Toward A Hopeful Judaism
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Potholes are rarely celebrated. Their appearances in the road as I drove with my wife to the hospital for the birth of our first child were cause only for gripped belly and gritted teeth as my imagination translated each opening of the path into a source of pain rather than an indication of a traveled (and hence, reliable) route. They were, of course, both, but I was only able to partially understand them, given my personal vulnerability and circumstance. So when I encountered a pothole on that redemptive path, I swerved to avoid it.
We frequently encounter potholes in our Jewish organizational world, well-worn (and occasionally pockmarked) paths that make journeying bumpy, and sometimes painful. Potholes can get in the way of recognizing a liberating path paved before us, but only if we see ourselves trapped by them. I had, on my way to the hospital, emotionally translated each hole into a stumbling block, a source of pain instead of an indication of accumulated wisdom left by yesterday?s travelers.
The response by many, typically younger, Jews to so many Jewish Institutional Paving Companies is to run in the opposite direction, searching for meaningful, smaller creative Jewish directions. Others, sometimes daughters and sons of the inherited frameworks, struggle to find that same value within. Both end up causing strain on the system, challenging it to stretch in unexpected ways.
What do we need to do to make this encounter healthy and hopeful both for those who have been there and those looking for an invitation? We must (as has been proven possible by The Conversation, a project of The Jewish Week) bring together soulful, mindful Jews in a cross-generational family reunion, where newly long-lost cousins can sit down to transform traditional, ritualized gatherings into fresh conversations with unfettered Jewish dreaming as the main dish.
All too often, newness is equated with the pain of potholes, and the institutional reflex becomes detour instead of exploration. Climate and time erode stable roadways, challenging us to either patch things up with a temporary tar treatment, or a deeper rethinking of the system itself. But if we, in our disparate communities, made the bold decision to invite unconventional Jewish dreamers to help plot of the journey, redirecting when necessary, this Jewish roadmap of ours would change in important and helpful ways.
A young Jewish musician once wrote ?negotiations and love songs are often mistaken for one and the same.? All too often, strategic Jewish conversations begin and end like complex negotiations, when what we could really use is a few new love songs.
Every strategic Jewish conversation can be a moment in which we realize that a hopeful Judaism is, simply put, already here. All we need to do is remember how to dream together again. The potholes tell us where we?ve been. Today?s drivers, one and all, decide the next path.
The bumpiest road might also be the most potentially redemptive. After all, birth awaits.
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Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Joined: September 20, 2007
A prolific writer, musician, and leader in the Conservative Movement, Menachem Creditor’s rabbinate has taken him from coast to coast. For the first 5 years of his rabbinate he served as the assistant Rabbi of Temple Israel in Sharon, Massacusets. His work within that community lead to meeting Rabbi David Paskin, with whom Rabbi Creditor created Shirav and recorded two albums. Their album Deeper & Deeper contains the track Olam, which has become a spiritual anthem in the Renewal, Reform, and Masorti world. Rabbi Creditor's first solo album "Within" was released in 2011. Described as “a vocal proponent of gay and women’s rights”, Rabbi Creditor co-founded Keshet Rabbis, the alliance of gay friendly conservative rabbis and recently, Rabbi Creditor became the international co-chair of Rabbis For Women of the Wall.
Since becoming Rabbi of Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA in 2007, the synagogue’s membership has swelled, the participatory nature of the synagogue has flourished, and the outreach programs generated, including Bay Area Masorti, which Rabbi Creditor currently chairs, have achieved regional, national, and international recognition. Rabbi Creditor currently serves on the Executive Council of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Hillel, and on the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of Shalom Bayit. Rabbi Creditor’s writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Forward, The Jewish Week, J. Weekly, The Jewish Advocate, The Boston Globe, Kolot: Voices of CJ, JewsbyChoice.org, Conservative Judaism, and in several Jewish anthologies, including the recently published Paths of Torah. Rabbi Creditor has been called a "power-blogger" and his rabbinate is a constant vehicle for Jewish connection within social media. He blogs at rabbicreditor.blogspot.com.
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