This article appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward

Rabbis Focus on Professional Development

By Marissa Brostoff

Moses was probably an introvert.

That was one of the conclusions reached by the rabbis who gathered at a professional development seminar in Manhattan this summer. As part of the seminar, the rabbis took the Myers-Briggs personality test, which measures how introspective, intuitive and perceptive people are, to better understand how they operated in challenging workplace situations. Then they tried to predict how some of the founders of their company — and some of Judaism’s forefathers — would have fared on the same test.  

That rabbis can benefit from learning management techniques more commonly used in the corporate world is a central tenet of a new program called the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative, hosted by the Jewish Theological Seminary. This summer, 14 “mid-career” Conservative movement rabbis from around the country spent 10 days in New York immersed in a program that combined managerial training with more traditional forms of rabbinical study.

(more…)

When we first decided to come to Costa Rica on vacation, we did so for a number of reasons. We were told that we would be able to see the most amazing wildlife and breath-taking sights. We arrived here last week and everything has been exactly like we expected it to be. The monkeys swing out in full force every morning, and we can see them from our window, then we run into them again when we go to the beach later in the day. We have seen butterflies that seem to have been colored by the hand of God, the colors are not only vibrant but they are unlike any colors we have ever seen before! We were prepared for all of these, and we haven’t been disappointed.

(more…)

As many of you know, the past two years have been a time of incredible spiritual growth for me. I had always wanted to better understand the specific area in Halacha (Jewish Law) that deals with the writing of Gittin (a Jewish writ of divorce), which is so complicated that one needs absolute expertise to be able to understand it. (more…)

It’s been a great summer so far! Well, its been a little while since I posted something on my blog. The last couple of weeks have come and gone like a whirlwind. Usually summertime is a very slow time when it comes to Temple Beth Sholom.

For the most part during the last 10 years, the summer was the time that I used to carefully meditate on the upcoming High Holy Days and to begin thinking about my sermons. This summer has been a very different one — wonderful but different! (more…)