Judson Brewe
American Mindfulness Research Association – The American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) was founded in 2013. Their mission is to support empirical and conceptual efforts to: (1) establish an evidence base for the process, practice, and construct of mindfulness; (2) promote best evidence-based standards for the use of mindfulness research and its applications; and (3) facilitate discovery and professional development through grant giving.
Additional Supplemental Articles:
Mindful Jewish Living, Compassionate Practice
Supplemental Article: The Musar Revival
Commentary from Rabbi Wendy Pein: Modim Prayer
Mussar: Equanimity/Menuhat HaNefesh
Coach John Wooden on success and peace of mind – With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden, thought to be one of the best coaches ever, redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father’s wisdom.
Meditation on Equanimity with Jack Kornfield – Equanimity is a wonderful quality, a spaciousness and balance of heart. Although it grows naturally with our meditation practice, equanimity can also be cultivated in the same systematic way that we have used for loving-kindness and compassion.
American Mussar on Equanimity – Greg Marcus is a practitioner, facilitator, and innovator of American Mussar, a 21st-century spiritual practice for an authentic and meaningful life.
20 of Steven Wright’s Funniest Jokes – Equanimity requires us to have a sense of humor… Here are one liners from one funny guy…. Steven Wright.
Standard: Adding New Insight into the Passover Seder
To help ourselves, our families, and those around our tables to truly experience the power of Passover we need to prepare our hearts and minds while we prepare our homes.
Classic websites:
My Jewish Learning – All sorts of information on Passover how to’s including history, picking a Hagaddah, recipes, conducting a seder and more
Ritual Well – Lots more information on Passover including social action projects, questions for discussion and a personal Dayenu Prayer
Really interesting source to easily add another layer of Social Justice to your Seder:
Social Justice Guide – Contemporize the messages of Passover with this guide. Ideas such as: Updating your Seder plate with an orange, potato, or fair-trade chocolate or cocoa beans, reciting a new 10 Plagues – thinking about modern day slavery
ELI Talks:
The New Wanderers: God, Millennials, and Jewish Engagement – In this Eli talk, Rabbi Jessy Gross argues that contemporary American Judaism must now make the opposite transition—from a place-based synagogue model of the postwar era to a new model of a mobile mishkan for the 21st century.
Additional supplemental articles:
Supplemental Article: A Passover Question That Keeps Us Up All Night
Supplemental Article: Meditation For Seder
Supplemental Article: Begin With A Story
Mussar: Order/Seder
TED TALK: Click here to watch.
Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn’t feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points.
How to Clear Clutter with the Clutter Maven – The Clutter Maven pledges to deliver viable solutions for an overstuffed home or work environment, aiming to clear the space necessary to operate in a healthy, peaceful, and inspirational space
The Passover Seder – No conversation about order could omit the order of the Passover Seder. Here is a review from My Jewish Learning.
GREAT QUOTES ON ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE WITH MEANING
(compiled by Goodlife Organizing)
Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. ~ A.A. Milne
Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity ~ Albert Einstein
The most important things in life aren’t things. ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo
Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. ~Author Unknown
For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter. ~ D.H. Mondfleur
Good order is the foundation of all things. – Edmund Burke
Our life is frittered away by detail . . . simplify, simplify. ~Henry David Thoreau
I’m careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can strive for; perfection is God’s business. ~ Michael J. Fox
Less is more. ~ Mies Van Der Rohe
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~ William Morris
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~ Leonardo DaVinci
The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. ~ Mother Teresa
Standard: Israel and the Jewish Spirit
There is a biblical connection between Jewish people and the land of Israel. Jewish people live all over the world, and the relationship between individual Jewish people and Israel is complex. This topic explores that relationship, and these supplemental materials expand on that journey.
Tired of hearing only about Israel’s problems? – Read this weekly blog about all the wonderful things happening in Israel.
Five Eli Talks on Israel… all worth watching!
The Boycott Of Israel Nobody Is Talking About – From The Jewish Week, by Chai Mitzvah Board President, Scott Shay.
Interactive Map of Israel – Take a tour of Israel from your living room.
Mussar: Trust/Bitachon
The economy of Trust… commerce with a sense of human connection – Fascinating TED talks on all the ways our economy can foster trust and dispel the stranger/danger fear.
Is being trustworthy a mitzvah? – What is the Jewish perspective on trust? Is it ever permitted to betray someones trust? What type of person should be trusted? Is being trustworthy a mitzvah (commandment)? Hear from Rabbis across the denominational spectrum:
Building a Holy Playground: When leaders stop controlling and start trusting, Karina Zilberman Director of the 92Y Shababa Network – Karina takes us on a journey of how the 92Y created the Friday morning Shababa Experience through 4 steps:
She implores us to build a playground trusting that when we allow for freedom of possibility, good things happen.
Standard: Gratitude/HaKarat Ha-Tov
As seen on Oprah.com, join as we color the world with Gratitude
Additional Supplemental Articles:
Go Out on a Limb to Show Gratitude – Altruis
How Happiness Become a Cultural Obsession – Happiness has become a core question of our lives. Some psychologists argue that this preoccupation with happiness may actually be making us less happy.
TWO MORE ELI TALKS ON GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS:
Jewish Perspectives on Happiness – What makes us happy? Dr. David Pelcovitz delves into the intersections of the secular view of happiness and the Jewish view of happiness (simcha). He uses the examples of goal setting, mindfulness, and gratitude to demonstrate how current research in positive psychology aligns with old Jewish wisdom on happiness.
Happiness and Jewish Identity – Jews often see ourselves as neurotic, cynical, and even tragic. Our history, our stories, and the media would have you think that we just can’t help it. But Olga Gilbert has another idea. Judaism offers a wealth of resources for seeing and cultivating the happy in life even during the hard times. Cynical still? Just watch.
Mussar: Gratitude/Hakarat Ha-tov
The Power of Gratitude – Julie develops a theory of the power of weaving gratitude talk into your speech, not taking simple kindness for granted, and replacing thank you with “I’m sorry.”
Eli Talks: The Power of Shameless Judaism – Weaving her personal story through her teachings. Rabbi Abby Sosland speaks about shameless Judaism as a path to happiness.
Ted Talk: The Happiness Advantage – The lens through which we see the world shapes our reality. 90% of our happiness is not grounded in hard facts, but how we perceive our lives. Professor Shawn Achor is a leading expert on happiness research and a really funny guy.
Standard: Judaism and the Environment
Lo-Watt Shabbat – Shabbat is a time when, once a week, we are asked to slow down and remind ourselves that we are part of God’s creation. This holy day emphasizes the importance of appreciating nature and taking conscious actions to protect the environment. It is especially appropriate to think about the sources of the products we use. As we understand where our water, food, and electricity come from, we can make better decisions in how we use and preserve these resources that allow us to live.
Francis de los Reyes: Sanitation is a basic human right– Warning: This talk might contain much more than you’d ever want to know about the way the world poops. But as sanitation activist (and TED Fellow) Francis de los Reyes asks — doesn’t everyone deserve a safe place to go?
Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City Trash – New York City residents produce 11,000 tons of garbage every day. Every day! This astonishing statistic is just one of the reasons Robin Nagle started a research project with the city’s Department of Sanitation. She walked the routes, operated mechanical brooms, even drove a garbage truck herself—all so she could answer a simple-sounding but complicated question: Who cleans up after us?
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center – Throughout the year, we offer Jewish holiday experiences, workshops, festivals, farm vacations, retreats, yoga classes, prayer services, and farm-to-table kosher meals. Isabella is the home of Hazon one of the premier Jewish organization dedicated to creating healthier and more sustainable societies throughout the world.
Mussar: Humility/Anavah
Standard: Leadership
The Most Important Leaders in World History According to… Everyone! (Ranker Community) – For good or for bad, our leaders can be powerful forces for change in the world. But who are the most impactful people to ever hold prominent positions of power? This is a list of the most important and influential leaders in the history of the world. Anyone can vote on this definitive list of the men and women who shaped our civilization – for better or worse – making it a collaborative list of the greatest leaders of all time.
TED Talk: Every Day Leadership – We have all changed someone’s life — usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.
ELI Talk: What Makes People Stand Up, Say Hineini, and Lead? – How can Jewish leaders today embody the boldness and presence of leaders from Torah? Adam Simon examines four different models of leadership from Torah that work together in harmony in order to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. For Simon, what Torah leaders have in common, despite their differences, was the ability to say “hineni”—here I am—and step up to the challenge at hand.
Mussar:
Information to come July 2018.
Information to come August 2018.
Standard: The Arc of the Holidays
Read a Jewish book recommended by the Jewish Book Council.
The Jewish Book Council’s origins date back to 1925, which makes it one of the oldest organizations providing continual service to the American Jewish community. It all began when Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, set up an exhibit of Judaic books and used it as a focus of what she called Jewish Book Week. In 1927, Jewish communities around the country adopted the event. The primary interests at the time were books in Yiddish and Hebrew, reflecting the dominant languages of the American Jewish readership. Jewish books in English were few in number.
The mission of the Jewish Book Council is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and distribution of quality Jewish content books in English; to serve as the national resource center for information about the American Jewish literary scene; to serve as the coordinating body of Jewish literary activity in North America in both general and Jewish venues, and to serve as the North American representative of Jewish literature on the international scene.
Jewish Book Council Reading List for the High Holidays
Five ways to focus your spiritual preparations for the High Holidays – Prepare Spiritually for the Jewish New Year
LAB SHUL’s High Holiday Boot Camp – Learn about LABSHUL from its founder Amichai Lau-Lavie
Eli Talk: Making Prayer Meaningful – Understanding the biblical references within our liturgy can lead us to a deeper, more connected, more emotional and meaningful prayer experience. Watch Rabbi Elie Kaunfer on Eli Talk:
Mussar: Coming Home/Teshuvah
Navigating the Labyrinths of Our Lives – Article by Rabbi Pamela Wax
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