Rabbi Jill Zimmerman: We Thrive In Community
I decided to interview a person a week for a year and mentioned it to one of the rabbis who runs my monthly spirituality class. I told her how I believe we connect through our stories and I wanted to talk to different individuals over the course of a year to get their messages: to derive meaning and simply see where it takes me.
She proceeded to tell me that this was exactly what her rabbinical dissertation was about and I was free to read it (I didn’t even know they had rabbinical dissertations - I’m so uninformed.) After a bit of prompting I received the dissertation and found it fascinating. Despite my fears (too religious, too highbrow/over my head/can’t understand it, BORING, etc), I found it is an easy read and luckily all about people.
Of course she quotes from all the old stuff, like the torah, the mishnah and the like; I mean - she is a rabbi, lol!, but I also love her experiment. Check this out.
She was a Rabbinical intern at a prominent synagogue in Beverly Hills that was looking for ways to build community among members. She led a year-long project where members told their own personal stories of hope and difficult times to other members. As various members revealed themselves to others, the sense of connection, even among life-long members grew. People got to know about each other and the bonds grew. We find solace in community when a community recognizes the Divine in each person (Rabbi Soloveitchik).
It is one of the basic truths of the areas of the world where people live the longest, called the “Blue Zones” - we need community. We thrive in community. Isolation is not good for the soul. I found all of this fascinating, kinda what I'm looking/searching for, if you will.
From Rabbi Jill:
“The individuals belong to the community compliment one another existentially. Each individual possesses something unique, rare, which is unknown to others; each individual has a unique message to communicate, a special color to add to the communal spectrum. Hence, when a lonely man joins the community, he adds a new dimension to the community awareness. He contributes something which no one else could have contributed. He enriches the community existentially; Every person has something to contribute in this life. No one’s life is replaceable. Everyone matters.”
It would be great if we could all see each other this way.
“Judaism has always looked upon the individual as if he were a little world (microcosm). With the death of the individual, this little world comes to an end. A vacuum which other individuals cannot fill is left. The saying: Whoever saves one life, it is as if he had saved the entire world. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4, 5)”
Such beautiful sentiments, but it takes truly stopping and slowing down to take in. That’s probably why so many messages I get from the elders I interview are about putting down our phones. About truly connecting with others.
Now, as I revisit these messages, we are in quarantine from the Pandemic. Community is no less important and we’ve found new ways to stay in community. Zoom, face-time, Google hangouts and the like thrive as we find ways to connect. There are InstagramLive free classes, courses on happiness, free meditation and breath work, yoga, tai chi, cooking together, such a myriad of ways to keep connection while we “social distance.”
And here at home we completed our first Zoom Seder. Who’d have thought? I now take Angela’s class on Instagram Live and see others from my 9:30am class on there, too (along with people from all over the world which is just so cool). Angela smiling, cheering us on. I can actually see her happy face clearer and more close up from home then I can in class. And I don’t have the long commute. And the traffic. And to worry about parking. “You’ve got this. YOU’VE GOT THIS! You have everything it takes to make it through this. Who do you want to be when this pandemic ends?” Angela inspires us higher and greater. She’s named her new business AARMY based on community and constantly reminds us we’re in this together, that we are all community (as I’m pedaling and dying to keep up!)
So it’s the same message from Angela during the pandemic as before - it’s just being broadcast to me from my iphone. And Angela’s message is the same as Rabbi Jill Zimmerman’s about community. Angela’s even started bringing people in to “tell” their stories on Instagram a few times a week. Kinda reminds me of Rabbi Jill’s temple experiment.
Our souls need a place to breed and grow and someplace to expand. I'm hoping 52 Weeks of Hope gives that to anyone who needs it. We’re here. We’re listening. We’re cheering you on. We’re your pulpit, your bema, your stage. We are your community - because everyone needs community, just ask Rabbi Jill Zimmerman.
**Rabbi Jill Berkson Zimmerman is a rabbi-at-large and founder of Path With Heart who teaches around the country, works with people individually, and created the online Jewish mindfulness community Hineni, She also leads a local Jewish community in Orange County. She is a spiritual entrepreneur and activist who is devoted to helping people discover mindfulness through a Jewish lens. She works with the Orange County Jewish Coalition for Refugees and is a national activist on refugee issues. She is a columnist for the Jewish Journal, and writes a popular blog devoted to bringing compassion, justice and personal spirituality into the public conversation.
*** Angela has since opened up AARMY @AARMY Co Founder. And luckily always available On Demand https://www.aarmy.com/home Chief Motivation Officer| @Nike Athlete| Mom, Wife, Fitness Evangelist, Speaker
