Donald Meltzer Final Checkpoint

The speaker, an old-school Jew, discusses the pros and cons of digital Judaism. They appreciate how technology has democratized institutional religion and expanded the target audience. However, they also express unease about the loss of physical places and in-person communities. They share anecdotes about meeting fellow synagogue members for the first time due to online services and the benefits of participating in a daily online minyan. They argue that digital practices can enhance Jewish knowledge and identity. The speaker also addresses criticism of a two-year smicha program and emphasizes the importance of innovative thinking and broadening Jewish identity and practice. The opinions of others don't matter; it's what PRS rabbis think and do that will make a difference. Judaism Unbound, my final checkpoint podcast. The pros and cons of digital Judaism. At 66, and even one year into our innovative and pretty radical PRS Smicha program, I still consider myself a pretty old school Jew. What do I mean by that? I suppose I remain pretty comfortable with the traditions I've grown up with and raised my family with. Friday night dinners and prayers at home and actively participating in weekly in-person Shabbat services. Also, I'm not and have never been very comfortable with new technology in general. While I wouldn't say I'm a non-adopter, I'm more of a kicking and screaming adopter. I adopt new technologies when I essentially have no real choice but to do so. I now consider myself really doing something innovative by actually giving Siri voice commands. That said, there were many things I found compelling about the Judaism Unbound podcast with both Denise Han-Larsky of Secular Synagogue and Juan Mejia of Bechol Lashon. As a longtime interfaith married Jew, I've been pushing the boundaries of Jewish identity for more than 40 years. While expressing my Judaism in mostly very traditional ways within the traditional Jewish institutional world, I've also been working hard to rethink Jewish identity to express universal values that can speak to my religiously and racially diverse family, including our two adopted Asian sons, as well as my non-Jewish wife and her family. To me, both Han-Larsky and Mejia are wonderful examples of how the digital revolution has created a pathway to democratize institutional religion from the ground up, particularly in a religion like Judaism, where there is no required belief system necessary to be Jewish, as well as they've been radically expanding the target audience of active and committed Jews. But somehow, my old-school Jewish nature also leaves me a little uneasy with how unbounded Judaism can become if completely untethered to physical places and in-person communities. Two recent anecdotes come to mind. A few weeks ago, we were sitting at Kiddush Luncheon after services with a couple we had not met previously, despite our regular Shabbat attendance for two-plus years. They told us they were longtime members of our synagogue and were also surprised they hadn't met us before. Then they shared that since COVID, they had come to prefer participating in services on Zoom, and then regularly walked over from their home for luncheon when the cantor began Adon Alam. I can't really come up with strong reasons why I should find this problematic, but something about it didn't sit well with me. Here's a second digital practice anecdote where I actually came to the opposite conclusion. For about the past three months, I've been participating in our shul's daily online minyan, 30 to 35 minutes per day, including a five-minute Devar Torah, where leadership of daily prayers are led by different congregants and mourners are able to say Kaddish with a minyan. Since I've been attending, we've always had a minyan with a minimum of 12 to 13 people, which, by the way, is just few enough to encourage all participants to keep participating. About four to five of these people live a meaningful driving distance from the shul and probably wouldn't participate if the minyan was only in person, and maybe wouldn't participate if they didn't feel like full-fledged members of the group as hybrid participants. This group has been praying together for over four years, and it is obvious by the way we greet each other in person on Shabbat that this group is a meaningful and supportive community within our broader synagogue community. Another important benefit to me as a relatively new member of the synagogue from the minyan is that everyone's name is on the minyanaire's Zoom boxes, so being in the minyan has really helped me remember a whole new group of members' names and has even further helped me become an active member of the community. The only downside of this minyan practice is that we don't read Torah on Mondays and Thursdays, as we would if we were meeting in person. But essentially, the five-minute Divrei Torahs that we share probably create a more meaningful Torah mindfulness than rushing through the actual reading of the Torah, as so many minyans I've participated in seem to do. And this practice also enables more people to lead Torah participation without having the skill of leaning Torah. So, in the end, our Zoom minyan practice, created out of necessity during COVID, has actually increased, and I would argue improved, participation in Jewish knowledge and identity. In my year now of discussing PRS's innovative and accessible smicha program within the traditional Jewish world that I practice and do philanthropy, I have not infrequently heard comments like, how can that be a real smicha program if it only takes two years? Or, how can that be a real smicha program without needing to spend at least six months in Israel? Or, how can it be a real smicha program if Hebrew fluency isn't required? While I haven't heard it verbalized as such, I also suspect some people have that little thought bubble over their heads with the words, that's not a real smicha program. Donald is married to a non-Jew. I'm pursuing my smicha with PRS, at least in part, because it's forcing this old school Jew to think out of the box, to think innovatively and independently, and to ultimately use my smicha to walk in the world as a rabbi who both broadens and deepens Jewish identity and practice. It may not seem like that big a deal, but just truly understanding that a really positive Zoom minyan might actually be better because we're not reading Torah twice a week, is a start to walking that walk. Our minyan is a real minyan, just as PRS's smicha program is a real ordination program. What they think doesn't matter. It's what we think and do as PRS rabbis that will matter.