Sublime

in the twenty-first century—a Judaism that has been undersold and watered down. It is a Judaism where those who know its beauty are often unable or unwilling to connect to the larger Jewish community, and those on the front lines of the welcome wagon to Judaism have little skill or facility with Jewish texts to elucidate their beauty to others.

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.

Liberal rabbis often become sacred social workers, mainly focused on pastoral and lifecycle moments in their communities.

a dream of an intensive, passionate Torah environment for laypeople.

“Empowered Judaism.” This is a Judaism in which people begin to take responsibility for creating Jewish community, without waiting on the sidelines.

We are calling it a yeshiva to reclaim the cultural valence of the term—an intellectual and spiritual center where Torah radiates forth into the broader community, and the community feeds back into the yeshiva.

A man went looking for Rabbi Hillel and said to him, “I want to become a Jew. But only on the condition that you teach me the Torah, all of it, while I stand on one foot.” Hillel looked at this smart-aleck and said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire Torah—all of it. The rest is commentary. Go and study.”

They want to learn Hebrew, but there are not enough high-quality Hebrew classes. They are interested in basic Jewish knowledge but are unable to connect to synagogues. The Jewish community does not have the teachers and the leaders who can step forward to meet this need.

The problem is that the rabbis he respects were almost all murdered.