I posted this as a poll in the Whatapp group and am unsure how to do so here. Those interested in responding here could select an option and why they did so.
Would you be willing to significantly contribute in any capacity towards efforts to make a TIDE-oriented educational institution (or curriculum supplement) and/or physical community (likely in the Northeastern US given group membership) in the medium term (at maximum)?
A. Yes
B. No.
C. Maybe
D. I’ll sleep on it
E. I abstain
F. Other
I selected yes. While I have no great financial resources or Torah knowledge at my disposal, I would be willing to edit a curriculum supplement and potentially physically move to a TIDE-oriented community in the medium-term. I am going to start collecting Torah sources that promote Jewish Humanism/Universalism and turn it into a source book.
I appreciate your initiative. Honestly I have to select no. I am not planning to move from my current established community, have no kids in yeshiva, and have already too many demands on my time (including full-time work B"H)
I vote yes to the development of TiDE kehillas(communities) across the US. I would suggest that the realms of chochma that could pragmatically guide such a planning and development process include but are not limited to community organizing and development, intentional communities, and discipline-specific content areas for the various classes of institutions that would operate within a defined kehilla geographic scope. It might be possible to consider an incremental development process that proceeds from one or more institutional classes(shul, mikva, beis hakevoras, school, yeshiva, hospital, wellness center, farm, food manufacture, publishing, etc) in a given geography to a full-on kehilla. A development process might also look to consider inter-kehilla collaboration for mutual benefit especially in the realm of shared economies of scale that might provide beneficial cost management in food, health, and many other areas.
We would need money and publicity to even contemplate such an endeavor. Right now we don’t have either.
Aspirants for a planned program need to make a plan because without it, you will have no clue what you need financially and otherwise to get moving.
Funding is not required for a community planning exercise- though it never hurts to see if someone would fund a planning exercise.
The teva of hishtadlus for an embodied live functioning TiDE community begins with a development plan, an operational plan, and a financial plan. I am willing to help.
Posting this here, even though perhaps it should be in the community thread that seems to have picked up speed.
As was mentioned, delineating a game plan just requires time and willpower. Since The System does not really place value on values in the Brisk-dominated Yeshayahu Leibowitz Orthoprax-esque 21st century NJ/NY milieu, I can understand the argument that one can assume their children will get their values from the home. That’s where some sort of educational supplement could prove useful. Though given the length of the average yeshiva day, I am skeptical of its utility for the average middle-schooler/high schooler. This is part of why I am still convinced of the need for a physical community to ensure TIDEs continuity.
Forget about the complexities of building various institutions; How about slightly over a minyan-worth of like-minded individuals moving into the same neighborhood and making a Shabbos minyan? Starting this physical community in a (significantly cheaper!) neighborhood near an established community would ensure its growth. I have a few ideas about where this could be successful I could discuss with interested parties privately. As we know from development of the greater Monsey area, smaller outlying areas such as Haverstraw, Pomona, Chestnut Ridge (more recently Hillburn, and now even Suffern, Nanuet and Stony Point) often pick up speed after a few years once this threshold is met and basically succeed in maintaining their unique characters.
What happened to the willpower displayed by those willing to risk their lives to preserve Judaism in the USSR? What happened to the willpower that motivated people to repeatedly become unemployed to remain Shomer Shabbos? I heard not long ago from a prominent Wesley Hills-based Rabbi how inspired he was from his initial encounters with R’Yehuda Davis (a relatively unknown pioneer of American Orthodoxy with an amazing bio somewhere in Dr Levine’s site). He formulated his institutions in an era where this sort of goal was basically unheard of. This Rabbi saw how in the early days of the Mountaindale Yeshiva, R’Davis’ avreichim would live in simplicity with their families in trailers on-campus. Witnessing this commitment moved him and others to solidify their commitment to Torah learning, many of whom became prominent on the American Orthodox scene. Similarly (lehavdil), a good attorney would go all-out for his client to achieve his desired outcome.
We (R’Bechhofer excluded), by contrast, want to have our cake and eat it too. We use this forum and others to rail against the ills of our respective communities without taking the requisite, difficult steps that would make us, our families and peers inconvenienced and uncomfortable by doing what needs to be done to change the status quo.
So, we are ultimately all getting what we really want in the final analysis.