Self at the Center

Like many Sh’ma issues, this one evolved from a fascination with and an exploration of a trend — in this case, the selfie trend of snapping photos of oneself and sending them out via social media — to questions about how much we insert ourselves or hold back when we are engaged in the creative process. »

Cultivating Spiritual Intensity

The many different meanings of spirituality are the focus of this issue. »

Nobal Ideals

This issue was inspired by the question of how to live not only with ideals and passion and hope, but also with an acknowledgement that ideals can often become tarnished. Article authors explore hope and despair in literature and liturgy. Others reflect on a wide range of ideals–love and marriage, socialism, Zionism, messianism, and global restoration.

Includes articles by Lawrence Bush, Wendy Zierler, Elisheva Goldberg, Jay Michaelson, Tony Michels, Aaron David Miller, Michelle Friedman, Mona DeKoven Fishbane, Nigel Savage, Richard Hirsh, Martin Kavka, Alina and Jeff Bliumis, Susan Goldberg, Carnie Burns, Minna Bromberg, Matt Bar, and Aurora Mendelsohn. »

Settled and Unsettled

The editor sought out writers for this issue who would think personally about how their lives have fit — or not fit — into certain trajectories. She asked them to explore how they’ve pulled away from those certainties, and how, perhaps, they have understood and grounded their decisions (or indecision) in Jewish terms. »

China, Israel, and Judaism

The relationships between Jews and China and, more recently, Israel and China have deep historical roots. But what justifies the theme of this issue today is the growing importance of China to Israel and the increasing connections — economically, culturally, educationally, and even diplomatically — between Jews and Chinese. Shalom Salomon Wald builds on his seminal 2002 essay that created awareness of the growing importance of China as a global power. Sam Chester updates the narrative of the recent interactions between China and Israel and focuses on the complexities that will shape China’s role in the Middle East and on the broader world stage. Vera Schwarcz underscores the mutual fascination between our two peoples, as well as the necessity of gaining an honest understanding of the guiding principles that unite and separate the Jewish and Chinese people. Lihong Song may surprise readers with his account of the impressive, high-level academic interest in China about Judaism and Jewish history, particularly in a nation that officially eschews an association with communities based on faith. Ho-Mou Wu illuminates the rapidly changing face of China’s domestic and international economic goals, which are important to understand, given China and Israel’s growing trade relations. Tsameret Zohar and Alex Pevzner, Israelis with longtime residency in China, are back in Israel trying to build bridges between the two nations. Manuela Zoninsein examines how Israel might help China with sophisticated agricultural techniques and innovative uses of water, energy, and technology in order to address its serious environmental and population dilemmas. Alternatively, Yiyi Chen, a leading biblical scholar and pioneer in peace studies, challenges us to consider the potential role of China in securing peace in the Middle East. And Jonathan Adelman asks us to consider whether China can and will play a meaningful role with Iran. »

Individualism and Empathy

Every day, we are faced with choices about how to be good participants in the world, in our country, in our neighborhood, and in the Jewish community. This issue of Sh’ma explores empathy: when and why it gets triggered in our hearts and brains and what it takes to make us into more compassionate and caring individuals. It also explores a related question: What does it mean to be a compassionate society in an America built on an ethos of rugged individualism? How can we reconcile that American ethos with a Judaism that insists on our knowing the heart of the stranger? There are many definitions of individuality–and our writers understood our questions and guidelines in distinctly individual ways–and, of course, there are myriad ways to be empathetic. »

The Meanings of the Kotel

The Wall (Hebrew: Kotel) is 187 feet in length and 62 feet in height, a fraction of the 1,600 foot-long remnant of the Second Temple. This collection of stones has been, time and again, the focal point of great contention: in 1929, when riots erupted there that sent shockwaves throughout the Jewish world, and today, as Women of the Wall demands ritual equity at this site. The Wall is simultaneously a spiritual oasis, a place for reverence and prayer, and a fraught symbol, a flashpoint for anger and recrimination. How truly significant a symbol should this Wall be in Judaism and Jewish life? Is the Wall, post-1967, more about Jewish nationalism than Jewish faith? Why has the battle waged by Women of the Wall (and countered by Women for the Wall) sparked such fierce reactions? This issue of Sh’ma examines these and other questions about the Wall’s history. »

Yom Kippur Liturgy

This issue of Sh’ma–which looks at the Yom Kippur liturgy–is designed to help us, individually and as a community, to focus on a fascinating and difficult ritual. The Avodah service, part of a special Yom Kippur musaf, is the ritual reenactment of the moment when the Kohen HaGadol, the High Priest, beseeched God for our atonement. It was the holiest moment of the holiest day of the year, in a place referred to as the holy of holies, and it is enacted by the holiest of our holy people, the Kohen HaGadol. It is then (and only then) that the High Priest utters God’s divine name and we, a prostrated people, are cleansed of our sins. We invite you to explore this amazing ritual as we examine the multiple meanings of the word “avodah”: work, service, and prayer. One essay explores the closeness of the Hebrew words for “work” and “slavery,” and another the porousness of work and the rest of life; several pieces reflect on how work, service, and prayer intersect in the course of our lives as avodat HaShem, (service to God), and avodah she’balev, (service of the heart). »

Leaders by Choice

This issue of Sh’ma focuses on Jews by choice who have assumed positions of leadership in Jewish life. While many Jews have been welcoming converts for decades, we now see emerging trends that show Jews by choice clearly influencing Jewish practice and community. In these a sociologist examines those trends; in other pieces, Jews by choice wonder about the process of transforming identity as they shed the self-definition “Jew by choice” for “I’m Jewish. »

Jewish Lens on Taxes

This issue of Sh’ma offers a Jewish lens on taxes. Taxes are much in the air these days, not only because of the proximity of April’s deadline, but also, of course, because of a raging – and, as some see it, confounding – national debate about taxes. Several essays explain taxes historically, beginning with Talmudic debates about who is responsible for the upkeep of the city’s walls, and how taxes must be collected to avoid corruption. Much of the issue roots taxes in a Jewish language of obligation, noting that taxes have always been assessed in order to meet communal responsibilities including care for those in need. »

Multidimensional Judaism

This issue of Sh’ma explores Jewish values–values of self, community, history, God, home, family, and relationships–that intersect, merge, or overlap. »

Works in Progress

This issue of Sh’ma focuses on works in progress–in writing and the arts, in parenting and growing older, in Torah, in nonprofit management, and in other parts of life. »

Social Movements

This issue of Sh’ma is pegged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the massive D.C. rally that propelled the Soviet Jewry movement into its final triumphant years. With that movement, arguably the most powerful of all social movements to shake the Jewish world in the last few decades, and its significant impact in mind (it resulted in 2 million people leaving the FSU), we tour a wide range of activist initiatives that have arisen and, in some instances, disappeared rapidly, such as Tel Aviv’s tent city of the summer of 2011. We examine what happens to a movement, such as “Save Darfur,” that experiences fatigue and loses momentum–even when the issues that launched it persist. We take a look at these and other movements to learn what they teach us about social organization, about change, and about their impact on contemporary Judaism. What are the movements of change that continue to capture the minds and attract the hearts of Jews? »

The Jewish Workplace

The Jewish communal sector, which began as a clannish consortium that sometimes felt more like a bad family dinner, later moved toward professionalization with a rush of Jewish communal service programs and degrees. Today, the Jewish communal sector is poised for its next leap forward. As it prepares to make that leap, we wanted to explore how the Jewish community treats some of its employees with the least leverage and support: Are the values we espouse in our mission statements aligned with our human resource policies? Are we fostering a work environment that spurs open conversation and growth? Is it one that inspires our best and most creative talent? Do leadership models lead to burnout and women stepping off the professional ladder? »

Communities and Synagogues

What place does the synagogue occupy in present-day Jewish life? This issue of Sh’ma offers a wide range of views about the future of the synagogue. Other kinds of congregating–micro-institutions once considered marginal, such as independent minyanim, ersatz prayer communities, and pay-for-fee Friday evening gatherings–have gained momentum, energy, and constituencies large enough to challenge the synagogue as the central address of Jewish ritual life. At a time of declining institutional affiliation (except among the Orthodox) and a growing list of questions–including what it means to “belong,” what relationship one has to authority, and how to create sacred communities for ends other than ritual–the once-hegemonic synagogue is facing a challenging future that demands redefinition. »

Lessons from the Book of Yonah

This issue of Sh’ma focuses on the Book of Jonah, which is read in synagogues on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. Several essays explore the theme of teshuvah (repentance), including Jonah’s complicated response to mercy and the search for justice. Jonah is often described as a reluctant prophet, and we include two essays that address prophecy, including one on how prophets can both distort and amplify the voices of democracy. Jonah’s experience of fleeing and then finding himself in the belly of the fish raises questions about incarceration, and we include the voice of a woman in prison for decades grappling with the text, her guilt, and forgiveness. We also include pieces that explore minor themes of the book: What can it teach us about gratitude and loneliness, for instance? One educator recounts the story of Jonah through a child’s imagination and another sees it through a teenager’s angst; a scientist suggests how we might understand ‘chance