Parashat Terumah - Defining ourselves
Quick personal plug: i'm running the Great Manchester Run for charity: I'm doing it for a charity called 'Mind' who are a mental health charity, they try and provide better lives for people experiencing mental distress. If you are feeling charitable: support them through me: www.justgiving.com/benjigersh . pass on this info to anyone you know with a credit/debit card and a generous heart. Any amount will help, thanks people.
We, HDUK (and friends), are going to use this weeks parashah as an interactive project. Get involved.
If you fit into the friends category, don't be afraid to get involved, pass this e-mail around to people who you think would be interested, we would love the external contribution.
In red a two line summary of the parasha, and a project to get involved in
in blue is a resolution passed at this years veida
In this weeks parasha the Jews are told the different materials they need to use to make the sanctuary for god (the mishkan).
Moses is up on Mt. Sinai and getting instructions from god about how to put together the structure.
Defining Cultural Judaism:
We propose that HDUK puts out some kind of statement by Veida next year clearing up our position on Cultural Judaism. The statement will begin the process of explaining what CJ means to us as a movement and can also be used for external PR purposes. This statement can be in any form, for example, one sentence advertised on the website or an entire choveret.
The proposed statement will be presented to the first mazkirut meeting after it has been completed, then disseminated to each schichva and voted in as an ‘official’ movement document at the mazkirut meeting after that.
Eg.
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Proposed statement completed
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Proposed statement presented at mazkirut meeting
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Proposed statement shown to different shichvot and commented on
- Proposed statement brought to mazkirut meeting to be voted in as ‘official’
The proposers of this motion suggest that the document is revised as often as is necessary.
So in keeping with this weeks parasha, which suggests a structure for the future practise of the Jews, we need to begin defining what Cultural Judaism means to us as a movement, what we think it actually is, and this will clear up a lot of confusion within the movement - and it will also hopefully mean that our future events/chaggim/shabbatot have more meaningful content, because we will understand the collective direction we are heading in.
The point I am drawing from the parasha is that it was a collective responsibility, the Jews contributed certain things to make the mishkan. In keeping with our socialist ideals - no-one is forcing anyone to get involved, but the more people who shape the definition, the more representative the final product will be. And once we put together the 'mishkan' or structure, everything inside will be ours and will be great (hopefully)
so write in, let me know what you think Cultural Judaism is all about.
thanks & Shabbat Shalom
Benji |
