Don’t be an Eeyore

n a bustling marketplace, two traders observed a street vendor selling beautiful pieces of artwork. One trader marveled at the talent and creativity of the artist, praising their ability to capture the essence of the subjects. The other trader disagreed, stating, “It is the paint and the brush that bring life to these paintings.”

Unable to reach a consensus, the traders decided to seek the advice of a renowned art critic known for his insightful perspectives. They presented their differing opinions and awaited his response. The art critic pondered for a moment before sharing his wisdom, saying, “My esteemed traders, you are both mistaken. It is neither the artist’s talent nor the tools they use that truly make these paintings come alive. It is your own emotions and interpretations that breathe life into the artwork.”

This parable highlights cognitive bias. Cognitive bias refers to our brain’s tendency to make systematic errors in thinking. It’s like a mental shortcut that our minds take to process information quickly. These biases can cause us to deviate from rational and objective

JEWISH RENEWAL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

Listening to Magid’s response to such caveats, I thought of the quote often attributed to music producer Brian Eno: “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.” Renewal’s influence spread beyond its founding havurot because many of their principals went on to important positions in academia and Jewish organizations, including Green, Rabbi Everett Gendler, Sharon Strassfeld, John Ruskay and Rabbi Arthur Waskow.

Small but influential Gen X and millennial institutions also bear Renewal’s fingerprints: the “Jewish Emergent Network” of independent congregations; New York’s Romemu and B’nai Jeshurun synagogues; egalitarian, traditional-style yeshivas like Hadar. Bayit, with a number of principals associated with ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, is an online artist’s collective and publisher of Jewish books, including a forthcoming Shabbat prayer book.

One of its contributors, Rabbi Rachel reasoning. They influence how we perceive, interpret and remember things. Sometimes, our biases can lead us to make judgments or decisions that are not entirely accurate or logical. Advertisers often capitalize on these biases.

ITake, for example, anchoring. Anchoring is a tactic used by advertisers to capitalize on our biases. Imagine you are browsing for a new smartphone online. As you search, you come across two options: Phone A priced at $1,000 and Phone B priced at $500. Your mind becomes anchored to the higher price of Phone A, which serves as a reference point. Now, you find a third option, Phone C, which is priced at $800. Despite Phone C being more expensive than Phone B, you perceive it as a better deal because it is lower than the anchor price of Phone A.

In this scenario, the initial higher price of Phone A serves as an anchor, influencing your perception of the subsequent options. Even though Phone C is still relatively expensive compared to Phone B, the anchoring effect makes it appear more favorable in comparison to the higher-priced Phone A. This demonstrates how anchoring can shape our judgment and lead us to make decisions based on the relative value compared to an initial reference point.

But, rabbi, how does all this relate to the weekly Torah portion? I am so glad you asked. In the coming weeks, we will read how the Israelites embark on their journey through the wilderness. Almost immediately, they begin to complain. Their grievances start with the food, expressing their dissatisfaction with the manna they receive and longing for the meat and fish they had back in Egypt, conveniently ignoring their past enslavement. These complaints continue regarding other matters such as water, land and Moses’ leadership. Academics refer to this as a pessimism bias, where one sees the world as half empty rather than half full. It’s the belief that if something can go wrong, it inevitably will.

This way of thinking reminds me of Eeyore, the unhappy donkey from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” books. Eeyore approached life with gloom and depression, perceiving the world as an ill-fated place. While Winnie and others attempted to lift his spirits, Eeyore’s natural inclination was to see the glass as half empty. I am certain you have encountered such an individual resembling Eeyore and understand their pessimism can be challenging to be around.

That is why Judaism urges us to cultivate an optimistic bias, what the rabbis refer to as “hekarat tov” or “recognizing the good.” The Rabbis tell the story of Nathan Gamzu, a Talmud teacher who always saw the good in everything. “Gam zu l’tova,” meaning “this is for the good,” was considered a shortened version of his name. Rabbi Akiba, one of Nathan Gamzu’s students, shared a valuable lesson he learned from his mentor. Akiba found himself in the woods with only a torch, a rooster and a donkey. However, the flame went out due to the wind, the rooster was devoured by a predator and the donkey ran away. Despite these misfortunes, Akiba could only say, “this too is for the good.” Later, he discovered that a group of bandits had passed through the area. Had they spotted the flame or heard the animals, Akiba surely would have been captured. Gam zu l’tova — this is for the good! Each of us lives with some kind of bias. In fact, it can even change by the day or the situation. I urge us to challenge ourselves to engage the world like Nathan Gamzu and “Do Jewish” by seeing the positive and potential for good. Don’t be an Eeyore. JN

Barenblat, who was ordained by ALEPH, has argued that the influence of Renewal is felt even within Orthodoxy. “If you look at the Open Orthodoxy movement, if you look at the ordination of women as ‘maharats’ [by Yeshivat Maharat, a women’s seminary], the future of women as rabbinic leaders in Orthodoxy is already here,” she said on an episode of the “Judaism Unbound” podcast. “It’s not everywhere, but someday it will be.”

Magid and Chanes similarly claim a number of leading Jewish feminists as products of Renewal — they mention Paula Hyman, Eva Fogelman and Judith Plaskow — although some in the audience at Trinity insisted they gave Renewal too much credit for a movement by and for women. In there essay in the Silk/ Chanes Book, Sylvia Barack Fishman of Brandeis University offers a counternarrative of Jewish innovation over the past 50 years. In her chapter, she credits the “active partnership” of women in revitalizing American Judaism: Women’s religious expressions, she writes, “create social contexts and are distinguished by a communal dynamic, quite unlike the isolated, personalized Jewish experience, which some have claimed defines contemporary Jewishness.”

I came away convinced that Renewal has had an outsize influence on Jewish life, especially for baby boomers like me. But I also wondered if its outward-facing, syncretic Judaism failed to instill a sense of obligation to Jewish forms, institutions and peoplehood — unlike, by contrast, Orthodoxy in all of its booming presentday manifestations.

I asked Magid in what ways Renewal might have fallen short.

“Part of its failure is that it is very, very anchored to a certain kind of American counterculture that no longer exists. It hasn’t really moved into a 2.0 phase,” he said. “There are students and staff members that are still very tied to (Schachter-Shalomi’s) vision, and then there’s a younger generation, Gen Z, who have read some of his work and they’re influenced by it, but they really are think- ing much more about, well, how does this translate into a post-countercultural America?”

Magid also feels the ideas of Renewal will become more important as American Jews’ attachment to Israel wanes, and the living memory of the Holocaust recedes.

If Rabbi Green’s speech at the JTS graduation was any indication, then the ideals of Jewish Renewal still hold their appeal.

“We need a new Judaism in America… where we also have the fresh air needed to create it,” he said. “How do we move forward… in articulating a Jewish theology for today that is both intellectually honest and spiritually rewarding?”

The audience of future Jewish leaders and teachers leapt to its feet. JN

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.