As Community: Structural Teshuvah

Blessing for Torah Study

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.

Beginning with Our Own Torah

1) How does a community improve itself?

2) Think back to a time when you participated in or witnessed the community adapt after a mistake. How did you and the community respond to the moment?

Source #1. Tractate Sanhedrin

This tractate of the Talmud (~450-550 CE) discusses the judicial system.

Source #2. "An Apology from the Central Conference of American Rabbis" (2022)

You teach us the true purpose of confession:
to turn our hands into instruments of good,
to cause no harm or oppression.
Receive us, as You promised,
in the fullness of our heartfelt t’shuvah.
(from the Yom Kippur Liturgy, Mishkan HaNefesh)

The past year has been one of intense listening, learning, and introspection for the members and staff of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Throughout the process of the CCAR Ethics Investigation undertaken in the past year, we have heard from hundreds of people, including survivors and their families, congregations impacted by rabbinic misconduct, colleagues who volunteered within the ethics system, rabbis who had complaints brought against them, and their family members, as well as members of the larger community. We learned more thoroughly how the misconduct of some of our members and former members has deeply hurt individuals and communities. We have heard about how in some cases the CCAR’s handling of that misconduct compounded the hurt experienced. And we have been reminded how an act of misconduct can have ramifications for years afterward.

Over the last year, guided by outside experts and always rooted in Jewish values, we took a hard look at how we could make our ethics system sharper, clearer, and in the end, better. Our commitment to improvement means that we must also acknowledge instances through the years when we have fallen short of realizing the ideals to which we aspire, and to do the hard work of repair.

With sincerity of heart and intention, the CCAR apologizes for the hurt that our organization and our ethics system have caused. We acknowledge that there have been times when we failed to meet our own high standards and we are deeply sorry. We apologize, and we are committed to working diligently for a better future.

The CCAR ethics system is both religious and aspirational. It is a peer-driven process through which CCAR member rabbis are held accountable to our Ethics Code. We call ourselves to lives that demonstrate the highest values of the rabbinate. We are proud that the vast majority of our members uphold our high ethical standards and serve their communities with honor. And we also acknowledge that the cases where that has not been true have caused long lasting hurt and mistrust.

Since the current ethics system was established in 1991, it has been in a process of continual revision and upgrade, with seventeen cycles of changes to the Ethics Code in twenty-one years as well as changes to procedures and processes. We are grateful to the hundreds of volunteers—both rabbis and laypeople—who have served with dedication on our Ethics Committee and in the related parts of the process, all with the shared goal of upholding our Ethics Code in order to foster safe and sacred communities, and to hold rabbis accountable. In recent years we have seen an increase in cases, with approximately fifteen cases currently brought annually before our Ethics Committee, encompassing allegations of financial misconduct, misconduct between colleagues, bullying, plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and other unethical behaviors.

Our work of institutional t’shuvah, or repentance, has included listening with open and learning hearts to the stories of individuals impacted by our ethics process. For our apology to be wholehearted, we understood that we needed to make a significant investment of time and attention, to hear their pain for ourselves.

As part of our institutional work of repair and t’shuvah, the CCAR T’shuvah Task Force issued a public invitation to all who wished to share their difficult, often painful experiences. The Task Force engaged in forty-eight hours of listening sessions, which were in addition to the 140 individuals who came forward to speak, sometimes anonymously, with the attorneys from Alcalaw who managed the CCAR Ethics Investigation. The Task Force will continue to offer opportunities for those who did not come forward previously. In addition, we also heard and learned from personal accounts shared with CCAR staff following the release of the December 2021 Alcalaw Ethics System Report, and in online reflection sessions held with CCAR members. We learned a great deal from all of these important conversations, and we are truly grateful to all who came forward to share their experiences with Alcalaw, the T’shuvah Task Force, and with us directly.

As part of our learning and reflection process, we carefully studied the Alcalaw Ethics System Report and delved into Jewish sources on t’shuvah while also actively addressing issues internal to our ethics process. We heard the concerns of survivors, families, congregants, congregations, volunteers, rabbis, and others about the broader impacts of the ethics process. Our listening reminded us how vital it is to have a clear and focused ethics process and to ensure better communications as the process unfolds. Since the release of the Alcalaw Ethics Investigation Report, we have already changed significant sections of our Ethics Code and system, and we are endeavoring diligently to pursue further changes.

We also recognize that in addition to the instances recounted above, individual CCAR members and former members have caused harm to people in the communities in which they have served. We urge all CCAR rabbis to reflect on and acknowledge any hurt they have caused, to apologize to those they have hurt, and to do their part to work towards the healing of those impacted by their actions.

Looking beyond the parameters of our ethics system, we appreciate that our t’shuvah would be incomplete if we did not also recognize the pain that too many CCAR members experienced over the years during the career placement process. We acknowledge that women and LGBTQ+ colleagues in particular have reported experiencing both implicit and overt bias in the past. We apologize for this pain and continue to reflect on this difficult history. Although our placement system has evolved in significant ways in recent years, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the past. We commit to sustained repair through our deeds, a process that has been ongoing for some time and will continue.

With humility, we acknowledge that our work of institutional t’shuvah and repair is not over. Our staff and leadership have been deeply impacted by the stories we have heard. We remain committed to the ongoing work of t’shuvah—of listening to and acknowledging the pain of our past, and to creating and implementing a better ethics system for the future. In Jewish tradition, repentance is only complete when we are faced with the same situation again and, having learned from our past, respond differently. The CCAR is committed to this foundational virtue of our faith. With the learning and awareness gained from this time of introspection, we will continue to put new systems, processes, and standards into place in the months and years to come. We pledge to keep learning and growing as an organization, and we remain committed to continually revising our ethics system to ensure it enables the CCAR to realize the highest ideals to which we aspire.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, President, CCAR
Rabbi Erica Asch, President Elect, CCAR
Rabbi Ron Segal, Past President, CCAR
Rabbi Hara Person, Chief Executive, CCAR
On behalf of the CCAR Board of Trustees

Source #3. "TESHUVAH AND REPARATIONS" by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, shomeret shalom (2021)

This piece is meant as a healing response to centuries of anti-blackness on Turtle Island. It does not address other injured communities, but that does not mean these principles and protocols cannot be applied to people suffering other forms of systemic violence including harms done to indigenous peoples, women, queer and trans people, Muslims, Jews and many others who are targeted by white supremacy and patriarchy. This is meant as a healing guide based on the protocols of teshuvah dedicated to reparations. Study this as a teshuvah text, a guide to action.

The 40 day period from the new moon of Elul through Yom Kippur is wholly devoted to Teshuvah. Teshuvah is a process of healing repair for ethical injury, unjust action and moral harm. Our ancestors believed our communities could not celebrate a new year (or any other festival) without first offering reparations marked by public apology and transfers of wealth to injured parties. This is the way Jewish tradition strives to enact honoring the dignity of every human being across all bars and borders.

To clarify the public and systemic nature of teshuvah, Jewish tradition links shofar blowing at the conclusion of Yom Kippur to the emancipation of the enslaved. As Rabbi Samuel Tamaras* wrote, “The shofar is surely the appropriate instrument for proclaiming the advent of the Jubilee Year on the Day of Atonement, for it is associated with the most exalted of biblical events: the giving of the torah (the protocols of the ‘beloved community’) and the day of emancipation of the enslaved. The shofar is an instrument whose very sound plants within the human heart a passion for truth and healing justice. “The lofty goal of teshuvah is none other than dismantling the infrastructures of enslavement and empire. That is why authentic teshuvah must go beyond symbolic acts and abolish the legal and governing practices that produce and perpetuate ongoing harm. Harms are defined as avoidable impairments of fundamental human needs which, makes it impossible or difficult for people to meet their needs or achieve their full potential.

Anti-blackness is an ongoing harm that demands teshuvah. Healing the harms of internalized, interpersonal and systemic forms of anti-blackness is clearly the spiritual challenge of this moment. We should not use the language of return to describe teshuvah in this instance, because equity never existed in the first place. We are building toward the world we want to see. The future is emergent and the open wounds are deep.

Teshuvah allows us to lament and acknowledge the transAtlantic slave trade and its legacy of ongoing harm. These harms negatively impact black lives within all public & private institutions in American life including health care, housing, land ownership, education, voting rights, policing, systems of justice from court to prison, transportation access, reproductive rights, distribution of resources, employment, banking, freedom of movement, cultural & historical representation and psychological well-being. Is not teshuvah required?

Teshuvah is structured to achieve healing and rehabilitation of both victims and perpetrators of systemic harm. Teshuvah envisions all of us moving forward together through enactment of the following five stages of repair:

• awakening compassion (ha-karat ha-chet) for harm, and embracing self-healing
• acknowledgment of the web of accountability and one’s place in it (kharata);
• publicly naming harms as articulated by those directly impacted by harm (vidui);
• reparations for harm which includes rehabilitation, compensation, and satisfaction (peiraon) by those harmed;
• guarantees of non-repeat of the harm that include an agreed upon system of accountability by victims of harm (azivat ha-chet).

These steps are parallel to the reparation steps articulated by descendants of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In carrying out teshuvah dedicated to reparations, the following principles are critical to a successful outcome.

• Reparations Teshuvah cannot be accomplished without placing the leadership, experiential knowledge and analysis of black people at the center of the reparations teshuvah process. Otherwise, harms are repeated in new forms.
• Reparations teshuvah requires understanding the root causes of ongoing historical harms and the way privilege operates in this system. People of color are daily harmed by white supremacy and patriarchy and its vast infrastructural components, thus obligating teshuvah from people who draw privilege from their racial status as ‘white’.
• Social inequities today are a function of the long history of racism and legalized discrimination in the past.

*Racism, white supremacy and patriarchy are endemic and normative and not exceptions to the norm.

* Harm is measured as avoidable impairment of fundamental human needs which, makes it impossible or difficult for people to meet their needs or achieve their full potential. The legacy of harm produced by the transAtlantic slave trade fits into this experiential framework.

*Reparations teshuvah is not a linear post-conflict framework. Rather it is local and national ongoing effort that builds upon the historical movement for reparations first initiated after the Civil War. Apology is not enough. It must be accompanied by restitution, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition of harm.

*Reparations teshuvah represents the altering of power relationships and reimagining how to organize society. Reparations teshuvah is intersectional, creative, multi-faceted, diverse, works across multiple identities and is interdisciplinary.

The following pledge was formulated by members of The Truth Telling Project out of Ferguson. Taking this pledge on Yom Kippur seems a fitting act for the Jewish community and can guide our educational and activist pursuit of reparations teshuvah for the harms of anti-blackness.

REPARATIONS PLEDGE

I pledge to approach reparations as a healing journey.

I pledge to acknowledge and work to heal the legacies of moral and material harm that originated with the transatlantic slave trade and continues to manifest harm in Black communities.

I pledge to learn more about America’s history of racism and its foundation of chattel slavery.

I pledge to learn more about how structures and institutions built on slave labor continue to disenfranchise people in the African diaspora as well as devalue Black lives.

I pledge to act in ways that limit institutional complicity in violence against Black People. This may mean divesting from investments that harm Black People.

I pledge to be sensitive to the intersectionalities of the harms of racism.

I pledge to participate in reparations in my local community and encourage my networks to do the same, guided by the analysis and leadership of black led organizations and individuals.

I pledge to take this message to my family, friends and community with love rather than through guilt or shaming. I pledge to undo racism within my own family & faith based community according to the principles articulated in this pledge.

I affirm this pledge in my name: (recite your name)

Source #4. Sha'arei Teshuvah (Gates of Repentance)

This text was composed between ~1243 -1263 CE by the medieval Spanish writer, Rabbeinu Yona Gerondi.​​​​​​​