Rabbi Jim: Still Learning

The Big Reveal Rabbi Jim Rogozen   It is a centuries-old habit to try to reduce wisdom into short aphorisms or sound bites (“do unto others…”), and to understand or label our experience of major calamities in a similar fashion (“when the going gets tough…”)   It is no surprise, then, that as we retreat into our smaller, physical spaces, it’s tempting to conclude that our personal and professional lives have also been contracted, turned into something we might label as Tzimtzum, a world of “less than.” There is no doubt that we have all been facing challenges. We are dealing with stress, financial worries, the loss of loved ones, and a sense of disconnection. I would like to propose, however, that for those of us in Jewish Education, our world has, in some ways, actually expanded, with many new windows now open.   Here is what I am seeing:   ·          Teachers are pushing through what were previously limitation...

Counting Rabbi Jim Rogozen Counting down each day of the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot is referred to as Sefirat Ha’Omer – a reference to the “wave offering” of a sheaf of ripe grain (an Omer ), brought to the Temple in Jerusalem, from the beginning of the grain harvest in Israel to its conclusion.   The Talmud considers this period to be one of semi-mourning, in memory of a plague (or Roman soldiers) that killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students.   Prior to that, however, this seven-week period in Israel’s agriculture cycles was already a time of anxiety and vulnerability. A failed crop would be disastrous for the community. Some commentators say that the daily ritual of “counting” the Omer made the vulnerable farmer more aware of his/her reliance on God; others say that the daily counting reminded people of the lead-up to the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai (celebrated on Shavuot ).  In ancient times, this kind of counting helped our ancest...

  Where Is There ? Reimaging Jewish Life Post-COVID  Rabbi Jim Rogozen   This short prayer is found in traditional Siddurim (prayer books):    יְהִי רָצוֹן   Yehi Ratzon ….May it be your will God….that the Holy Temple will be rebuilt speedily in our days… וְשָׁם נַעֲבָדְךָ בְּיִרְאָה   and there we will serve You reverently as in the days of old, and in earlier years.”   The word שָׁם / there in this prayer refers to the Holy Temple that stood in Jerusalem many centuries ago. For some, the longing to return there – to that specific place and to the system of animal sacrifices – is very real. For others, the prayer is simply a reminder of Jewish rituals that are no longer practiced.   Jewish history, since the time of the Temple, and especially in the last year, has proven, time and again that “there” can move.   שָׁם / there -  is more than a simple preposition indicating a location; some consider it a...

  “Known Knowns” and “Unknown Knowns” - Redefining Success During COVID  Rabbi Jim Rogozen   During a February 2002 press conference about Iraq, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said “there are known knowns….but there are known unknowns.” These phrases derive from an analysis technique called the Johari Window created in 1955 by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.          While the Johari options seem straightforward, Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, said in 2004 that there is yet another category: the unknown knowns , which he said are things we would prefer not to admit. Or, as Daase and Kessler wrote in 2007, these things are “what we do not like to know.”   This brings to mind one of my favorite education articles, “Pretending Not to Know What We Know,” by Carl Glickman in the May 1991 issue of Educational Leadership. Glickman listed 11 educational practices or realities ...