This week, our Torah reading is Emor, which is focused on holiness. At its essence, holiness in Jewish education is about recognizing and honoring what is sacred—within people, in our communities, and even in the mundane.
Personally, I have recently become interested in the idea of Mattering. Mattering is the sense that one’s presence and actions are seen, valued, and make a difference. I think of it as Belonging 2.0. Belonging is feeling welcome, accepted, and connected, whereas mattering is feeling significant to the people in the group—being seen, heard, and valued through interactions.
When Jewish educators cultivate holiness in their work, they contribute to their learners’ sense of mattering:
- Holiness is finding significance where others might overlook it. When we treat each learner as sacred, we affirm that they matter.
- Holiness also elevates our intention. To teach with holiness is to convey that each interaction counts, and that our words and care truly matter.
- Holiness builds community. In a holy environment, everyone’s contribution has worth—when our learners feel that they matter, they become intimately involved in building and caring for the community.
So, to make our work holy is to help our staff, our learners and our communities feel that they matter—and to know that we ourselves matter in the sacred chain of teaching, learning, becoming and mattering.
For us at ARJE, last year was about focusing on ensuring a culture of belonging - Stacy Rigler will speak more about that, and this coming year will shift to mattering - to ensuring that your sense of calling, your purpose, and your holy work are uplifted by belonging to this organization.
We want you to know that you matter to us. To our youth professionals, our consultants, professors, and community leaders, to our camp and Hillel professionals, to our educators working at JCCs, after school programs, and religious schools and to our vatekei members. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do and for joining us today. No matter what you do - you matter to us.
Stacy Rosenthal, RJE