Ethos

BKY COMMUNITY ETHOS

Following the community’s discussions, we are adopting the following BKY Community Ethos, to which everyone was invited to contribute. We hope this Ethos will guide us in building and sustaining our community, while encouraging others to join us.

Love your neighbour as yourself – Leviticus 19:18

BKY is committed to what founding rabbi Sheila Shulman described as “creative engagement with contemporary Judaism” through building a community of friends – a chavurah. Above all, we aim to BE KIND; to live by this instruction from the Holiness Code, as interpreted by Hillel: “That which is hateful to you do not do to others.” The Talmud (Shevuot 39a) tells us that we must also support one another: kol yisrael arevim zeh le’zeh ‏ כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה ‎ “All of Israel are responsible for each other.” In this spirit, we call on each other to be considerate and to appreciate what every person has to offer.

Make the study of Torah a fixed habit; say little and do much, and greet all people with a cheerful expression – Shammai; Pirkei Avot 1:15.

For BKY, the communal study of Torah is key to exploring our identities as Jews. We study in order to put our learning into practice, both within our community and beyond it. By greeting each other as well as newcomers with a warm welcome, we also follow the example of Abraham and Sarah, putting people at ease from their first visit.

What does it mean to be engaged in holiness? In all our deeds, to name the truth. Yitgaddal v’yitkaddash shmey rabbah – may the Divine name be magnified and sanctified – we say in the traditional kaddish, prayer of sanctification. Feminist Jews have added this: that the Divine name takes a thousand forms, that in naming the truths of our own experience we are ‘naming-toward’ the Divine…. – Marcia Falk

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We can take nothing for granted, least of all that a given community, even if it has lasted forty years, just ‘is’. If it is not perpetually re-made by the people who are a part of it, if it does not grow and change, it will die. – Rabbi Sheila Shulman

We recognise the diversity of Jewish experience, and as an inclusive community we respect differences of opinion and styles of ritual observance and welcome the opportunity they might offer us for growth and change. Hillel reminds us not to judge another until we have been in their place.

It matters infinitely what we think and believe, for thought and belief do affect conduct. – Lily H. Montagu, one of the three founders of Liberal Judaism

Let the honour of your fellow be dearer to you than your own, and do not be easily provoked – Rabbi Eliezer; Pirkei Avot 2:10

Pirkei Avot 2:2 states: Torah im derekh eretz – ‏ תורה עם דרך ארץ‎ – ‎ “Study of Torah [should be grounded in] practical, lived experience” (lit., ‘with the way of the land’). That, ultimately, is our derekh eretz: to extend courteous, thoughtful and respectful behaviour towards all.

In a place where there is no humanity, strive to be a mensch, a humane person. – adapted from Pirkei Avot 2:5