Topic: Jewish Intentional Communities

Dear Hakhel Communities, In this week’s parsha, we read the famous story of two brothers, Jacob and the elder Esau, sons of Isaac. Jacob convinces Esau to sell him his birthright in exchange for a pot of lentil stew, and under advisement from his mother, Rebecca, he tricks his father into believing that he is Esau by dressing in furs in order to resemble his hairy brother, thus gaining his father’s blessing for his firstborn. Strife in families – never mind in communities! – rings quite realistically, from historically until the present day. We all have many types of people in our communities, from hunters and scholars, to mothers and fathers, and a whole range of emotions, from jealousy and rivalry to hate, loyalty and love, are present at any given moment. How do you accommodate the needs of such a parade of humanity in your own community? How do you solve conflicts that arise in the community, from minor grievances to those frightful moments where, as Esau did after this incident, members want to kill (figuratively and literally) each other? The fact that these familiar and complicated community issues are discussed in the Torah may offer us a sense […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, I hope you had a wonderful chagim season filled with beautiful community, spiritual moments, and important new beginnings on a personal and collective level. Speaking of new beginnings, Simchat Torah marks the start of reading the Torah anew, and we continue this week with the story of the righteous Noah (Noach) and the ark he built to prepare for a global flood. As community leaders we can likely relate to Noach, who spends a copious amount of time (120 years, according to Rabbinic tradition!) preparing for this big event, when he was to make two of every kind of animal in existence feel at home. This in fact proved to be a taxing task, as during the entire year spent in the ark during the flood, Midrash relates that Noach and his sons were sorely overworked, spending all their time feeding the animals according to each one’s personal specifications. It seems Noach’s conscientious efforts paid off, as after the flood, God made a covenant with Noach and his descendants, symbolized by a rainbow. A midrash relates that during those long 120 years of preparation, God designed Noach’s ark-building as a strange project that would attract attention – […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, While it may be extremely hot in your part of the world, or extremely cold if you’re in a different part, Hakhel has remained in motion this past month. Some recent highlights include OLAM’s release of a report on Jewish organizational work in Ukraine, in which Hakhel is featured, as well as our participation in the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA) conference in Skanderborg, Denmark (see more on both below). At the same time, we as Hakhel Intentional Communities are synced inextricably with the Jewish calendar, it should be noted that we are currently in the Three Weeks, an annual Jewish mourning period, with Tisha B’Av coming soon (it’s Sunday, August 7). We mourn many disasters that befell our People, most prominently the destruction of the Temple. This terrible event is traditionally attributed to sinat chinam (baseless hatred) between Jews. How can we work as intentional communities on the baseless hatred that currently fills our polarized world and replace it with trust, security and a sense of love of fellow Jews and humankind? Nigel Savage, former CEO of Hazon, shared with me recently some implications of Tisha B’Av for the environmental movement, which I feel are relevant […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, It’s hard to believe that it was a month ago that Hakhel community leaders gathered together in Israel for our Trip & Summit! We toured Israeli intentional communities for in-depth learning; and gathered at the Summit to learn and dialogue together, celebrate Shabbat and discuss Israel-Diaspora relations, and build connections with one another. Following these experiences, we took practical tools and insights about community-building back to our home communities. Some of these are summarized in this newsletter for the benefit of all, including those who weren’t able to join us in Israel. The 5 Pillars of Hakhel which were addressed during the Summit and which will continue to be Hakhel’s focus areas are: Community Development and Building Leadership Development Jewish Life and Literacy Israel Connection JOFEE (Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Experiences) According to the exit survey following the Summit, the overall experience was quite popular, with a rating of 5/5 by 63% of respondents and 4/5 by 30%. 53% responded 5/5 that they will utilize what they gained, and 36% responded 4/5. In other feedback, we heard that we shared very relevant tools and practices to take back; that it was great to have real […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, We wish you all, your families, and your communities, a Chag Pesach Sameach! Passover is the holiday of freedom. We tend to think of ourselves as free people living in free societies, at least most of us. And yet, global events which are totally beyond our control have direct and intimate impact on our lives: the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Climate Change and more. How are we to maintain our own freedom, and the freedom of those around us, with so many constraints imposed on us?  Well, building strong and resilient communities is obviously one step in the right direction. This Passover, we invite all of us in the Hakhel network to think: In what ways can we utilize our communities to narrow uncertainty and broaden autonomous choice? We wanted to share with you a text written by Nir Geva, Machon Kehilot – Hakhel Europe, which relates to the story of immigration, refugees, and the journey in the story of the Exodus, and tells it through the challenges of today’s world and the hope for better days. And you shall tell your son and your daughter… That sometimes people Take the wandering stick in their […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, I hope you and your community celebrated a very happy Purim! We are now in the lull between Purim and Pesach (always shorter than you think!), but that doesn’t mean there’s an end to the work to be done.  One thing that should be top of your to-do list is signing up for the Hakhel Israel Trip and Summit, taking place from May 9-15 in Israel. We may be fewer, due to the war in Europe, but we are strong as communities and as a network, and we are here to carve out the next phase of this work in person together even in hard times.  Please sign up and have your community members sign up. Registration ends on March 31. See below for more details. Our own efforts have been focused on supporting our communities in Ukraine at this terrible time – through sending Hakhel delegations and thousands of dollars of medical supplies and food. Read on below for more info about these efforts and how you can help. In this week’s parsha, Shemini, we see a lot of divine activity – a fire issues from G-d to consume offerings on the altar, G-d’s presence comes […]

Dear Hakhel Communities, This week, we will read in the Torah portion Vayeitzei about Jacob’s Ladder. As Jacob is running away from Esau, he stops to rest and has a powerful dream about a ladder, with angels ascending and descending. What did it mean? The ladder served as the infrastructure of a connection between Heaven and Earth. With a not insignificant exertion of effort, for instance through prayer – or perhaps even through community-building – it becomes possible both to ascend and reach Heaven, and also to descend to bring its teachings back to Earth.  In what ways do you feel that you, as a community leader, are acting as a kind of bridge between Earth and some aspect of Heaven – either the teachings of the Torah, Judaism, or some essence of the Divine?  Midrash Rabbah teaches that Jacob’s dream is actually a premonition of receiving Torah at Mount Sinai, as the gematria (numeric value) of the letters of the Hebrew word sulam (ladder) is the same as that of the word Sinai. In this sense, Jacob is a visionary whose dream predicts the founding of this wandering Jewish people as a nation at Sinai. What dreams or visions […]