Sublime

Shimen has no interest in justifying his stringencies or his leniencies, or in convincing others to accept them. He’s completely comfortable in his own skin. He has no interest in sugarcoating Judaism to make it more palatable to those of refined taste. In fact, since for him Judaism is defined by tradition, the very idea of “fixing” it is inherent

the vision of Empowered Judaism is no dream—it is a fledgling reality they can connect to and help build.

When my wife and I decided to marry, I thought that we’d just join a Unitarian church, where we could celebrate all kinds of holidays. But the rituals and rest and beauty of Shabbat—the wisdom of Shabbat—made me want to be a Jew.

Independent minyanim are communities formed by Empowered Jews; Yeshivat Hadar is a community that models and teaches how to become an Empowered Jew.

a Judaism that trusts in the power of communal prayer and refuses to settle for mediocre attempts at connecting to God.

Your very existence—both as an individual Jew-by-choice and as part of a historic influx of new Jews—challenges deeply held but unexamined assumptions about Jewish identity and about Jewishness, which is also referred to as Yiddishkeit. For those who understand Jewishness as an ethnicity, converts present an interesting dilemma.

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

The options are these: become an academic, a rabbi, or Orthodox.