Ariel Evan Mayse

Fellow on Environmentalism

Working with Broken Vessels: Spirituality, Activism, and Climate Change

"Global climate change, manifest in extreme weather events and staggering loss of biodiversity, is the greatest moral and existential crisis of our day." 

Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies and serves as the rabbi-in-residence at Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute (atiqmakers.org). Previously he was the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har'el in Israel. He is the author of Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of the Maggid of Mezritsh (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), and co-editor the two-volume A New Hasidism: Roots and Branches (Jewish Publication Society, 2019) with his teacher and colleague Arthur Green. Mayse is working on a forthcoming monograph examining the relationship between spirituality and law from the dawn of Hasidism to the eve of the twentieth century.

Through a deep-dive into the teachings of Jewish mysticism, this ten-week fellowship for high-school students offers participants a vocabulary for thinking beyond the values of carbon capitalism, the insular epistemologies of scientism, technological determinism, and the extractive approach to the non-human world that dominate our economic and social systems. "The ecological crisis,” writes Mary Evelyn Tucker, “is also a crisis of culture and of the human spirit. It is a moment of reconceptualizing the role of the human in nature.” The aim of this fellowship is to work towards such renewal of the human spirit through constructive, creative, and courageous engagement with the vast sources of Jewish mysticism. Apply here!

The core of our fellowship, sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Society, will be weekly text-study sessions (on Zoom), each highlighting a range of Jewish mystical sources and spiritual practices on a particular theme. Participants will be expected to read these sources, supplied in both Hebrew and in English, and to prepare them in advance of our meetings. To that end, each student will participate in weekly paired (hevruta) study with another fellow.

Students will also be expected to take part in a public-facing conference on ecology and Jewish spirituality in the Spring, serving as hosts, respondents, and organizers (date yet to-be-determined).

Participants will also be given the resources to start a social action campaign in their community tackling a problem addressed by our sources.

The fellowship will launch in January 2023, and applications submitted by December 15th will receive priority. The weekly study-sessions are slated to take place on Wednesday at 5:00pm PT = 8:00pm ET.

Space is limited, so please apply here!

Ariel Evan Mayse                   

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University 

Rabbi-in-residence, Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute

Series Editor, Stanford Studies in Jewish Mysticism

Elaine Leeder

Fellow on Social Justice & Prison Reform

Jews, Prison and Spirituality: Jewish Values Behind the Walls

"Leeder has worked with men who have been incarcerated for life; she has seen the redemption and humanity that one rarely hears of about such people."

Elaine (Sneierson) Leeder is Social Science Dean Emerita and Professor Emerita of Sociology at Sonoma State University. She has 44 years of teaching experience, including working in prisons with convicted felons. Leeder was visiting scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a recipient of the Real Hero Award by the America Red Cross for her prison work. She has written six books, one of which MY LIFE WITH LIFERS: LESSONS FOR A TEACHER, HUMANITY HAS NO BARS, is used in colleges around the country.  Leeder (a very distant relative of the Rebbe) is honored to be included in this panel since being a Jew and her prison work are core pieces of her identity.

My proposed project would entail contacting synagogues throughout California, and then the rest of the country to present the following power-point presentation to their congregants. The presentation could be either on zoom or in person, depending on the location of the synagogue. I would attempt to do at least one a month for the one year duration of the fellowship.

1. Introduction: Background as child of Holocaust refugee; Jewish upbringing and values inculcated
2. Interest in understanding the nature of evil and why one perpetrates violence
3. Background on Jews in prison 
4. A colorful history of Jews in prison
5. Case examples of Jews I have worked with
6. Stories of groups I have run with Jews
7. Stories of victim/offender dialogues I have done with Jewish participants
8. Restorative Justice as it relates to Jewish values.
9. Discussion on Rebbe Schneerson’s writings on prisons and how they impact those incarcerated.

8. What Jewish values have I seen in my work

1. Tzedek (Justice and injustice in the prison system)
2. Chesed (grace and compassion)
3. Teshuvah (the return of inmates to their earlier, pre-incarceration selves)
4. Uniqueness
5. Caring for the Stranger
6. The infinite value of each human life

Questions and Discussion

For the past twenty-five years Elaine (Sneierson) Leeder has been working in prisons in NY and California. First as a professor, then a self-help group trainer and now as a victim/offender dialogue facilitator Leeder has worked with men who have been incarcerated for life; she has seen the redemption and humanity that one rarely hears of about such people. Leeder has worked with Jewish prisoners and will tell you about her experiences with these Jews but also about how her Jewish values inform and influence her work. She will elaborate on Rebbe Sdchneerson’s writings on people in prison and the impact that has on their self-development.

Testimonials

Dr. Elaine Leeder recently came and gave a presentation about her work with people in the criminal justice system to about twenty of our members after church on Sunday. My own experience was matched by the many appreciative comments I received from others who attended: we were moved by her personal charisma, honesty, and empathy, and by the stories she shared of the relationships she has formed over many years with people during and after their incarceration. Her passion for this work, and for the humane and spiritual values that guide it, were inspiring to many of us. She also skillfully wove into her talk an informative analysis and critique of mass incarceration and criminalization as a social problem, while not minimizing the impact of crime on victims, nor the degree of risk, time, and effort that real healing and reconciliation demand. Overall, the presentation managed to be sobering and hopeful at the same time.

Once again, it was great to have you here—thank you for coming and for all your good work.

Blessings,

The Rev. Daniel Currie Green

St. John’s Episcopal Church

40 Fifth St., Petaluma, CA 94952

(707) 762-8872

rector.episcopal.petaluma@gmail.com

www.saintjohnsepiscopalpetaluma.org

To Whom It May Concern, 

I invited Dr. Elaine Leeder to appear on my Shrink Rap Radio Psychology podcast. The episode was titled, “Dr. Elaine Leeder on Restorative Justice and Spirituality In Prison Volunteer Work” and was published on March 8, 2023. The podcast is published weekly and and received an award from The American Psychological Association for its innovative contributions. The podcast is in its 17th year and has listeners in more than 100 countries. The interview with Dr. Leeder is also on The Internet Archive and will be available for many years to come. So far, Dr. Leeder’s remarkable and inspiring presentation has had 5,707 listens and that audience will grow as time goes on. In addition, I put the interview with Dr. Leeder on our Shrink Rap Radio YouTube channel. She is an accomplished presenter and it’s one of our best episodes ever. Moreover, a number of other podcast services republish our content, making the reach of her message even wider.

Sincerely,

David Van Nuys PhD 

Eric Stern

Arts & Events

Eastside Jewish Commons

eric@ejcpdx.org

June 7, 2023

To Whom It May Concern,

Eastside Jewish Commons is a dynamic arts and culture space that serves the Portland Jewish Community. Last month Elaine Leeder gave a presentation on Jews, Prison and Spirituality that was very well received by our cohorts. As arts and events curator I also attended the event and was very impressed by the content. While the concept of Tikkun Olam can be applied broadly, Elaine made it very clear its iteration in our prison system and ultimately showed how hopeful Jewish values can be when engaged with in seemingly hopeless situations.

She is an adept presenter, funny and compassionate and informative, and listened carefully and responded fully to the many questions that emerged that night from her presentation. Overall I felt that this program not only sparked conversation around Jewish values and their place in our greater society but also activated community members to follow-up on these ideas, and now there is talk here about having a community forum ourselves around these issues. This is precisely the kind of programming that we try to offer, something that not only informs and engages, but sparks action to align and re-center our community towards looking at issues through a Jewish ethical lens and informing action through those same ethics. This was a very successful night and we would welcome Elaine Leeder back to our community anytime.

Sincerely,

Eric Stern,

Arts & Events Curator

Eastside Jewish Commons

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to share about our recent experiences with Dr. Elaine Leeder, and her deeply moving program “What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Like You Doing in a Place like This?”.

The JCRC was proud to help connect Dr. Leeder to do programming with Temple Solel for its rabbi’s monthly Lunch-and-Learn series.

Dr. Leeder’s program was both poignant and powerful. She spoke movingly about her experiences with incarcerated populations, including from the Jewish community. Her discussion was equal parts informative, educational and emotional. There were multiple occasions where I, and other participants, shed tears over the power of her lecture–as it wove Jewish concepts of forgiveness and teshuvah into the carceral system.

We have been pleased to continue to connect Dr. Leeder with the Arizona Jewish Lawyers Association for a further program, and we look forward to hosting her in-person in Arizona for a future program.

We thank you for your support of Dr. Leeder’s powerful program, and platform to bring such innovative topics to our community. On a personal note, Dr. Leeder has been a wonderful partner to work with, showing flexibility and patience on the creation of community programming.

Sincerely,

Paul Rockower 

Don Seeman

Fellow for Education

Hinnukh: From Halakha and Habituation to Critical Thinking and Spirituality

While modern writers translate Hinnukh simply as education, it had a much more specific meaning in halakhic sources, where it refers specifically to the obligation of parents (or just fathers according to some views) to habituate their minor children into the performance of mitzvot. Though seemingly simple, this obligation raises many questions both practical and philosophical. 

Don Seeman is an anthropologist (Ph.D. Harvard 1997) who holds a joint appointment in Religion and in the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. All of his scholarship—from his ethnography of Ethiopian-Israelis to his textual studies of Maimonides and of Hasidism during the Holocaust— is motivated by the attempt to understand and describe the existential contexts and meaning of religious experience in all its forms. Don is the founding co-chair of the Emory Forum for the Ethnographic Study of Religion. He co-edits the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion book series at Palgrave-Macmillan, and serves on the editorial boards of both Prooftexts and the new open-access Journal of Contemplative Studies. He promotes a truly interdisciplinary approach to the ethnographic and textual study of religion.

Part 1 Halakha/technical questions

1. Hinnukh for Negative Commandments?

While modern writers translate Hinnukh simply as education, it had a much more specific meaning in halakhic sources, where it refers specifically to the obligation of parents (or just fathers according to some views) to habituate their minor children into the performance of mitzvot. Though seemingly simple, this obligation raises many questions both practical and philosophical.  One of the most important writers on this topic, not surprisingly is Maimonides. On the level of Jewish law his view is decisive (though often misunderstood) on questions like whether parents must habituate their children into the observance of prohibitions or just positive commandments and if the latter, which positive commandments? I think it can be shown that Maimonides harmonizes his halakhic and philosophical sources to conclude (unlike the way he is often read by later interpreters) that while the rabbis required the habituation of children into certain positive commandments (tefillin, sukkah, etc.) they actually left the enforcement of prohibitions entirely to parental discretion (i.e. there is no Hinnukh obligation in mitzvot lo ta’aseh).  Why would this be, and what does it teach us about the relative weight of positive and negative habituation according to the Jewish tradition? Why do so many later authorities seem to misread Maimonides on this matter even though he is in agreement with most Rishonim and with the simple reading of the Talmud? Would Maimonides’ view change the way we do Jewish education in schools, synagogues, and families?

1. Hinnukh at the Passover Seder: A limit case.

The Passover Seder is often considered the educational event par excellence in Jewish life, so it may seem strange to ask about limitations on the mitzvah of Hinnukh at the seder. We do find however differences of opinion about what such limits might entail.

As a case study, the Passover Seder helps to illustrate the difference between Hinnukh as habituation to the commandments and the separate mitzvot of Talmud Torah and Haggadah. It also illustrates differences of opinion among poskim about the nature and limits of Hinnukh obligations.

Modern poskim such as Mishneh Brurah and Arukh Ha-Shulkhan suggest that children should fulfill all of the mitzvot of the seder to the extent possible. For instance, they should be given small, child sized cups of wine. This is contrasted to the view of Rambam, who mentions Hinnukh only with respect to a child who is able to eat a single kezayit of matzah (perhaps because there is Hinnukh for matzah but not korban pesah?). He does not mention anything about children receiving bitter herbs or four cups of wine or telling the story (as opposed to asking questions which seems to enable the father to perform his commandment of ‘you shall tell your child on that day’).

This case illustrates some of the ways in which Maimonides’ view differs from that of other/later poskim. For Maimonides, Hinnukh is a mitzvah imposed by the rabbis only in the case of particular positive commandments, each of which is mentioned separately in rabbinic literature and, subsequently, in the Torah. A mitzvah that a child cannot perform in the manner they should observe it as an adult (drinking a full shiur of wine for example) is exempt from Hinnukh in that mitzvah. As for bitter herbs, commentators differ as to whether Maimonides omits this because eating a large quantity of bitter herbs would be harmful to children [like fasting at too young an age] or because, in the absence of the korban, there is no independent mitzvah of bitter herbs.

As for the korban pesah this passage needs to be read carefully. Rambam holds that a boy who can walk should accompany his father to har habayit mishum Hinnukh, but otherwise never mentions Hinnukh with regard to the sacrifices. Perhaps because children do not have their own property to contribute or because the mitzvah applies to the household rather than the individual [Hannukah candles pose a similar conundrum and are not mentioned by him in the Hinnukh context].

1. Marriage, Women’s Education and the Question of Delayed Mitzvot

In Hilkhot Teshuvah Maimonides writes that the love of God is dependent on knowledge and difficult to attain. Therefore he says, women, children and most men need to be habituated (Hinnukh) to serve God from fear until such time as their intellect increases so that they can serve from love.

Is this a figurative use of the term Hinnukh or does he mean it literally? I think he means it literally and this raises the question of Hinnukh for delayed mitzvot which cannot, for one reason or another, be performed as soon as a person comes of age. Such mitzvot include the love of God, the study of Torah (with which it is closely related) and, I would argue, marriage.

This view is important to understand in its own right but also helps to explain why writers like R Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe did not actually think there is a prohibition on women studying Talmud, as is often claimed. A close reading of Maimonides shows that their approach is less radical than has sometimes been claimed. The question of delayed mitzvot is also related to how we might think about adult education for both men and women in the modern age.

Part II: Educational Thought and Philosophy of Education

1. “For man is born a wild ass”: Hinnukh and the Conditions of Creativity

Several traditional authors are concerned with the relationship between habituation to the commandments and the attainment of independent intellect or spirituality. Though they each take very different approaches, Maimonides, the Piasezcno Rebbe and the Sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch each devote considerable thought to this issue. Given the signal importance of habituation, how can children (and adults for that matter) also be ushered into their own engagements with intellect and spirituality? Are any of their ideas applicable to broader communities? How do we balance the need for continuity and change?

1. Hanokh Le-No’ar al pi Darko: The secret history of a biblical phrase.

This verse from Proverbs is often treated as a self-evident teaching about the meaning of Hinnukh. However, it is only mentioned once in the Talmud and not in the context of the what the Rabbis call Hinnukh at all.  It is mentioned only in the context of marrying off and influencing one’s adult children, and is also cited only once by Maimonides, in the context of optional enforcement of prohibitions. It is fascinating to note that the history of interpretation of this verse shifts radically around the time of the GRA. In earlier commentaries, the verse is almost always used to mean that children need to be habituated to do things the right way while they are young. From the GRA onwards, many readers think it means that educators need to take account of the specific abilities and interests of each individual child. What can we learn from the tension between these two meanings both of which may have relevance to contemporary educational contexts?

Aharon Lavi

Fellow for Community

The Jewish world still lacks a significant and professional go-to-place for community building.  This project aims to bridge this gap.

The Jewish world still lacks a significant and professional go-to-place for community building. On top of this, little to no work has been done to excavate insights, concepts and tools that Judaism as a whole, and Hassidut more specifically, can bring to this field. This project aims to bridge this gap."

Aharon Ariel Lavi is the founder and director of Hakhel: The Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, at Hazon. Lavi is a serial social entrepreneur and a professional community organizer, who believes that networks are key to shaping our reality. He founded his community in Shuva in Israel, the Nettiot network and was also Co-founder of MAKOM: the national umbrella organization of intentional communities in Israel. In 2020, Hakhel was awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize, by the President of Israel. Lavi is also a thinker who believes Judaism can inspire and inform all walks of life, and vice versa. He holds Rabbinic Semicha, as well as academic degrees in Economics, Geography and History and Philosophy of ideas. He writes his dissertation on migration of ideas between US Jewry and the Israeli society. He was a fellow in several research institutions in Israel and wrote extensively on Judaism and economics, environmentalism and other issues.

It seems like there was never a challenging period for communality like ours. Loneliness was recently defined as an epidemic, one of the most severe epidemics of our generation, even before Covid-19. A study published by Harvard University found that loneliness is not just an unpleasant feeling, but a real health risk factor. Loneliness leads to high levels of stress, which in turn causes a higher risk of heart disease than physical inactivity and is almost as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.

Loneliness, or rather "social capital” in professional terminology, can also be measured. Surveys in the field examine the composition of individuals' social networks, the strength of relationships, access to social capital, its actual use, and more.

Of course, one can fight stress by artificial means, such as various psychiatric medications, and one can also rely on social media, but it is not certain that these can solve the problem. It is more likely that the natural mechanisms will be more successful in achieving this, and that the best way to deal with this problem is to simply prevent it. Some hope that the government will solve this problem (too), and indeed some governments are trying to do so, such as the UK government that set up the world's first governmental Ministry for Loneliness in 2018, after it was found that close to a quarter of the population suffers from loneliness. And yet, the old-school natural means are still the most effective in dealing with the loneliness crisis. At the top of this list is the community.

Communities, Identity and Purpose

A Hasidic tale tells of a Rebbe who used to dip in the river every morning. One day, the new local policeman saw him diving into the frozen river. He ran to the strange old man, shouting, "Who are you? Where do you come from? And where are you going to?" The old Rebbe smiled gently and asked the policeman: "How much do they pay you?" "Ten Kufeykas a day", answered the baffled young man. "I'll tell you what", said the Rebbe, "I'll pay you twenty if you come every morning and ask me who I am, where do I come from and where I am going to.”

Human beings are dynamic and ever evolving creatures, and just like our muscle system becomes atrophied if it is not stimulated enough, so does our moral and intellectual systems.

Hence, it is crucial we get asked those questions constantly. We could create a mobile app to do that, but I argue that communities are the optimal environment for challenging our character and preserving our identity, i.e. becoming the better version of ourselves. This sentence may ring a bell as a common catch phrase among "Millennials", meaning people born after 1982 (and came of age at the turn of the millennium). Many see Millennials as a challenge to be addressed, especially in the Jewish context which is worried of diminishing engagement and affiliation.

The challenge is that a growing proportion of young Jews disengage with traditional Jewish structures, and this is true outside the Jewish world as well. This demographic is the fastest growing one, and it is rich with inspiring leaders with the potential to reshape the landscape of Jewish life, and society as a whole. Since the need for community is a deep and inherent human one, it should not come as a surprise that hundreds of new communities have sprouted throughout the world in recent years.

One idea that has been tested successfully in Israel, and through Hakhel in other countries, is Intentional Communities. An Intentional Community is a small and non-hierarchical group of people who have consciously decided to live together spatially and temporally around a shared purpose. In this sense, an intentional community can serve as a framework for both individual growth and moral behavior, as well as give people the opportunity to work collaboratively to make the world a better place.

However, it takes a surprising amount of hard work to build and sustain such communities. In fact, on average only two out of every 10 attempts are successful. Experience from the field has shown that these odds can be significantly increased by providing communities with professional mentors, training, and a global network of peers. While a lot has been written on community building, and there are many different tools scattered out there, the Jewish world still lacks a significant and professional go-to-place for community building. On top of this, little to no work has been done to excavate insights, concepts and tools that Judaism as a whole, and Hassidut more specifically, can bring to this field. This project aims to bridge this gap.