TORAH-BASED LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Building Congregational Unity—Considers traditional teachings that bear on healing congregational divisions, and the importance of gemilut khasadim, kriat Torah, and po'eil tzedek in fostering congregational unity. (2 pp.) [VAYAKHEL]
Congregational Organizing: Relationship-Driven Leadership Development—Explores leadership development in the context of institutional corruption, unification, and reconstruction. (6 pp.)
Creating Openings to the Light of Torah: Avodat Khevra shel Kharakim—Identifies the challenge of an Am Kadosh to transform the world through the creation of openings to the light of Torah by action as a group of visionaries, teachers, and keepers of sacred space and time within a kahal poalei tzedek. (3 pp.) [BAMIDBAR]
Filling the Hands of Leaders—Links the historic survival and success of Am Yisrael to leadership accountability, both to the people and to God. (1 p.) [TETZAVEH]
Keeping Torah at the Center—Questions why congregations allow members and leaders to undermine their unity and comity; the spiritual and social effects of not keeping Torah at the center of community life; the impacts of ranking personal autonomy as the highest social value; and the necessity for uniting in common purpose. (1 p.) [TERUMAH]
To Know the Queen—Tells the tale of a man who didn't know his own worth and sought solace in being close to the Queen rather than those whose lives he could enrich. (2 pp.)
Korach's Rebellion of Informal Leaders—Suggests that what Korach "took" (vayikach Korach) was the opening created by the spies "evil report" to launch a revolt; that he recruited informal leaders as organizers and agitators; the means he used to appeal to them; his own interests and modus operandi; how and why Moses responded as he did; and the lessons offered for contemporary congregational policies and practices affecting informal leaders. (3 pp.) [KORACH]
Leaders Mentor More Leaders—Describes the hallmark of effective leaders as commitment and competence to widen the circle of leaders, both formal and informal; Moses' model of leadership development in that vein; the traditional view that character is the critical qualification for leadership; the essence of leadership development as relational; and practice guidelines. (4 pp.) [YITRO]
Moses Tripped on a Rock and Couldn't Make It to the Promised Land—Offers a Torah-based account of Moses as a leader when he failed to follow God's instructions, relating the consequences, and affirming timeless rules of leadership responsibility and accountability. (5 pp.)
A New Leadership Recruiting Poster—Introduces the idea that congregational leadership development requires focusing not primarily on recruiting methods but on the substance of leadership roles, and that Joseph offers a model of leadership qualities. (2 pp.) [MIKEITZ]
On Jewish Congregational Leadership—Reflections on leadership, focusing especially on appropriate aspects of leaders' character. (2 pp.)
Renewal of Rabbinic Leadership—Explores links between (a) abandonment of daily religious practice and declining participation in congregational life, and (b) challenges to rabbinic leadership, particularly to widen the circle of religious and spiritual leaders and to make Torah and Judaism more relevant to the day-to-day pressures and hopes of congregants. (4 pp.)
Rules for Killing Congregations—Updated and expanded list of tongue-in-cheek rules for killing congregational community organizations. (3 pp.)