Recently I was reading the second book by Charlene Li. Her first book Groundswell made- well – a groundswell in helping many people understand the use of social technologies. Her second book is called “ Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead“. Openness requires more — not less — rigor and effort than being in control. Li includes suggestions that will help an organization determine an “open strategy”, weigh the benefits against the risk, and have a clear understanding of the implications of being open.
While there are many who mocked it, in reading this book I realized how prescient Yeshivat Chovevei Torah was in coining “Open Orthodoxy“. While this sub-brand of Orthodoxy has nothing to do with technology, it does aim to speak to the culture of the 21st century. Our culture today is manifest in the emergent technologies of social media. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah strives to walk Li’s line of being open, transparent, and authentic. Obviously we have stumbled along the way, but all great organizations need to risk failure if they are truly striving for excellence.
Being Open Orthodox does not mean being more lax in observance of Halakha, it means being more rigorous in opening that process to more people. If we hope to live in a world in which Judaism speaks to Jews we will need to re-imagine Rabbinic control of information and wisdom. We need to explore new ways of thinking about how we can empower more Jews to make choices that are personally meaningful, universally relevant, and distinctively Jewish. This will not happen by controlling the message, but by developing a nuanced openness strategy. I am proud to be a graduate of YCT and an Open Orthodox Rabbi.
Said to Myself 
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