Kadima Blog

We Have Just Two Questions for You!

4/17/2026

Dearest Kadimaniks:
A sustainable and equitable dues structure will require an accurate picture of our community’s financial resources. We need your help!

The Finance and Membership Engagement Task Forces have developed a short anonymous financial survey. One survey per member household will arrive soon via email.

Please keep an eye out for our LimeSurvey email and take a few minutes to respond when it arrives in your inbox.

The Kadima Member Engagement Task Force is starting up!

Kadima's new Member Engagement Task Force is doing outreach to members, so be on the lookout for a text, email, or call from fellow members to check-in and see if you're interested in connecting about things going on at Kadima.

It's going to take time to contact all members, so please email Leah at [email protected] if you want to schedule a call with a task force member sooner or if you want to help make some calls to your neighbors!

In case you missed it: Read the notes and Q&A document from the March 8 financial transparency meeting.

Want to be a leader? The board is looking for additional members, including people with nonprofit, management and fundraising experience. If you are at all interested, fill out the interest form.

Sincerely,
Kadima Board and Task Forces

Strange Fire & The Journey Ahead

4/10/2026

With Passover behind us, we find ourselves in the wilderness—the season in which we count from liberation to revelation, from Pesach to Shavuot. We count up, not down.

Counting up suggests something different than a countdown. It reflects anticipation without certainty, a way of marking time when the end is not fully known. And yet—spoiler alert—we do know where we’re going. Shavuot will arrive, right on schedule.

So why do we count up, and not down?

Perhaps because, spiritually, we are not quite there yet. If Passover carries us from the first stirrings of liberation to the splitting of the sea, then this moment is something else entirely: wandering. We are free—but unsure. Unrooted. Asking, What now?

This week’s Torah portion meets us in that vulnerability. The Mishkan has been completed. The priests have been ordained. Everything is ready. And then, at the very first moment of sacred service, two of Aaron’s sons step forward and go off script. They offer what the Torah calls esh zarah—“strange fire”—and the result is immediate and devastating.

It’s a difficult story. But it is also a story about beginnings.

What happens when we try something for the first time? When we step into a new identity—as free people, as people trying to live differently than before? Passover invites us to break patterns, to leave behind our narrow places. But leaving is only the beginning. The real challenge is what comes next.

And in that space, the path is not always clear. There may be instructions—but they don’t always feel sufficient for the moment we’re in.

Nadav and Avihu’s “strange fire” can be read as a warning about the risks of acting without guidance. But it may also reflect something else: the impulse to bring something new, something unscripted, into sacred life. The desire to respond to freedom with creativity, not just compliance.

So as we take our first steps in this post-Passover season, perhaps the call is to hold both truths at once: to be thoughtful, but not frozen; reflective, but still moving; careful, but not afraid to be changed.

Because if we emerge from Passover unchanged, then what was our liberation for?

The work of the Omer is not just to mark time, but to notice transformation. To let freedom permeate our choices, our habits, our relationships. To become, day by day, people who live differently than we did before.

We count up because we are still becoming.

And now, the work begins.

Shabbat shalom,
R’ David

Our Tables are Holy

3/27/2026

In the second parasha of the Book of Leviticus, Tzav, there is emphasis in the opening lines about the altar in the mishkan/tabernacle/tent of meeting/sanctuary where a perpetual fire is to be fueled and always burning. There is even a particular place on the altar where the burning of offerings is to take place.

While sacrifices, especially those of animals, may not feel particularly resonant for the modern Jew reading Leviticus, the rabbis have described how these practices have evolved in Jewish spiritual technology. After the destruction of the Temple, sacrifice was replaced by prayer as a means of connection with the sacred. The altar was replaced by the bima – the place from which the community prayer leader leads their prayer.

But prayer is not the only parallel to sacrifice. Indeed mindful eating and the connection between one another at the dining table is also spoken of in Jewish tradition as a technological evolution from this altar. This is one reason for the tradition of putting a little salt on one’s challah before eating it on shabbat – the table is the altar and the food is the offering.

If indeed our dining table is the altar on which we make offerings toward closeness and connection, then Leviticus reminds us the importance of mindful eating and of meals that inspire connection. One may question why Passover comes every year as we are in the midst of reading from Leviticus when we might assume it would be better to be in the midst of reading early in Exodus – which contains the story of Passover itself. Perhaps we can understand from this that while retelling the Passover story is a key element of our seders, the point may in fact be about who we share our table with, what we eat and how, and whether the experiences we create indeed inspire deeper connection and closeness with one another and the divine.

As Seder is so suddenly soon, take a moment for intentionality about with whom, where, and with what food you might spend a moment of Passover. It may indeed be a sacred offering.

Shabbat shalom,
R’ David

Blessing Fruit Trees this Nisan

3/20/2026

Let us bless the Source of our Lives, Spirit of the Cosmos, whose world lacks nothing and who made wondrous creatures and beautiful trees for human beings to enjoy.

This Talmudic blessing of blossoming fruit trees in Nisan – Birkat Ha'Ilanot – is a special blessing for us to recite now that the fruit trees are in bloom and Nisan has begun (chodesh tov!). What does this blessing come to teach us?

First, we are invited to try on the perspective that this world lacks nothing. That creation is abundant. That everything we need is already here. It might bring to mind, then, the ways we humans need to distribute creation to ensure that everyone’s experience is that of not lacking. As the Blessing for Peace in Kadima’s siddur states: “We cannot merely hope to end starvation. We already have the resources with which to feed the entire world, if we would only use them wisely.”

Second, trees are good (the Hebrew is literally “tov” to describe them in the blessing). They are worth our time and attention. They are to marvel at. The blessing's existence at all tells us that this should be noted at least annually and that while we savor the New Year of the Trees in mid-winter, their splendor happens in the spring.

And third, humans are to derive pleasure, enjoyment, and benefit from them. Not in “The Giving Tree” sort of way, but in a sacred way of mutuality and holiness, as any recitation of blessing invites us into. The invitation here is to be reminded and uphold the sacred relationship between humans and fruit trees.

This Nisan, as you go on your way, may the blossoming trees revitalize our hope in the resilience of nature and remind us that we too have this resilience in us, individually and collectively. And as we begin the Book of Leviticus, let us feel called to our relationship with the natural world, our responsibility of mutual relationship with it, and renew in its majesty.

Shabbat shalom,
R’ David

(Re)Communitizing After Rupture

3/13/2026

The week of parashat Vayak’hel began with Kadima’s Community Meeting during which much was shared, answered for, and proposed. It was a communal act of recommunitization after rupture, and so so many responded with generosity, curiosity, and persistence. And this season in the Torah reading is brimming with a reflection of such action with the Israelites working to build sanctuary for the divine presence in their midst.

The very name of this week’s parasha implies the act of recommunitization. Vayak’hel literally means “and he [Moses] communitied.” This verb form of the Hebrew word for community kehillah (also kahal) is the act Moses needed to do to help transition the Israelites from the rupture of the Golden Calf to the communal project of building the mishkan – the structure for the divine presence to dwell among the people.

That we read these parashiyot back to back is of significance and of perhaps great resonance in this time for Kadima and for any community or group seeking to find community again after faltering. In fact one of Judaism’s most powerful gifts to the world, in my rabbinic opinion, is our focus on and structures for repair and restitution.

And Moses does not do this work behind the scenes. He does so by addressing the entire “witness” of the Israelites – kol eidat b’nai yisrael – everyone together. No one was left out of this attempt at bringing the people back toward one another – making them whole again. And Kadima’s meeting this past Sunday was similarly open to all in our community, recorded, and being shared out.

As we continue the work of return to one another, may the torah readings and more offer resilience and comfort, instruction and resolve. And may the generosity, skill, and beauty that went into creating the mishkan be a model for how we can show up in this season as well, as it says “and the efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.” May it be so.

Shabbat shalom,
R’ David

PS – join us on site or on zoom for a Shabbat Morning Service where we will read from the parasha and bless a new Kadima baby and an upcoming Kadima wedding! Details on our online calendar.

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Responding to the Synagogue Attack in Michigan
The attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan reminds us at Kadima of countless attacks on sanctuaries and places of worship around the globe. From Christchurch to Hebron, from Pittsburgh to Poway, from Charleston to Birmingham, and so so many more. And the targeting of Jews in particular is misinformed, wrong, and dangerous – especially now when heightened confusion and disinformation run deep about who to blame for war with Iran and for genocide in Gaza. Let us all hold out, as Kadima has for generations, that Judaism ≠ Zionism, Jewish ≠ Zionist, Temple Israel ≠ State of Israel. That no people are a monolith, that attacking people for their identity is a desecration, that violence cannot end violence, that places of worship are sanctuaries, that no group is to be blamed for the actions of one, that children are not to be targeted, that we can hold and love and support one another across manufactured divides. That our sadness and our anger is righteous, and that our love and compassion can be overpowering. May there be clarity in our resolve, peace and healing for those targeted and their families, and, in the words of the prophet Amos: may restoration roll down like waters, and justice like a mighty stream.

Don't Have a Cow

3/6/2026

This week's Torah portion relays the story of the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf. One might ask: what were they thinking?! And yet, one maybe can also relate to the Israelites who felt anxious, worried, and scared in the uncertainty they were surrounded by. Moses had just successfully led them out of the Narrow Place, away from enslavement, but he sure had been up on that mountain top for a long time and they were in the middle of the wilderness!

Being anxious in times of uncertainty is certainly an understandable human reaction. And at times, perhaps for some of us like events of this month, the anxiety and fear can lead to rash decision making and doing things against our values and community standards.

This parasha, Ki Tisa, while showing us the gravest collective sin in our canon, also shows us how to recover, how to make teshuvah. Core liturgy from the High Holidays comes directly after the episode of the Golden Calf, reminding G-d of G-d's own compassion and mercy.

L'havdil – while these two scenarios are not at all the same – as we seek recovery from a community rupture, may we also know that repair is possible, that showing up with compassion and mercy are the attributes our tradition asks us to keep primary, and that taking the actions to restore what has been lost is possible. Perhaps this is the point Bart Simpson has been making all these years with his astute pun of “don't have a cow.” Perhaps. After all, we are on the heels of Purim.

Shabbat shalom,
R’ David

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Important Community Meeting Update
Sunday, March 8th | 2-4pm | Cherry Street Village & Zoom

Join us this Sunday for a community meeting to learn more about our finances, new volunteer task forces, and more.

Sunday’s Community Meeting is going hybrid! We now have an in-person option to gather at Cherry Street Village in Seattle’s Central District. Please arrive at 1:45pm if you are attending onsite so we can begin promptly at 2pm and wrap up at 4pm as planned. For those attending on Zoom, here is the link you’ll need to join.

Onsite accessibility info: All onsite attendees are required to mask with a KN95 or better; please stay home if sick. CSV is a historic landmark in the process of restoration, and has a history of mold that has not yet been completely eradicated; those with sensitivities may wish to attend virtually or upgrade their PPE. Please aim to be fragrance-free. CSV is an ADA accessible venue with all-gender bathrooms. Speakers onsite will use microphones for easier audibility.
We look forward to being in constructive community dialogue with you this Sunday!
Click here to learn more & to save the event to your calendar.

Volunteer Community Task Forces hard at work!

2/27/2026

Last week we shared about the forming of our wonderful new member led, volunteer community task forces. Since the newsletter was long, we wanted to highlight them front and center this week to make sure you know about them, see their latest updates, and know how to get involved if you’d like to support the Kadima community as we weather this difficult moment, and build towards a better, more stable future.

Volunteer Task Forces
A group of Kadima members has proposed mobilizing the community into task forces to navigate the current financial/organizational crisis together and continue building Kadima towards a more sustainable, transparent, and engaged future. People from this group met with the board to initiate important work areas, which can evolve into the system of standing committees prescribed in the Bylaws.

Interested Kadima members are invited to join task forces - please learn more below and reach out to them individually if you want to explore joining.

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Volunteer Financial Task Force
In response to Kadima’s current financial difficulties, Kadima’s new Financial Task Force has launched. It brings together ten Kadima members, along with Kadima’s treasurer, Marion, who have deep experience in budgeting and finance, nonprofit management, organizational development, crisis management, and data analysis and presentation. Our goals are to identify the roots of Kadima’s current crisis, craft a remedial plan, and develop a strategy for Kadima’s stability, solvency and growth. We are well on our way. We’ll present our findings and share our recommendations at Kadima’s community meeting on March 8th. Look forward to receiving background information from the Financial Task Force before the meeting; we want Kadima members to come with shared context and renewed optimism!

Questions? Please email the FTF at [email protected].

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Volunteer Programming Task Force
Members need to feel this community around them, receive the ritual and other programming they crave. As a lay-led community at our core, we can give these community spaces to each other. Maybe it is a zoom class in your field, maybe it is Shabbat dinner at your place, maybe it is a hybrid workshop for adults during Kadima School!

Join: This group is seeking members excited about programming content, logistics, event planning, setting up chairs, etc. If interested in offering programming to Kadima, fill out this form or email Maia and Rainer to join the Task Force to help support and schedule events in collaboration with staff: [email protected] & [email protected]

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Volunteer Member Engagement Task Force
This group will implement a community outreach plan to listen to, engage, and get members plugged into programming and volunteer opportunities at Kadima. This can include the implementation of a survey about what we want and need and personal check-ins with community members to ensure that fruitful feedback is well documented and actionable.

Join: This group welcomes people with interests in research, surveying, outreach, community organizing, making phone calls, and potential fundraising. Email Sandy and Leah: [email protected] & [email protected]
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Volunteer Mutual Aid Task Force
Addressing the need for community care for staff who have had their hours cut, been furloughed, and laid off both in the form of food and care packages, but also potentially collecting transitional financial compensation in collaboration with the Finance Committee findings.

Join: This group needs many more members to make it happen. Submit this form if you’re interested in getting involved! Have questions? Email Gillian & Abra at: [email protected] & [email protected]
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Mutual Aid Task Force Update:
Dear Kadima Community, we write to you as fellow members who have been working on a plan to share some love and mutual aid with all of the staff who were affected by the recent cuts.

Please take a moment to send them some words of love (no condolences or sympathies, just things you appreciate about them) here. Multiple Appreciations submissions welcome, including hand written words or images! We will collect responses on Sunday, March 8 for delivery to folks.

If you have some extra financial capacity in this moment, please feel free to sign up for grocery deliveries or contribute towards bodywork and basic needs, as identified by each individual. All opportunities to contribute can be found here feel free to sign up for one or more.

Many hands make light work, and joy and appreciation shared is joy doubled–whether with words, food, or funds, your love is appreciated.

Gillian, Abra, Ruth, Aster
The Ad Hoc Staff Mutual Aid Committee 💛

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Volunteer Values Process Task Force
It is incredibly important to continue the process of rearticulating our values as a community. It is a process that has been perennially paused before completion over many years and this crisis moment should spark us to continue rather than retreat from it once again. There is energy among members to find both our clarity of purpose as well as maintain an invigorating and inclusive diversity of tactics.

Join: There are many already interested, but room for a few more as well as opportunities down the line to participate. Email Sima & Maia together at: [email protected] & [email protected]

Join for the next Kadima Community Meeting
Sunday, March 8th | 2-4pm | Zoom

Join us for a community meeting to learn more about our finances, new volunteer task forces, and more. Full meeting agenda to come.

This community meeting will be held solely on Zoom. We look forward to being in constructive community dialogue with you then!

Click here to save the event to your calendar and access the Zoom link.

Kadima Still Needs Your Support!

We are happy to share that Rabbi David has returned from furlough at reduced hours, alongside staff who remain at reduced hours. Our dream is to return our staff to their usual hours through the rest of the fiscal year, and in order to be able to do that, we still need your support!

Can you help us secure our staff hours and programmatic capacity as we work hard to build towards a better future for Kadima that is more transparent and more stable, both for our staff and our community?

Here are four ways to show your support today:

If you haven’t donated yet, or if you have and can do more, please consider making a meaningful contribution today to help us meet our goal of making a better Kadima for you, your family, and your community.
Please share our fundraiser with your friends and family and welcome them to help support your community through a generous donation. Let your loved ones support you by supporting Kadima today!
If you are eligible, explore employer matching gifts. These can double or even triple your impact!
Monthly donations increase our financial stability so we can predictably pay our workers. Consider becoming a member if you aren’t one already, and increasing your Nadiv Lev contributions if you are. If you are already giving monthly, please check to make sure your donation was processed correctly. To start or increase your Nadiv Lev, or to report any issues, email [email protected].

Together, with your financial and volunteer support, we are stronger and hopeful that we can collectively build a more stable foundation for Kadima in this next chapter.

Chelsea, Hila, Guy, Marion, Michael
Kadima Executive Board

Kadima Board & New Volunteer Task Force Update

2/20/2026

We are happy to share that we have met our initial fundraising goal through the generous efforts of 57 Kadima community members and are on track to bring Rabbi David back from furlough at the beginning of March. For clarity, this initial goal does not allow us to return our other staff back to their full working hours, and they will remain for the time being at reduced hours until more funds are secured.

Our dream is to return our staff to their usual hours through the rest of the fiscal year, and in order to be able to do that, we still need your support. Can you help us secure our staff hours and programmatic capacity as we work hard to build towards a better future for Kadima that is more transparent and more stable, both for our staff and our community?

Here are four ways to show your support today:

If you haven’t donated yet, or if you have and can do more, please consider making a meaningful contribution today to help us meet our goal of making a better Kadima for you, your family, and your community.
Please share our fundraiser with your friends and family and welcome them to help support your community through a generous donation. Let your loved ones support you by supporting Kadima today!
If you are eligible, explore employer matching gifts. These can double or even triple your impact!
Monthly donations increase our financial stability so we can predictably pay our workers. Consider becoming a member if you aren’t one already, and increasing your Nadiv Lev contributions if you are. If you are already giving monthly, please check to make sure your donation was processed correctly. To start or increase your Nadiv Lev, or to report any issues, email [email protected].

We are also thrilled to announce that many members of the Kadima community have come forward to build volunteer task forces to help Kadima get through this difficult time. Together we are stronger and hopeful that we can collectively build a more stable foundation for Kadima in this next chapter.

The board and newly created volunteer Financial Task Force are working together to come to you with more concrete numbers for what Kadima must raise in the weeks and months ahead to create financial stability as we support our staff and build back up to more programming.

We are deeply grateful to these community members who have stepped up to support Kadima in these vital ways. If you are interested in finding ways to support our staff and the Kadima community, please read below about these new member-organized task forces and how to get involved. They need more volunteers!

Chelsea, Hila, Guy, Marion, Michael
Kadima Executive Board

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Volunteer Task Forces
A group of Kadima members has proposed mobilizing the community into task forces to navigate the current financial/organizational crisis together and continue building Kadima towards a more sustainable, transparent, and engaged future. People from this group met with the board to initiate important work areas, which can evolve into the system of standing committees prescribed in the Bylaws.

Interested Kadima members are invited to join task forces - please learn more below and reach out to them individually if you want to explore joining.
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Financial: The immediate goal is to assist in revision of Kadima’s financial structure: policies, procedures and revenue strategy. As first steps this group will review financial management processes, conduct an audit of Kadima’s financial operations to support member confidence, develop a critically needed report on origins of the current crisis, support communication about emergency fundraising for core functions, and guide the revision of member donation structure. Longer term goal is to contribute to the revision and improvement of a wider range of financial management structures to assure Kadima’s financial stability.

Join: This task force is seeking a couple of members with financial analysis and management skills who are interested in supporting these tasks. Email Doug and Adam: [email protected] & [email protected].

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Programming: Members need to feel this community around them, receive the ritual and other programming they crave. As a lay-led community at our core, we can give these community spaces to each other. Maybe it is a zoom class in your field, maybe it is Shabbat dinner at your place, maybe it is a hybrid workshop for adults during Kadima School!

Join: This group is seeking members excited about programming content, logistics, event planning, setting up chairs, etc. If interested in offering programming to Kadima, fill out this form or email Maia and Rainer to join the Task Force to help support and schedule events in collaboration with staff: [email protected] & [email protected]

____

Member Engagement: This group will implement a community outreach plan to listen to, engage, and get members plugged into programming and volunteer opportunities at Kadima. This can include the implementation of a survey about what we want and need and personal check-ins with community members to ensure that fruitful feedback is well documented and actionable.

Join: This group welcomes people with interests in research, surveying, outreach, community organizing, making phone calls, and potential fundraising. Email Sandy and Leah: [email protected] & [email protected].

____

Mutual Aid for Staff: Addressing the need for community care for staff who have had their hours cut, been furloughed, and laid off both in the form of food and care packages, but also potentially collecting transitional financial compensation in collaboration with the Finance Committee findings.

Join: This group needs many more members to make it happen. Submit this form if you’re interested in getting involved! Have questions? Email Gillian & Abra at: [email protected] & [email protected]

____

Values Process: It is incredibly important to continue the process of rearticulating our values as a community. It is a process that has been perennially paused before completion over many years and this crisis moment should spark us to continue rather than retreat from it once again. There is energy among members to find both our clarity of purpose as well as maintain an invigorating and inclusive diversity of tactics.

Join: There are many already interested, but room for a few more as well as opportunities down the line to participate. Email Sima & Maia together at: [email protected] & [email protected]

TERUMAH: The Shack of Gold - A Barak D’var 5786

2/20/2026

This message is brought to you by Barak–the elders of Kadima School, soon to have their B’mitzvahs! We wrote a D’var for this weekly newsletter to practice for the D’vars we will share at our own B’mitz. We hope you enjoy!
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The parsha this week is called Terumah. Terumah means the offerings made by the priests to Adonai, or in other words, a sacrifice. Parshat Terumah is in the book of Exodus or Shemot in Hebrew (which means “Names”). The Israelites have escaped Egypt somewhat recently and they are in the wilderness pondering their choices. They have made it to Mount Sinai and Moses has already brought the ten commandments down. Moses has been regularly summiting the mountain to converse with Adonai.

Once Moses comes down from the mountain again, he says that Adonai instructed every Israelite “to bring Me gifts…from every person whose heart is so moved.” Adonai asks the people of Israel to give a bunch of lavish things to build a sanctuary to be able to “dwell among them.” These gifts will become all the materials to build the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting or what many call the Tabernacle in English), which was a mobile temple where the priests could make sacrifices to Adonai.

“Gd’s shed”

It feels surprising that Adonai is not forcing the people to give these gifts, but it’s optional. Is this a test of loyalty? Why does Adonai want people to want to give? Before this parsha, the Israelites had created an idol out of all the treasure they had taken from Egypt. When Moses and Adonai found out they were furious and felt betrayed. A lot of these same precious materials are also asked for and used to build the Mishkan. Is this really a coincidence or does Adonai want the Israelites to really see that they don’t need an idol, they just need Adonai? This seems like Adonai is still envious of the Golden Calf. (How often can you say that your Gd was jealous of a cow!?) Maybe Adonai is wanting more proof of loyalty, asking them to be willing to offer the same valuable things to make something for Adonai instead of an idol?

The parsha records how Adonai explains how to create the perfect place for themself to reside. Which includes many normal materials like wood and cloth and copper, as well as really special materials like dolphin skin, silver and LOTS of gold (and much more). There are so many instructions, it is basically a verbal architectural plan. It is extra tricky, because everything needs to be packable and movable.

We had some questions about the construction: For such a specific description, there are still things that seem unclear. For example using cubits as units seems imprecise–it would vary depending on the builder and how long their arm is. Also, why so much gold? It is the place that is supposed to tempt Gd to come and stay and be with the people, and Gold does make you think of wealth and luxury. If “it’s Gd’s shed,” it has to be nice! Another hypothesis we came up with is that gold is a really good conductor of electricity, so if Adonai is in the sky above Mt. Sinai, maybe it makes it easier for them to come down and make an electrical entrance like lightning! Maybe the gold makes it possible for Adonai to enter the Mishkan.

Blueprints on the mountain?

As a class, one of our main noticings was that it sounds like building the Mishkan would have taken a long time. It doesn’t feel easy to follow these instructions because it feels like a game of telephone, where the first word is from Gd, then it goes through Moses, the Israelite builders, and then the authors of Torah. It seems like it would be super difficult to remember exactly what Adonai instructed. Wouldn’t diagrams or pictures be easier and simpler to understand? This made us wonder, was it really all spoken or was Moses actually given a blueprint?

We noticed that the Torah says Adonai told Moses after all the instructions, to “Note well, and follow the patterns for them that are being shown you on the mountain.” (Exodus, 25:40) We don’t know if this means that Moses was given a vision or a diagram. Did the Israelites get to see that also?

Using the Jastrow dictionary, we looked up the Hebrew word that was translated as “shown.” We found the root, “ra’ah,” which means “to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider.” We think this means that, instead of words, Moses saw a whole diagram of what the Mishkan was supposed to look like and how to build it–like a difficult lego instruction manual.

Where is the Mishkan today?

So, why such a detailed description of how to build the mishkan? It could have just said, “the Israelites built the Mishkan,” but instead the Torah keeps all the plans. It is almost like it is assumed that people will need to rebuild it. In fact, people did need to rebuild. When the Second Temple was destroyed, people couldn’t rebuild it and many had to flee. Was this a moment for the Mishkan to return?

But, we weren’t all in the same place or traveling together this time (and maybe we didn’t have that much gold!) Rabbinic Judaism adapts to the diaspora and this is what inspired synagogues. If you build only one thing, like the Temple, it can be destroyed, but if you build many there will always be a place for Jewish ritual. The Tabernacle becomes simplified and you can still see elements of it in today’s synagogues. Our temples share designs, layouts and furniture with the descriptions of the Mishkan. For example, on the Bima, we have a table in the middle for reading the Torah instead of for sacrifices, and an Ark that holds the Torah instead of the “testimony” in our parsha.

It is not an accident that today’s synagogues resemble the description of the Mishkan in our parsha. It is designed to be that way. There is no right or wrong way to build a place for Jews to pray, but it is intentional that even without clear directions of how to build a synagogue, there are always elements from the Mishkan. Just like there are always elements of our histories in our present era. Maybe people wanted their temples to help them feel connected to their ancestors who wandered in the desert and who built the Mishkan. This feels especially true of Kadima since we don’t have a permanent location and are constantly moving, just like the Tent of Meeting!

Dealing with Crashes

The people who wrote the Torah were preparing for a “crash” as Rabbi Benay Lappe says in her theory of crash. There are different ways that all people respond to a crash. The detailed description of the Mishkan in Parshat Terumah allowed Jews to come up with temples / synagogues as a solution.

Kadima is sometimes more like a Mishkan than a temple because all our stuff is made to move around! Throughout COVID and other barriers we have faced, we have had to adapt just like the beginnings of Rabbinic Judaism. Following in the footsteps of our ancestors, Kadima is capable of dealing with many different types of crash. Everyone goes through crashes, it’s the ability to deal with them that shapes us.

Miral
Miriam
Aziza
Oliver
Farah

Kadima Board Update

2/13/2026

Dear Community,

Since the announcement about Kadima’s dire financial situation and its impacts on our staff and programming, the board has received many messages from community members. We are taking the time to read each and every one and we appreciate your patience as we navigate all of your questions, feelings, concerns, and offers. We value it all and seek to address them with intention and care.

We are struck that the majority of messages are supportive and caring, expressing concern and a desire to help. We are extremely grateful for the ways in which our beloved community is showing up for one another at this moment. Today, we want to share some updates about what has been happening in recent days.

The board and staff have been in contact daily and have been meeting in different configurations 2 to 3 times per week, plus many hours of asynchronous communication. This is far from the usual and represents not only staff and board commitment to managing this crisis, but also response to staff requests for increased board-staff communications. We appreciate all the gracious support, feedback and constructive criticism from staff and community. We are trying to operate from a spirit of humility, listening to you while also increasing communication, operating more transparently and practicing accountability to our community. We remain incredibly grateful for staff’s commitment to Kadima, their wisdom and knowledge, and for their willingness to work closely with us now and going forward.

We have seen an increase in monthly dues and Nadiv Lev giving as well as many one-time donations. We are grateful that those of you with employer matching have been donating that way to double or triple your impact. At this time we are on a good trajectory to bring Rabbi David back from furlough on March 1st. We hope that with your continued support we can make this a reality. We understand it is not easy to give at a time like this when the future is uncertain, but every dollar gets us closer to reinstating staff hours and building toward a sustainable future. Board members with the financial ability to do so have also given additional one-time contributions and increased monthly Nadiv Lev commitments this week.

In lieu of the space that Rabbi David was planning to hold last Saturday, Hila and Michael stepped in to be present with whoever was at Kadima School that day and wanted to talk. They talked with about a dozen community members about the financial situation and ways we are trying to move forward. We were buoyed by the love and passion parents have for Kadima School and their desire and commitment to seeing the school succeed. We heard from some parents that they feel disconnected from the wider community, and know that members unaffiliated with the school also feel that gap. Through our family programs, concerts, and other intergenerational offerings, our education team is actively working to provide spaces for community members of all ages to gather and learn from one another. We hope that when we are able to reinstate more programming, that these offerings can continue to support our community as a whole.

We have also heard the community coming together with strong voices to share their investment in Kadima School, even if they are not directly participating in the programming. There is clear unity among staff, board, and the wider Kadima community to maintain our incredible education program and to continue supporting students and their families.

The board is so thankful for the ways in which all of you have advocated for and supported the Kadima community in recent weeks. Coming together in these ways is a true testament to the passion, power, and love we all hold for the Kadima we have and are creating. There is more work to be done, there are more things that must change and we are looking forward to collaborating with the many community members who have reached out to take up work supporting Kadima during this time.

Please stay tuned for a date and time announcement for our next community meeting which we are hoping to host in early March.

Thank you all --

Chelsea, Hila, Guy, Marion, and Michael
Kadima Executive Board

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