The great vision behind all the specific plans is indeed a vision, namely: an underlying idea that unifies and ties together all our different actions. We do not speak of it often is because it is beyond the powers of any individual or even any single organization, and also because it can be realized not through the actions of an individual but through a process that will affect the entire Jewish nation.

Our vision is to create a Jewish renaissance. This revival calls for new paradigms in our Jewish world-view. Only an inner revival and renewal can create a new momentum of all-Jewish consolidation in healthier, more stable patterns, through a great swing of spiritual creativity. The idea is not to create yet another faction or party, but rather to present a series of ideas and plans which will not in a way be compromises or patch work. We also do not desire bring back to life the distant or recent past, but aspire to bring a new spirit into our world-view and into our future-oriented goals and directions. This activity, which is intellectual and spiritual, will surely also chart the way in different spheres of life for the Jewish people in general and for the State of Israel in particular. A process of such magnitude cannot be set in motion only by declarations of intent; such great declarations are frightening and damaging. Practical steps will therefore have to be taken in more defined and limited areas that will eventually come together and create an evolving pattern.

The Torah and the World

The world of the Torah is, in many ways, self-contained; its has its own issues and fields of activity which are basically &quote;vertical&quote; – namely, between man and his Maker. However, there is also a great world out there which has an existence of its own not only on the physical realm but also spiritually, and which from time to time grows not only in what it produces and creates, but also spiritually.

For many generations the world was merely the background and external infrastructure within which the Torah existed. But in the course of time the world has attained not only external-material significance but also a spirituality of its own. In the distant past the world was seen malleable crude matter which was either friend or foe to the world of Torah, and the Torah-world relationship was by and large superficial. Today&quote;s world, however, is not only more complex, but is also made up of elements which are not only material. Today&quote;s world contains a huge amount of information of all kinds, cultures with contents of their own and arts with their distinct aspirations.

Furthermore, in the past it was possible to construct almost entirely impenetrable partitions between the Torah and the world; however, today&quote;s changing world, with all that it contains, penetrates – either directly or by slow osmosis – the world of Torah as well. It is therefore no longer possible to ignore it and withdraw into the world of Torah. The world around us is a great entity not only in quantity but also in quality, and it is therefore a supreme challenge to create a deeper and more rational relationship with it, not in order to stop its invasion but so as to create thought patters and tools of action that will make it possible for the world of the Torah to expand beyond its existing limits and contain not only the material sides of civilization, but also its spiritual, cultural, scientific and artistic components. We do not intend to accept the authority of the world as it is, nor to create a hermetic bubble within it: we aspire to create a multifaceted relationship that will enable us to accept and integrate certain things while rejecting others.

The underlying intention behind all that is not to accept or borrow certain things from the world: it is much wider than that. The idea is to create and mold a world whose core and soul are the Torah, in its fullest breadth, which is wrapped within and tied to a more external world – not only the world of nature, with all that is in it and everything that it has developed, but also the world of man, in its full scope.

As pointed above, such a goal is not a minor thing that can be achieved within a short period of time by a small number of people, great as they may be: it is a process that requires long-term construction based on systematic thinking and gradual application. This new world will not only present solutions to the problems of Jewry and the Jews, but will also carry the tidings of a new world order for all.

As part of these great plans and visions we must also amend all those things within the Jewish world which today are flawed not only in this or that small detail, but in broader outlook and ways of leadership.

Stringencies and Leniencies

In applying halachah to everyday life there are two basic tendencies: stringency and leniency. These tendencies stem, in part, from the personal characteristics of the specific halachic decisors. There always have been, and always will be, people who will view every issue from a stringent point of view, and others who will always tend to be more lenient. Yet some of those decisions go beyond the individual bend of mind and become elements that shape the way of an entire group. Thus, in many places stringency is not only the favored choice: there even is a sort of competitive race toward inventing new stringencies. Consequently, certain things which in the past were considered permitted have become to be seen as actual prohibitions and transgressions.

However, since this trend is, in part, not only an inner tendency but also a social matter, one may, on the other hand, also find – even at the same times and places – some comprehensive processes of leniencies in many areas, as a result of which certain things which may be totally forbidden become permitted; and even when they are not openly and publicly declared permitted they become the kind of things which people trample underfoot and hold cheap. Sometimes, the more knowledgeable people may still remember that there is a prohibition about those things, but sometimes the prohibition becomes totally forgotten. What happens is that a certain balance is created between those areas in which people become stricter and other areas which area underestimated and even forgotten. A similar phenomenon happens also in other spheres of life; consequently there are areas (such as Hanukkah, or Kaddish) in which not only strict observers but also ordinary people conduct themselves according to every possible stringency, while other whole areas are completely deleted from the consciousness.

The existence of the different kinds of stringencies and leniencies is also a divisive factor in society; but beyond creating different groups it shatters the wholeness of the Torah, fragmenting it into sections that differ from each other in importance and in practical application.

The amendment of these matters should be done by stressing the wholeness of the Torah as one organic entity in which there are not elements that are overly highlighted and discussed and others which are totally void. This is no easy task, because in each one of these areas habit turns to custom and custom attains a dimension of holiness. And yet all these need to be amended and put in their proper places, without exaggeration or omission.

Old and Kosher

As people who accept tradition and conduct their lives accordingly, we treat things old with reverence. In a certain way, old things – both very ancient and newer – attain an inherent value just in lieu of the fact that they are traditional and old. It should however be remembered that &quote;old&quote; and &quote;valuable&quote; are not identical. Something old may indeed be old, but this does not necessarily make it more it more befitting or, to put it differently, more &quote;kosher.&quote; Hence the need to reexamine many of the things which are being performed, or which serve as models for conduct, just because they are old. There may me old, even ancient things which despite their antiquity have no inherently higher value. Some of them may, at the time, have been only the results of internal or external constraints, and were never really true or appropriate. Particular attention should be paid to this whenever such models are applied in times or places where they do not belong.

Such an examination is not simple, because it requires delving deeply into the essence of things. Sometimes it is possible to find justification for old things even when they do not seem useful; but in any case, antiquity does not have to be an obstacle against their reexamination. A person is entitled to have sentiments to things past, but at the same time we should be aware that there may be sentiments, esthetic or nostalgic, which are not justified. On the other hand, it is not an obligation to throw away things from the past just because they are old: we must thoroughly examine whether or not they are needed or useful. The old is not sanctified in and of itself, just as the new is not always top quality. The right things to do, and the proper way to live, should be justified thanks to its own virtues, not because of the time in which it was created.

In order to structure all that we must do things which have an inherent value, and at the same time are also vehicles for great creativity. One of these things is the sphere of Torah learning.

Torah Learning

A great variety of different tools should be created, some of them specific (such as the Steinsaltz Talmud and other books), others more comprehensive (such as learning accessories, teaching methods and experiments in the areas of teaching and tutoring). The purpose of all of these is to spur and assist Jews to acquire knowledge and understanding of their own culture. The slogan is &quote;Let My People Know,&quote; and Torah study is the way to create a sense of closeness, as well as familiarity and identification with Judaism.

Experiencing

No less important is the enhancement of non-theoretical, non-intellectual aspects, which also define and create patterns of living. It is of utmost importance to underscore and intensify the whole sphere of experience, namely: to strengthen the elements of soul and emotion in Jewish life. Religious Jewish life has become mechanical and technical, and there is a need to devote much more time to teaching the foundations of faith not only intellectually, but as a full educational path, starting with the most basic levels of education (kindergarten and even prior to that), and also to introduce the emotional elements of the Jewish connection not only in the religious sense, but also on the social-personal level, and not only to the synagogue but to the home as well.

These things are done by the various educational institutions as well as through different kinds of literature ("Opening the Tanya" and the like). The purpose is to extend this network, and even more than that – to integrate its main ideas in society, in its methods of education and in its patterns of conduct.

Leadership

Leaders cannot always create far-reaching changes as they imagine they can. Yet leadership, on whatever level, can either speed up processes or slow them down. In this context it can be said that there are two kinds of leaders: political and religious.

Political leaders are not necessarily people with specific government roles; rather, they are people who have the power to influence, create and direct processes within their society. The problem of leadership – or, more specifically, the lack of adequate leadership – does not exists only among the Jewish people or in the land of Israel, but has greater urgency and significance here because we do not have either quantitative power or geographical space – two elements which in and of themselves are stabilizing factors. Consequently, leaders' mistakes and their deviations from the right path are liable to create serious problems here, much more than in greater states and bigger nations.

The basic problem is not that of choosing candidates from among those individuals who are interested and involved in politics: it is the problem of finding and preparing suitable figures, since "the lesser evil" is not the best option. In order to train suitable people for leadership roles, a longer and more thoroughgoing process of teaching and training is required. Educational and training systems for leaders should be created; part of their training will be in the practical-political sphere, namely: familiarity with the laws and regulations of society and learning how to operate in society in the most efficient way; but no less important is the need to choose the right people and to give them proper inner training.

Paradoxically, those who should lead and can be appropriate leaders usually do not aspire to this; and those who do are often people who are focused on their own ego, which just gets bigger and bigger and wants to fill up the entire space around them, whether big or small. The right kind of leaders are those people who see the fulfillment of leadership roles as a duty, as a task which they should take upon themselves for the benefit of the general public, and surely not for their own sake. Obviously, not every person who does not aspire for personal greatness is a potential leader; but the starting point should be the training of capable people, perhaps even in spite of themselves, people who know that dealing with the needs of the public entails encountering and dealing with people of all kinds and with constraints and unpleasant compromises. Such people should be trained in how to handle such things continuously without becoming morally corrupt and without losing the sense of mission.

Religious Leadership

Contemporary religious leadership is comprised of rabbis, heads of Yeshivot and tzaddikim of all sorts. However, today many changes – social, technological and conceptual – keep happening all the time, and the religious leaders must therefore be defined from a number of sides:

One aspect is their greatness in Torah learning. Because of the magnitude of challenges and the increasing complexity of the questions that arise, religious leaders must be as great Torah scholars as possible. In practice, most of the people who nowadays undergo rabbinical ordination tests are "the lesser evil." At the present time, it is not enough to have people who know what is written in the books, even if they are well-versed in the material. We need people with greater breadth and depth of Torah knowledge who can seek and find in the Torah the answers to the problems of the present, and to a great extent also be prepared for the challenges of the future.

Religious leaders must also be well aware of the questions presented to them. When a rabbi, even if he is a Torah scholar of some magnitude, does not understand the questions that he is being asked, he also cannot come up with adequate answers. Here, too, there is a need for much preparation and training for those who may be the leaders of the next generation.

Another point is love for the Jewish people. A Torah scholar is not just a scholar: he must also be a person whose fear of Heaven comes before his intellect. But beyond that, a spiritual leader must be a person who loves all Jews, so that he can hear and understand other people's troubles. This does not necessarily mean that he should always be lenient and to always give permission; but even a stringent rabbi who enacts prohibitions must feel the pain of the people who turn to him, and empathize with them.

In all these areas the task is therefore twofold: to find the adequate people, and more importantly – to teach and train them for leadership roles.

We are doing our best to materialize all these plans; however, they are great plans, in every possible way. We try as hard as we can to adhere to the master-plan, and at the same time to do whatever can be done. Some progress is surely being made, but such progress is naturally very slow. In order to speed things up and create significant development we need a lot more resources – in manpower, money and public support. This, too, is something to be dealt with, and here, too, we are trying our best to attain more power, so that we can operate more significantly and more immediately.