I've been watching documentaries about Vietnam again. But this time it's different because, not two weeks ago, I sat through a presentation about Tefilah (prayer) in Jewish day schools. The first slide of the presentation had a quote that went something like this: 'Tefilah: The Vietnam of Jewish education". So as I'm watching these documentaries, I'm thinking about the language of Vietnam as a descriptive for the situation of Tefilah in today's day schools: We follow a failed strategy that is leaving behind a staggering body count. Our leaders are far away from the battlefield, issuing orders that are ideological and political, but rarely rational. Soon we begin to talk about our task as "policing" and it seems that no one back home actually supports what we're doing. It's tearing vital relationships apart. I like this language. But then I'm not certain that it's appropriate because Vietnam is Vietnam and not a metaphor. Lives affe...
I've always been famous; people just didn't know it.