The Hebrew month of Elul, which begins this year at sundown Tuesday August 14, is known as the “Days of Awe.” These 29 days leading up to the Jewish New Year are meant to serve as a month of spiritual growth and contemplation. Traditionally, every morning of the month, the shofar is blown, to awaken our minds, bodies, and souls, in order to prepare for what many consider to be the holiest days of the year.

Craig Taubman, the Los Angeles-based Jewish singer/songwriter/producer, found meaning out of this month through “Jewels of Elul.” In its third year, Jewels of Elul III offers daily meditations for the month of Elul from a wide spectrum of sources.

From worldly sources of thought and spirituality, like Deepak Chopra and the Dalai Lama, to Jews of different ideology and observance, like Kirk Douglas and Matisyahu, Craig Taubman brings all these individuals together in order to show that we can all find meaning through self-reflection. The diversity of voices presented by Jewels of Elul III suggests that there are many different entryways into finding meaning and inspiration for the New Year.

Rabbi Yoel Kahn, the new senior rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, CA, recently filmed 15 brief segments posted on YouTube.com as a way for his new congregants to get acquainted with him. The segments include “Why He Became a Rabbi” and an especially inclusive message in “Sharing Our Jewish Life Stories” (click image to watch). We applaud Rabbi Kahn’s innovative approach to reaching his community via the World Wide Web.

JOI constantly advocates outreach that brings Judaism and Jewish community out to where the people are. So how do you get people to YouTube to watch videos of Rabbi Kahn? The main target audience is obviously those individuals already involved in Congregation Beth El, who can watch the videos to learn what the rabbi has to say about his vision for the future of Beth El and how to make it a welcoming, diverse community. But perhaps there are some folks on the periphery of the Jewish community who may simply stumble upon these YouTube videos. By “putting himself out there” so publicly, Rabbi Kahn will surely reach Jews beyond the synagogue’s current membership.

It is clear from the videos that Rabbi Kahn has an enjoyable persona and is comfortable in front of the camera. It is also clear that he is often talking directly to those who already have access to Congregation Beth El. We hope Rabbi Kahn will continue to make more such videos, but to speak to an even broader audience as well—those who may live nowhere near his congregation but that can still benefit from his teaching and his obvious enthusiasm for Jewish life and learning. To grow the Jewish community, we have to reach beyond those who have already entered the doors of our institutions. Rabbi Kahn’s videos show the potential for using the Internet to open the doors to the community and to welcome in all those who have yet entered its gates.

One of JOI’s main philosophies is to lower the barriers that make it hard for those on the periphery to engage in programs of the Jewish community. One of the biggest and toughest barriers to overcome is money. Finances often may be the determining factor in one’s participation and involvement. We understand that programs cost money, of course. As independent schools without government funding, Jewish day schools have the hardest time lowering “the money barrier.” The tuition of some schools nearly equals a state university.

Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh decided to do something about it for next year. This school lowered the financial barrier when it announced a new scholarship program last month that offers free tuition to students transferring from public schools. This school also understands that if you can get folks into the door and you have something worth paying for, people will want to pay for it in the future. But you have to get them in the door first. The Herman Lipsitz scholarship offers free tuition for two years for all students who transfer to the academy from public or non-Jewish private schools. Pittsburgh’s Jewish Chronicle explains:

The Lipsitz family had been making plans to establish a scholarship fund in Herman’s memory because of his concern that every Jewish child be given the opportunity to have a day school education. Hillel is not the first day school to offer an enrollment incentive. The Torah Academy of Minneapolis offers tuition vouchers of up to $5,000 to encourage enrollment at the school, and schools in Cleveland and Atlanta also offer financial incentives.

Of course, because it is Orthodox, the school’s definition of a “Jewish child” is one whose mother is Jewish, suggesting that there are other barriers to participation at Hillel Academy for a growing percentage of Jewish households.

Nevertheless, we at JOI applaud the Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh for taking a step toward bringing down the barriers. It is a particularly important step to reach those on the periphery. Perhaps if more Jewish institutions followed Pittsburgh’s lead, imagine how much the community could grow!

At the heart of most worship services is a prayer that asks for God’s blessing for a specific person or people. Of particular note is the version of this blessing made popular by folk singer Debbie Friedman. This Mi Sheberakh (literally “the One who blesses”) prayer asks for healing for all those who are ill; as such, it has become a staple of many synagogue services—even in those where such prayers were out of vogue as recently as fifteen years ago. In the Conservative movement, the question arose as to whether these prayers could be said for those of other religious backgrounds. We applaud its recent responsum (an answer to a question of religious practice) which encourages individuals to say a prayer for healing for others, regardless of their religious background. Given both the increase in family members from other faiths and the movement’s struggle over how to include those family members in synagogue life, this is a welcome sign of inclusiveness.

Rabbi David Golinkin, President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical School in Jerusalem, and a leading authority on halakha (Jewish law) within the movement, authored the responsum. Golinkin’s simple wisdom: we should include all of humanity in our prayers of healing. He cited the following examples to support his conclusion:

In II Kings, Chapter 5, we read the story of Na’aman, the General of Aram, who goes to see the king of Israel in order to be cured of his leprosy. The Prophet Elisha then cures Na’aman from his leprosy by telling him to bathe seven times in the Jordan River (v. 10-14). If a Jewish Prophet can heal a non-Jew, then he can certainly pray for a non-Jew who is ill.

R. Hayyim Palache (1788-1869) of Izmir, Turkey was asked by a Jew: a non-Jew whom he does business with is sick. Is it permissible to pray for him that he should live and also give tzedakah to scholars that they should learn on his behalf to heal him? Rabbi Palache replied that this is “mutar gamur”, entirely permissible. He relied on Sefer Hassidim (The Book of the Pious) and on the story of Elisha and Na’aman.

This complements JOI’s own work with STAR (Synaogues: Transformation and Renewal) to implement the “Call Synagogue Home” initiative, a project that encourages clergy and professional leaders of synagogues to be especially welcoming of interfaith families at lifecycle events, as they are such ripe moments for a family to connect to the Jewish community. So here is the big question: if we include those of other religious backgrounds in our prayers for healing, how else can we include them at other times as well?