Some of the most meaningful moments in Jewish life come with a surprising amount of logistics.  Some could call it painful

A bar or bat mitzvah.

A family celebration.

We want to remember the people, the prayers, the music, the emotions, the moment.

But sometimes part of what we remember is everything that went wrong getting there.

The email that wasn’t answered.

The information that wasn’t clear.

The form we couldn’t find.

The person who didn’t know who was responsible.

The last-minute mistake that suddenly became our problem to solve.

I’ve experienced enough important events in my own life to know that it’s not always easy to be fully present when you’re stressed.

You can be standing in the middle of something you’ve looked forward to for months and still be thinking about the thing that didn’t get done.

This points to something we don’t talk about enough when we discuss the future of Jewish organizations.

We tend to separate operations from mission.

One is administrative. The other is meaningful.

I........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)