At the end of the day, the prayer leader is a functionary, whose role is to facilitate an experience that wouldn’t happen without her: making a group entreaty to the Divine Presence.

An Empowered Judaism framework recognizes that demand is strong among the general population and responds to that demand by building communities and institutions that offer direct engagement with Jewish life. Responding to this demand is the real challenge of our time.

even a person fluent in Hebrew may not always understand the simple meaning of the psalms (a large percentage of the prayer book) and can experience the mystery and complexity of the prayer sounds themselves.

they learn from books, make notes with pencils, and talk to their study partners across the table. The yeshiva has allowed them to rehearse the dying art of building community without the aid of technology, and many of the students comment that they have been looking for a way to “unplug.”

in truth, other than the Amidah, prayer was never meant to be silent. In the ancient world, reading was done out loud (thus the word in Hebrew for “to read”—kara—is the same as “to call”).

There is simply no coordinated effort to educate the Jewish people in a way that empowers them.

what would it take to build the ideal learning community—one that fostered Empowered Jews in an environment where they didn’t need to compromise a core part of their identity? Fortunately,

With its dedicated volunteer culture, focus on inspiring traditional davening, high-level Torah study, and egalitarian, universal outlook, Kehilat Hadar attempts to live out a world of Empowered Judaism.

The meetings were designed around a culture of action and accountability. We agreed that if we made a decision in a meeting, we would carry it out, and we held each other accountable over e-mail in the following days.