God Will Not Solve Our Problems (And That’s A Good Thing)

In the Purim story, Esther and Mordecai had every reason to give up in face of Haman’s cruelty when it seemed as though no God would save them.  Yet in spite of no divine intervention of the kind experienced by Noah, Abraham or Moses, Esther and Mordecai chose the difficult path, and that made all the difference; Esther and Mordecai chose the pathway of solving the problem for themselves and the Jewish people.   And we celebrate them because taking that risk was what God wanted.

Today, The Times of Israel published a post I wrote in preparation for Purim on what it means to recognize our capacity as leaders to solve our own problems.    You can read the post by clicking on this link.

Build Your Synagogue Out of Legos, Not Bricks

Today, too many synagogue leaders with whom I work serve under the shadow of a depressing equilibrium, where they know that the model they inherited is unsustainable, yet fear the disruption of even a step towards radical change. But the journey to transform synagogues does not begin with a technical change, but a mindset change.

Yesterday, eJewishPhilanthropy published an article I wrote about what it means for synagogues to be adaptable likes Legos, and not concretized like bricks.   You can read the article by clicking on this link.