What’s More Important in Judaism — Others or Yourself?

This video is one in a 4-part series called Rooted: Jewish Values Run Deep, exploring the productive tensions inherent in Jewish values. These questions serve as a starting point for both personal reflection and community conversation — so each is accompanied by a guide that can help deepen these dialogues. Download the full guide here.

Community Building Questions

  • Judaism highly values physical presence. What does it mean to be Jewish in a digital era when people don’t as much meet face to face?
  • Jewish ritual highlights the need for community — but how does it also work to preserve the individual?
  • Which is more important: a thriving community or a thriving self? How do these forces interact to create both vicious and virtuous cycles?

Breaking Barriers Questions

  • Have you ever felt unseen within a group you were in? Or, when have you felt you particularly belong to a community or group?
  • Have you ever felt especially seen or unseen in the Jewish community?
  • Share a story with the group or a partner about a time you felt unseen.
  • What would have helped you feel more seen as an individual within this group? What was it that made you feel you belong?

We would love to hear your reactions to these questions and activities. Please use the comment feature on the bottom of this page to join the conversation.   

For more videos in this series, click here. 

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Tzedek: The Jewish Value of Justice

In Jewish thought, justice isn't merely about how things work, but how they ought to be.

How the Jewish People Invented Hope

Judaism is a sustained struggle against the world that is in the name of the world that could be — but is not yet.