In recent months, headlines in Jewish newspapers have highlighted a disturbing trend in American Jewish life. On the one hand, some of the community’s most prominent educational leaders announced plans to step down. Although their reasons were diverse, the announcements were taken as evidence of a looming “leadership vacuum” in American Jewish life.
The Torah is very clear: it is a Jewish mandate to “serve” (la’avod) God. But what exactly does “service” mean? Throughout the centuries, it has meant a wide variety of things, from offering pigeons and goats for sacrifice, to praying alone or with others in community, to building up the land of Israel. With no firm historical consensus as to what the concept of Jewish service actually means, its implementation and practice have changed and evolved with the Jewish people over time.
