Did You Acquire Wisdom?

In his book The Seven Questions You’re asked in Heaven, Dr. Ron Wolfson draws on the rabbinic writings of Abba ben Joseph bar Hama (280-352 CE), known as Rava, to describe the questions you will be asked in heaven. As a baby boomer approaching my 63^rd birthday, I find I am spending more time thinking about ultimate issues. How best should I use the last quarter of my life?

These questions, according to Wolfson, were designed to “reveal how you lived your life on earth.” Wolfson notes that the third question asks “Did you set a time for Torah?” The fifth question in the book deals with wisdom and knowledge. It asks, “How did you learn? How did you study?”

Wolfson writes, “Our teacher Rava imagines that the Fifth Question You’ll be Asked in Heaven is in a two parts:

Pilpalta b’chochmah? - Did you seek wisdom?

Havanta d’var mitach davar? - Did you understand one thing from another?”

Wolfson argues that Rava’s two questions “seem to be a kind of instruction guide for his students as they swim in a sea of Talmud, a lifelong pursuit.” Wolfson goes on to argue that knowledge comes from three sources (The Seven Questions You’re Asked in Heaven, Dr. Ron Wolfson, Jewish Lights, pp 80-81):

• Da’at refers to factual knowledge - the what, where, when and how
• Binah refers to analytic ability
• Chochmah refers to the kind of knowledge that comes from experience, i.e., wisdom

The pursuit of analytic ability, knowledge and wisdom are important qualities for all people but they are very important to the strategic leader. One of the goals of USCJ’s Sulam for Strategic Planners program is to help leaders access all of their leadership learning skills.

Data Gathering

Da’at

We have the planners create a FACT book of all of the relevant internal and external facts relating to the synagogue.  We help planners conduct a congregational survey of their member’s wants and needs.

Binah

We have  planners create a SWOT analysis that looks at the congregation’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This exercise helps sharpen the ability of the planners to analyze data and to see the relationship between different elements. When the congregational survey data is complete, we give planner a Survey Debrief Worksheet so that they can learn to listen for the big insights. What assumptions did they have? How have they changed? What are the implications? These exercises are designed to help planners “learn to study”.

Chochmah

We offer planners exercises that support analysis. The Strategic Planning Committee depends of the accumulated experience of the planners to make sense of all the information and to determine what is most important. This accumulated wisdom grows over the 12-15 months of planning. That is why it is so important the steering committee members make the commitment to finish the work together.  As consultants we sometimes refer to this as “the wisdom of the room”. A plan cannot just a book of facts or a  laundry list of actions- it must prioritize. It must identify what is most important and what is needed most now. It must lift up what is of greatest value.

Wolfson addresses this question about wisdom by quoting a famous rabbinic quote:

Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me, ‘Why you were not Zusya’?” (Tales of the Hasidim, Volume 1 page 251).

Outside consultants and resources can help support leaders, but in the end congregational leaders must determine the path that is best for them. The seventh question that Wolfson discusses is as follows: 

• Did you live your life trying to be someone else?
• Were you true to yourself?

We assign all planners the book Holy Conversations by Dr. Gil Rendle and Alice Mann. The authors speak from years of experience walking with congregational leaders. They learned that the goal of planning is not to fix congregations but to help them be the best that they can be:

Planning does not fix a congregation. Planning does not make it something that it is not. As leaders invite the congregation into a planning process, it is important that the participants understand that the structured conversation at the heart of planning is not meant to make the congregation look like some other successful congregation. Rather the structured conversation is meant to help the congregation be the people that they most effectively can be, given their history, their resources, and their call.

In Sulam for Strategic Planners we argue that planners need to manage the tension between three poles: Their enduring mission, vision and values, the unique challenge of their congregation’s environment and context and their capacities. We define these capacities as what a congregation is good at, what it is known for and what it is capable of. A strategy is a plan to help them fulfill their vision within the constraints of the context and capacity.

There is no mathematical formula for this work. It takes wisdom to learn from each pole. It takes courage to live in the tension between these poles and to navigate your own path. With a commitment to learning and practice, leaders can hope to answer some of these ultimate questions for themselves, their leadership community and their congregation. When planers look back on their time on the planning committee we hope they will feel that they acquired some wisdom.