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Dear Or Shalom Community,
Thank you, once again, for a beautiful second session of our communal values process this past Sunday. We dug into some challenging content, and I believe we handled it with grace and love.
For those of you who were not able to attend, here is a summary of what we covered to keep you abridged and so that you feel better equipped to join us for the final session this coming Sunday.
We began by reviewing what was covered in the first session, and digging a bit further into the concept of an ethical dilemma. We discussed how values are the building blocks of our moral world, but the field of ethics exists because sometimes the values we hold come into conflict with one another in a particular circumstance. Ethics exists to support us in figuring out a path forward when this happens.
We spent the bulk of our time together then putting this understanding of values and ethical dilemmas into practice by reading through a relevant example of a values statement: The Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Or Shalomers gathered in small groups to read through the document and answer the following questions:
- What Jewish (or non-Jewish) Values do you see in the document?
- For each value, do you agree? Disagree?
- What Jewish values do you feel should be in it that are missing, if any?
- What values in the document appear to be in tension with one another?
- Can you propose a possible solution to the ethical dilemma posed by that tension that would allow its holders to hold true to both values?
- Which of the values discussed would you like included in an Or Shalom values statement?
We, again, used our list of Jewish values as authored by R’ David Teutsch to support us in this exercise.
We then came back together as a large group and began to gather–what values do we see in this document? What values would we like to see or imagine that we would see that appear to be missing? And what values expressed by the authors of the document seem to be in tension with one another? What we came to discover is that the document expresses values that are both universalist (freedom and dignity for all) and particularist (Jewish safety and Jewish peoplehood), and that much of what we are seeing in Israel today is those universalist and particularist values coming into conflict with one another. However, if ethics teaches us anything, it is that creative and just resolution to values in conflict is both possible and necessary.
Additionally, questions arose during our session about the Board of Directors statement calling for a just resolution to the ongoing violence. We discussed how this statement by the Board is not static, but rather a living, breathing document that can and will change, both with the times and with communal input. One vehicle for this possible transformation is the values statement as produced through this values discernment process, and another is through feedback on the board’s survey. The Board is currently in the process of reaching out to and meeting with any members of the community who asked for follow-up following the Board’s statement. If you would like this follow-up, please fill out the survey. I also invite you to read the statement that came out of our movement, Reconstructing Judaism, this past Tuesday on this topic.
In our final session this Sunday, March 10th from 3-5 p.m. at 259 Frederick St, we will dive a little deeper into ethical methods and modes for resolving ethical dilemmas, and then begin to actually devise our values statement as a collective. Following Sunday’s session, the different contributions from members of our community in attendance will be collated and edited into a draft values statement that will go before the entire community for feedback and, eventually, a vote.
I look forward to seeing many of you this Sunday for more of this deep and important work.
With care,
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