Worksheet to accompany "Values in Action Professional Development"

...Jewish worshipful community is not based on the intercession of a high priest alone but on the call of a child, the pleas of a young mother, the requests of a farmer, and the petition of an old woman. To deny them ...

“Leaders,” writes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in The Home We Build Together, “do not do the work on behalf of the people. They teach people how to do the work themselves.” These words offer an important perspective on this week’s ...

Moses, the iconoclast of Exodus, saw freedom where others saw slavery. He was able to control his fear response time and again under Pharaoh’s threats, and he was able to connect his message of salvation and justice to the ...

Confusion can be a technique leaders use to maintain control. Confusion can create dependency on leaders because their followers simply do not understand what is expected of them or fail to comprehend the situation ...

Yitro might best be described as recorded history’s first consultant. He is an outsider who pays a visit, observes Moses, and tells his son-in-law that he’s going about his business all wrong. Moses spends all day adjudicating ...

In his essay “Staying Young” on Vezot Ha’Bracha, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers us advice that could have been lifted straight from Jacob’s story: “Never compromise your ideals. Never give in to defeat or despair. Never stop ...

But Nahmanides, in his interpretation of our verse, adds that the root of “nasi” also means to lift up. The role of the leader is to lift up the follower. Perhaps the word also reminds us that leaders themselves need to ...

This week’s double Torah reading Vayakhel/ Pekudei has a lot to say about work and about when to stop work: “Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them: “These are the things that God has commanded ...

In this week’s sedra, we are challenged to grow, to learn, to change, and to become responsible. But it will take a long time. The expression “a sti -necked people” will make several more appearances in our Torah ...