Shavuah Tov
There are moments in the life of every organization and every community when the path ahead feels particularly challenging. Plans do not unfold exactly as we anticipated. Circumstances change. We encounter obstacles that require us to reconsider assumptions, make difficult choices, and sometimes find a different path forward.
Yet I have come to believe that these moments can also be among our greatest opportunities.
Jewish tradition does not teach us to avoid difficulty. It teaches us how to respond to it.
In the Book of Exodus, as the Israelites battle Amalek, Moses stands above the battlefield with his hands raised. But eventually, we are told, “Moses’ hands grew heavy.” Aaron and Hur then stand beside him, one on each side, and hold up his hands until sunset.
What a remarkable image of leadership and community.
Moses does not become less of a leader because he needs Aaron and Hur. He does not surrender his authority by allowing others to help carry the burden. Quite the opposite. Together, they become stronger than any one of them could have been alone.
That lesson feels particularly meaningful to me.
Too often we think that working together requires us to surrender something our authority, our independence, our ideas, or our individual voice. Jewish tradition suggests precisely the opposite. When we bring our individual strengths to a shared purpose, we do not give away power. We multiply our strength.
Kohelet teaches:
“Tovim hashnayim min ha’echad — Two are better than one.”
And then it tells us why: when one falls, the other can lift them up. A few verses later, Kohelet offers an image that might describe a healthy community perfectly: “A threefold cord is not readily broken.”
Our strength is not found in never stumbling. Our strength is found in knowing that when one of us stumbles, another will be there to help us rise.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l described this through the Jewish idea of brit, covenant. He taught that in covenant, people come together in loyalty and trust “to do together what neither can do alone.”
That is such an important distinction. Community is not simply a collection of individuals occupying the same space. Community is created when we recognize that there are things we can accomplish together that none of us can accomplish alone.
Rabbi Sacks points to the building of the Mishkan as one of the great examples. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites had largely been recipients: God parted the sea, provided manna and led them through the wilderness. Then came the Mishkan. Suddenly everyone was invited to contribute. Some brought materials. Some brought artistic talent. Some brought craftsmanship. Everyone had something to offer.
The challenge became an opportunity to become builders.
And perhaps that is the invitation before us as well.
At the Tucson J, there will always be challenges. Some will be financial. Some operational. Some will involve programs, facilities, staffing, or changing community needs. We should neither minimize those challenges nor fear them. Instead, we should ask:
What is this moment inviting us to build?
What can we learn?
What might we do differently?
Whose wisdom have we not yet heard?
And what becomes possible when we put our shoulders together and move forward as one community?
Stephen Sondheim captured something similar in Into the Woods with the beautiful reminder, No One is Alone Not because the journey is easy, but precisely because it isn’t. Difficult journeys remind us how much we need one another.
And the Israeli song Yachad gives us another simple but powerful image: yachad, lev el lev together, heart to heart.
That is how communities move through challenging moments.
Not by pretending difficulties do not exist.
Not by searching for someone to blame.
Not by retreating into our individual corners.
But by moving closer to one another.
Board members bringing wisdom and stewardship. Staff bringing talent, creativity, and extraordinary commitment. Volunteers bringing their time and passion. Donors providing generosity and possibility. Community members bringing their experiences, ideas, questions, and dreams.
Each of us brings something different. Together, we create something none of us could create alone.
Perhaps that is one of the great gifts hidden inside challenging moments: they remind us that we were never meant to do this work alone.
Our tradition calls us to be builders.
Our challenges give us something to build.
And our community gives us the strength to build it.
Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek Be strong, be strong, and may we strengthen one another.
Cochenu b’Achduteynu | כחינו באחדותינו | Our strength is in our unity.
Am Yisrael Chai | עם ישראל חי
Todd Rockoff
President + CEO, Tucson J
