April 11, 2012 | 2:32 pm

Building Healthy Communities: What type of Congregant are You?

Posted by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

My rabbinic colleagues often remark to me how much they care about and even love their congregants. In particular, they appreciate the compliment-giver, volunteer-giver, and the humble servant. The compliment-giver feels deep appreciation for all the community provides and likes to express this gratitude. The volunteer-giver does not just make suggestions for improvements but jumps at the opportunity to contribute to improve the community. The humble servant is rarely seen in public leadership but is consistently contributing behind the scenes to ensure that things operate smoothly. Serving these individuals makes the strenuous work of rabbis an utter delight. 

One of the most common complaints I hear from rabbinic colleagues, on the other hand, is not the long hours, stressful counseling sessions, or the difficulty of attracting new members. Indeed, worse than low numbers is the appearance of a challenging congregant. Just as there is almost always a student in the class holding a group back with constant jokes, there are often a handful of shul members who strain the emotional patience of the rabbi and other congregational leaders. 

There are three types of tough congregants: the kvetcher (complainer), the schnorer (beggar), and the mazik (troublemaker). The kvetcher is irritated by everything – the custom should always be different, and everything is offensive. The schnorer always wants something – worst of all, they take your time even when there is no question or task to address. The most draining, however, is the mazik. This individual feeds off of conflict and tension, and always needs to be the center of attention. Anyone else, especially those in leadership, is subject to attack at any moment. The mazik alienates other congregants, frustrates spiritual leadership, and makes the congregation an unsafe and unhealthy place. Because of these individuals, well-meaning people searching for spiritual succor instead dread going to the synagogue, beit midrash, or community program. One rabbinic colleague recently shared with me that he quit leading his pulpit he loved after many years of service because of a small handful of these individuals who drained all of his spiritual energy.

Of course, these challenging congregants must be shown respect and love (and on occasion encouraged to seek psychiatric treatment), but we also need defined boundaries for the preservation of the community. After all, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. The sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yokhai tells this story: “A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. His fellow passengers protested. ‘What concern is it of yours,’ he responded, ‘I am making a hole under my seat, not yours.’ They replied, ‘That is so, but when the water enters and the boat sinks, we too will drown’” (Leviticus Rabbah 4:6).

Spiritual leaders commit to serving all congregants regardless of their moral character, but it is the job of the congregational staff, board, and lay leaders to shield spiritual leaders when this goes overboard. Most abuse goes unseen: 3 AM phone calls on issues that could wait until the morning, 5-page emails with 20 questions, and complaints about the potato chip brand served at Kiddush. 

In extreme cases, a farbisener hunt (mean, bitter person) can threaten to turn our warm spiritual homes into dreary and toxic places. Thus, when they speak gossip, complain left and right, and abuse community privileges, everyone should work cooperatively to address the problem. Fortunately, the kvetcher, schnorer, and mazik are exceptions. The majority of congregants are wonderful, and they enrich and enjoy each other’s company. They make the tireless rabbi’s toil worth the effort.

We can all pause to ask ourselves: what type of congregant am I? Where do I operate as the compliment-giver, volunteer-giver, and the humble servant? Where do I operate as the kvetcher, schnorer, and mazik? Am I adding positive energy to the congregation or am I draining the community? Am I defending congregational leaders and congregants who are being drained? Sometimes we have to inquire of others what role we play as we may have blind spots.

Spiritual homes should prioritize inclusivity so that all feel welcome but this does not mean that everything goes. To ensure that a community is inclusive, warm, and safe, there need to be limits and practices that are identified as harmful to one or all.

Congregations are not places where we seek to be served but holy sanctuaries where we learn the art of giving to actualize our potentials.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Director of Jewish Life & the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel and a 6th year doctoral candidate at Columbia University in Moral Psychology & Epistemology. Rav Shmuly’s book “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

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April 10, 2012 | 5:42 pm

Councilman Paul Koretz Takes Offense as resident calls out ‘Heil Hitler’ at City Council

Posted by JewishJournal.com

Paul Koretz, Los Angeles City Councilman

“Politcial gadfly” Michael Carreon, a resident of Los Angeles’ 14th council district objected to the rules of decorum at a City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 10, accusing Councilman Tom LaBonge, chair of the meeting, of being dictatorial, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.

Carreon, a regular commenter at such meetings, reportedly said: “The city’s going to hell in a handbasket, and you’re going to sit up there and dictate,” according to The Times. “Now I’m confused on where I’ve got to go, I’m upset, so I guess I’ll just salute you.” Then he raised his hand and said “Heil Hitler.”

Councilman Paul Koretz, who is Jewish, threatened to have Carreon evicted, but no such action was taken.

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April 10, 2012 | 1:30 pm

Drake’s bar mitzvah [VIDEO]

Posted by Six Degrees (No Bacon), JTA

Drake released his newest music video this week, titled “HYFR” (Hell Yeah F***ing Right). It features a lot of swearing, dancing women in minimal clothing and fellow rapper Lil’ Wayne.

What makes this video different from all other music videos?

Well, for one thing, the entire video is set in a synagogue, where Drake gets re-bar mitzvah’d. The provocative clip opens with actual footage of young Drake (then Aubrey Graham) saying “Mazel tov” to the camera and dancing at a bar mitzvah. He is also seen reading from the Torah (and later destroying a Torah-like cake). With all the cursing and scantily clad women, this is one bar mitzvah to which you wouldn’t want to invite your grandfather.

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April 10, 2012 | 11:12 am

Jon Stewart: Faith/Off - Easter vs. Passover

Posted by JewishJournal

Passover celebrants have to take it up a notch to compete with the chocolate eggs and fake grass of Easter.

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April 10, 2012 | 10:04 am

White House rejects plea for Pollard release

Posted by  Tom Tugend

Jonathan Pollard. Photo by Wikipedia/U.S. Navy

The White House on Monday evening rejected fervent Israeli and American appeals to commute the life sentence of Jonathan Pollard and release him after 26 years in prison.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told reporters that the Obama administration “has no intention to release Pollard.”

Pollard was convicted in 1985 of violating the Espionage Act and passing classified information to Israel, while working as a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst.

The White House statement came in response to a letter received the same day from Israeli President Shimon Peres, seeking clemency for the 57-year old Pollard and particularly citing his deteriorating health.

Pollard, incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Butner, North Carolina, was rushed to a nearby civilian hospital Friday, after complaining of severe pain. His condition was reported Monday as serious, but stable.

Among those appealing on Pollard’s behalf were Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In an open letter, they stated that “whatever [Pollard’s] crimes, 26 years [in prison] is enough. We hope and pray that President Obama will act swiftly and compassionately to release Mr. Pollard promptly.”

Peres is slated to visit Obama in June and receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award.

However, Peres has come under considerable pressure within Israel to reject the medal unless Pollard is freed.

According to the Israeli media, some 35,000 Israelis have signed a petition to that effect and 80 Knesset members have expressed similar sentiments. Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger urged all Jews to pray for the health and freedom of Pollard, whose Hebrew name is Yonatan Ben-Malka.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  appealed in January of last year to the White House for Pollard’s release, but the request was also rejected.

Among prominent Americans who have reportedly voiced their support for Pollard’s release are former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz and former CIA director James Woolsey.

On Sunday, Peres met with Pollard’s wife, Esther, who asked the Israeli president to use his influence to free her ailing husband, “because I do not want to be his widow.”

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April 5, 2012 | 11:10 am

Become an Inspiration Addict

Posted by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Photo by Wikipedia/Fir0002

In my senior year of high school, I drank the juice of inspiration, and all of a sudden everything in the world started to matter. I used to think inspiration could be found anywhere, but I learned there are indeed bad books, pointless movies, and invites worth turning down. These comprise the “cold zone.” They take energy from you, as compared with the “hot zone” people and activities that you leave with more energy. Our task is to fine tune our spiritual antennae to detect the hot zones that charge us.

Our end goal is not to be perfectly rested or on an artificial high. The goal of the inspiration addict is that we can do good works, pour out positive energy, and give inspiration wherever we go. Just as we need food to keep our bodies going, we need inspiration-“food” to keep our souls burning.

With fake inspiration, we run between counselors, movies, books, and houses of worship without ever feeling spiritually satiated. But with deep human inspiration that truly touches and changes us, we leave the experience overflowing. Personally, I tend to be very inspired by deeply human stories—those who overcome obstacles, those who commit their lives to serving others, the limits of human possibility, self-transformation, love, etc. Most recently I have been inspired by Margarita, the leader of a movement to support the poor in rural Argentinean villages. As an inspiration junkie, I found myself writing down every word she shared about how she would work for the re-distribution of wealth. My notepad again was full of scribbles when I recently went to hear the young talented writer Jonathan Safran Foer describe his reasons to write a new haggadah to reconnect with his Jewish roots.

Our bodies instinctively transfer food into energy. But we must learn how to intentionally transfer inspiration into energy. Otherwise, it remains entertainment and not inspiration-food that we pass along and truly live by. The art of living inspired is to learn how to keep our inspiration tank full enough that we do not burn out, yet outpouring enough that we live with the holy fire.

I would identify three primary types of inspiration: moment-inspiration, encounter-inspiration, and soul-inspiration. In moment-inspiration, given the conditions of one’s life at the moment, one is uniquely able to understand a truth more deeply. In encounter-inspiration, one experiences an event that is transformative. In soul-inspiration, the most powerful, one does not need a particular moment or experience to have a deep inspirational moment. Rather, it is self cultivated. One gains the tools to provide self-discovery and self motivation without external stimuli.

At one time, the Jews relied upon G-d for inspiration. The prophets would be filled with ruach hakodesh (Divine inspiration) and the ability to understand higher truths. But the rabbis teach that this type of inspiration ended with the deaths of Chagai, Zechariah, and Malachi (Sanhedrin 11a). The root of inspiration is spirit, since it is a spiritual process that also has a respiratory connection. G-d breathed the first breath into man to provide the capacity for inspiration, one that is deeply internal. Today, we must take it upon ourselves to open our hearts and allow ourselves to be inspired each and every day by infinite possibility. 

When you find environments and people that inspire you, hold them close! Also, we can learn to generate our own inspiration wherever we are if we cultivate the right life lens. When you find that you just cannot get enough, you will know that you have become an inspiration junkie!

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Director of Jewish Life & the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel and a 6th year doctoral candidate at Columbia University in Moral Psychology & Epistemology. Rav Shmuly’s book “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century” is now available on Amazon.

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April 4, 2012 | 5:06 pm

The Revolutions of Chabad and AJWS!

Posted by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

This is the story of two Jewish organizations. Neither receives the proper credit they deserve for the global diaspora revolutions they are inspiring.

Chabad-Lubavitch is politically right-wing, religiously ultra-Orthodox, and prizes Jewish ritual above all else, working to raise the profile and increase observance of mitzvot. The American Jewish World Service (AJWS) is politically left-wing, not religious, and prizes universalism, working to alleviate poverty around the world. 

At first blush, these organizations appear to have nothing in common: They serve different populations, in radically different ways, and sit at different tables at family functions.

A closer look, however, reveals that Chabad and AJWS have much in common. Their guiding principles and drive are of a piece.

Chabad and AJWS both

• Are driven by the messianic (one perhaps more explicitly than the other) idealism for a better tomorrow


• Think globally and value inclusion and cultural sensitivity


• Believe Judaism belongs firmly in the public sphere, where the core Jewish values of each are stated with confidence and passion


• Understand the importance of food (Chabad through Shabbat hosting) and AJWS through advocacy for the farm bill and by fighting hunger


• Are ideological absolutists, prioritize action over learning without neglecting learning, and have been led by very charismatic leaders who have inspired armies of followers

Chabad, which boomed under the brilliant Lubavitcher Rebbe, has been around for a few hundred years and currently has a budget and impact exponentially greater than AJWS. AJWS, led by the great Ruth Messinger, has been around for only a few decades but has already made a significant impact on Jewish global service. 

I do not know where I would be in life had I not become involved with these two groups. Chabad has provided me a spiritual home in dozens of cities around the world, and helped me grow in mitzvah observance during my Jewish journey in college. While I do not agree with many of Chabad’s political and ideological positions, I recognize that it is the strongest and fastest growing Jewish movement and I leave their houses inspired by how they give. No other religious group can rival Chabad’s ability to cultivate the energy to build outreach satellites around the world.

At the same time, there is no telling what kind of activist I would be today without AJWS. Rather than join the Peace Corps, AJWS provided me a Jewish home in the global south where I could serve as an observant Jew. Through opportunities as both participant and staff member on its programs, this organization rocket launched me onto a path of Jewish social justice leadership. These service-learning experiences throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and Central America in turn opened my heart to suffering around the world, my mind to strategic thinking, and my soul to an identity as a global Jew. Currently, AJWS is circulating a Jewish Petition for a Just Farm Bill (with more than 16,000 signatures) in an effort to achieve a more just Farm Bill, which covers foreign aid as well as domestic food policy. There is no Jewish organization as thoughtful and successful at addressing global social justice work as AJWS.

Some criticize these organizations for being too narrow of focus. “Why does Chabad only help Jews?” “Why does AJWS only help non-Jews?” I believe that we have a need for organizations that focus in these ways in order that they can achieve excellence. No group is better than Chabad at teaching ahavat Yisrael (love for the fellow Jew), and none is better than AJWS at teaching ahavat ha’briot (love for all people). Together, they can inspire all of us to higher levels.

My dream is to see a Jewish community that is fully observant in the mitzvot (as Chabad teaches) and leads the world in social justice (as AJWS teaches). When I applied for my first grant to found Uri L’Tzedek (the Orthodox social justice movement) in the spring of 2007, I was very aware that it was the great leadership and success of Chabad and AJWS that had enabled and inspired this innovation. Whether or not we agree with all of the approaches of Chabad or AJWS, they are the ones impacting global Jewish life, and if we do not join them, we are just spectators. They are succeeding for a very important reason—they see the big picture of our Jewish responsibility! Jewish values must be actualized—we can learn from the approaches of Chabad and AJWS how to go beyond our comfort zones to change the world.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Director of Jewish Life & the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel and a 6th year doctoral candidate at Columbia University in Moral Psychology & Epistemology. Rav Shmuly’s book “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

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April 3, 2012 | 4:44 pm

The Shoes We Wear: A Statement of Identity and Values

Posted by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Photo by Wikipedia/Roland zh

How beautiful are thy feet in sandals.

A few days ago in the Argentinian shantytown where we were volunteering, a four-year-old boy said he liked my zapatos (shoes). Our shoes can reveal much about our socio-economic status, as I have been told many times while traveling in developing countries. While I am always surprised by this, since I think of my shoes as utterly basic, never have I been as affected as I was this time. This boy, who is not wearing shoes today and is unlikely to be wearing them anytime in the future, opened up my heart.

Shoes are symbolic in Jewish thought. On Yom Kippur, Tisha B’Av, and during shiva (7 days of mourning for an immediate relative) it is prohibited to wear leather shoes. Similarly, Jewish priests (kohanim) take their shoes off when they give their priestly blessing. Today, some Chassidim still remove their shoes before approaching the gravesite of a holy person. One Talmudic passage even implies that shoes are more important than a home: “A person should sell the roof beams of his house to buy shoes for his feet” (Shabbat 129a). Shoes contribute to our basic sense of human dignity: Rabbi Akiva instructed his son Joshua never to go barefoot.

The most famous biblical stories about shoes are about the importance of removing them before G-d. Joshua encounters an angel of G-d, and the angel tells him to take off his shoes, since he is standing on holy ground (Joshua 5:13-15). We see the same behavior with Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). The head of a synagogue in India where I spent Pesach a few years ago told me that they do not wear shoes in the synagogue because of the latter story. There is a humility that comes with being shoeless. As one’s skin touches the earth, one can feel the frailty of one’s humanity. Seeing the dirt upon one’s toes is a reminder of our inevitable return to that earth. 

Personally, when I enter a home, especially my own, I always take off my shoes. It is a sign that I feel that I am in a special place. Home is a place where I have a lower voice, speak more intimately, and open myself up. Taking my shoes off is an expression to all that I have removed myself from the chaotic and tough outside world and have entered a more soft and humble mode of being.

There is an ancient Jewish practice called chalitza, in which a woman whose husband has died is absolved from the obligation to marry his brother by pulling the shoe off his foot and spitting in his face (Deuteronomy 25: 5-10). This is meant to shame him for not taking responsibility for her. Shoes represent power, and to remove another’s shoe is to humble him. There are many parallels in other cultures, such as Cinderella’s glass slipper, which wins her the hand of the Prince, or Dorothy’s ruby shoes in The Wizard of Oz, whose magical power is to resist the attempt of the Wicked Witch to seize them, and later return Dorothy to Kansas.

The chalitza ceremony also reminds us that shoes for many are symbolic of suffering. Millions have suffered and continue to suffer from the practice of foot binding, an incredibly painful and debilitating custom in which a young girl’s feet are broken in multiple places (four toes are folded under the foot until they break, and the arch is broken to shorten its length to about 3 inches), and then maintained by binding the feet with cloth. In spite of opposition from the Manchu dynasty and the Nationalist (Kuomintang) government, the practice persisted until 1949, when the Communist government finally stopped foot binding for young girls. However, many women age 60 and older still keep their feet bound, as the process of allowing the foot to grow would involve further bone breaks and pain, and because some are loyal to the old ways. We should not encourage anyone, especially women, to inflict such pain in the pursuit of a perverted sense of the erotic.

Some have begun to address the importance of the shoes we wear. Tom’s Shoes, for example, will donate a pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes you buy from them. Of course, with millions more wearing shoes, the issue of killing more animals to get the leather for shoes also becomes an issue for many. As a result, there is now also a whole industry of vegan shoes. Finally, there is even a shoe museum in Toronto, which my wife Shoshana and I recently had the pleasure of visiting, dedicated to the history of shoes.

When I was in Senegal last year, a young boy named Mamadou was persistent that I repair my shoe after it tore. I would have discarded these shoes, but Mamadou taught me about the importance of valuing the shoes I own. It is said that the Kotzker Rebbe used to wrap up his worn-out shoes before throwing them away and saying, “How can I simply toss away a pair of shoes that have served me so well over the course of years.” He understood that there was almost a holiness to something so basic that has enabled us to be mobile and fulfill our life missions. As Forrest Gump famous said about his shoes, “They were my magic shoes, they would take me anywhere.” Shoes truly are a magical blessing.

The rabbis teach that one should say the blessing “Blessed are You Who has provided me my every need” when putting on shoes (Brachot 60b) and thus Rashi explains that there is nothing more degrading than walking barefoot in public (Shabbat 129a).

We take shoes for granted, but in many societies shoes are a luxury, and have symbolic significance. The Shulchan Aruch, the great Jewish code of law, lays out the order of how shoes are to be put on and taken off. This is not just purposeless legal minutiae. Rather, it is a way of reminding us, every time we put our shoes on or take them off, just how blessed we are. An act as simple as putting our shoes on can remind us of human and animal suffering, inspire us toward humility, help us to transition to a more personal space, and remind us of our countless blessings.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Director of Jewish Life & the Senior Jewish Educator at the UCLA Hillel and a 6th year doctoral candidate at Columbia University in Moral Psychology & Epistemology. Rav Shmuly’s book “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

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