Ikar – The spirit of Jewlicious Festival everyday?

I spoke with Rabbi Brous earlier today.  We had an appointment to talk, made at the suggestion of Rabbi Yonah. 

I have to admit, as much as I was (am/will be??) frustrated by the few misdirected individual reactions to Jewlicious, I am energized by Rabbi Brous’s writings, a sample of which follow: 

“If we are to live religious lives of purpose and meaning, we must be willing to take risks, to engage new ideas, to stretch ourselves. We do this not with arrogance, but with deep humility. We do this not because newness is fundamentally more worthy; we innovate in an effort to make our religious lives real, authentic and compelling rather than allow them to become echoes of something that once spoke to our ancestors…”

“…We need to have the courage to say that there is no authentic religious life without a deep sense of responsibility in the world. No longer can we relegate the conversation about the pursuit of justice and human dignity to Mitzvah Day and the Social Action Committee. Our challenge is to make demonstrably clear that decisions about what we eat not only impact our relationship with God and the Jewish people, but also cultivate a gratitude and wakefulness that makes it impossible not to think about those who have nothing to eat. Our unique mandate is to prioritize kashrut and hunger, Shabbat and fair labor laws, the problems of the individual soul and the problems of global poverty. A person’s ritual observance should directly inform her engagement in the world. This is not ethical humanism or liberalism – it’s just Judaism.” 

Rabbi Brous – Judaism, Summer/Fall 2005.  Read it.  http://www.ikar-la.org/documents/JoyAndJeopardy_Judaism.pdf

While I’ve taken the comments out of their context, they give a lot to think about.