Playing with Jewish Values, Literally

Sue Bojdak, a graduate of the MTEI Bay Area Cohort, reflects on a congregational challenge that led to a year-long experiment in play-based Jewish learning. Her essay below highlights how educational leadership can emerge through the MTEI principle of intentional community building, grounded in the concepts of “learner-centered experimentation” and “practice through doing.”

“Surely, this instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-14

How do we bring the teachings of Torah, our Jewish ethics and values, into our bodies so that the impulse to live a righteous Jewish life is so close that it’s instinctive? Like everything we learn, it takes practice, practice, practice. That is what we did at Congregation B’nai Tikvah (Walnut Creek, CA) in a year-long experiment that we called Playing with Jewish Values.

Read the full article here: Playing with Jewish Values