Dear Hevreh,

As many of you know, I have been on a personal campaign since I started as your rabbi to meet with every member of the congregation. These meetings aren’t simply to say hi and introduce myself, but rather an opportunity to hear the stories that matter most to you – the stories of your upbringing, of your family, and if your Jewish journey.

Stories have been a big part of my rabbinate as you can see here, here, and here, and the process of meeting people one on one to hear your stories is a method of building community that was reinforced during the community organizing training I was apart of last week at JTS. The idea is that the stories that animate us are the keys to motivating is to take collective action in building a strong community and creating a more just society. In one on one or small group settings, we not only hear our own stories but we build our collective story, our unique oral Torah,  of Beth Mordecai.

Kol Tuv,

Rabbi Ari Saks

P.S. You can check out some of the other powerful nuggets of wisdom from the training on Twitter via #JOINRA. You can also see a screenshot of done if this wisdom with the attachment below

Category : Rabbi's Journal
Tag : community organizing JOIN rabbi's journal Rabbinical Assembly stories Twitter unique torah