Sublime

That is what makes tzedakah something other than charity. It is not merely helping those in need. It is enabling the afflicted, where possible, to recover their capacity for independent action. Responsibility lies at the heart of human dignity.

Ahavat Achim

tzedakah, charity-as-justice, becomes possible in a way it would not if there were absolute human ownership.

The Jewish community in the United States, the largest in the world, is disappearing faster than any other since the Lost Ten Tribes vanished from the pages of history more than two and a half thousand years ago.

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.

“Do you think that I am offering you authority [serara]? I am offering you the chance to serve [avdut]” (Horayot 10a–b). As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”6

in an Empowered Judaism framework, Jewish education is about much more than Jewish demographic continuity. It is about fostering literacy in your own culture and heritage.

Jews were therefore street peddlers and merchants, as well as moneylenders, a profession they were permitted largely because it allowed the Christian ruling class to keep this ungodly activity at arm’s length.

rabbis as teachers are in critical demand. And after a year running Hadar, I knew that my life’s focus was not only to build one specific community but also to spread the model of Empowered Judaism.