Reflections on Maggidut from the Secular World
printed in ERUV, the Journal, Issue Bet, 5770
Reflections on Maggidut from the Secular World
Maggid Uriel Brulé
Syracuse, NY
Objective:
To expand the reader’s conception and practice of maggidut as a spiritually focused activity which extends powerfully into the secular world.
As I began traveling the path to s’micha as a Maggid, I looked upon it as a particularly Jewish pursuit of a particularly Jewish role: inspiring people to experience the joys of G!d through the lens of Jewish stories. Given my focus, I knew I would be doing my “thing” at times for groups who were not necessarily – or even desirably! – Jewish, but I conceived of my activity as a decidedly Jewish, spiritual endeavor. While that has certainly proven to be the case, my understanding of the meaning of what constitutes a “Jewish spiritual endeavor” has expanded considerably.
By way of background, my adult life has been a chorus – some might say a cacophony – of engagements, involving multiple careers and roles in the worlds of spirit and parnassah. I have been seen careers in family therapy, artificial intelligence, marketing, entrepreneurship, office management and, most recently, as CIO of a large healthcare organization. I have led small congregations as they searched for a rabbi, served as a rabbinic aide for a large congregation, and taught adults of varying capacities for the past dozen years, including ten years leading a parashat hashavua study group. For me, there has existed a clear delineation between those two worlds, a boundary I would cross carefully and intentionally several times a week.
My s’micha, and my path to it, both eliminated and strengthened that delineation in deep and powerful ways. First I had to abandon the notion that being a maggid is about being a storyteller. While for some that might be an easy step, for me it was challenging, as it was the storytelling aspect of maggidut that first caught my attention, and was properly emphasized in my course of study. Ibelieve that without the proper repertoire of stories, a maggid has a language without a vocabulary. And yet maggidut is so much more than “just stories,” in the same way that a symphony is much more than “just musical notes.”
This challenge was made more difficult by the vagaries of translation of the term maggid and the predisposition of people to associate any kind of “story” activity with service to children and families. I quickly realized that instead of being consumed with defining “maggid” for others, I simply had to be a maggid. For my Jewish world, that meant following an obvious path: associating myself with more than one group / synagogue, focusing on Spirit and maggidut above story, and generally following the varied opportunities that emerged before me. In this way, I both broadened and deepened my connection with the local and regional Jewish community. That was no surprise.
The very pleasant surprise came upon my return post-s’micha to the world of parnassah. As CIO for this organization of 500 employees, I have made a conscious effort to not impose a particularistic view of myself upon the other members of the company. While everyone knows I am a Jew – and often the token Jew! – I do not wear a kippah at work, etc. And yet now I felt the power and energy of the s’micha resonating through my daily encounters, making me wonder: how was this to be channeled in such a secular environment?
The answer has come in two ways: one more predictable, in a sense, than the other. The first is that I have found a new facility to using the tool of my “trade” – stories, or more precisely, metaphor – in my business dealings within and without the organization. While I had always had a proclivity for recasting situations through the use of metaphor, now I am able to assume a stronger, more central position as I engage in that method, and this has allowed me to become noticeably more effective. For example, previously it would have been more likely that I would use an approach along the lines of, “you know, this problem reminds me of fishing: you have to prepare, you have to be patient, and you have to know where, when, and how to act.” Now, with a gentleness and strength that arises from being more open to maggidut, I can say: “Listen. This is a challenging problem. Let’s treat it as if we were going fishing: who knows where to get the right bait?” and so on…
It is not simply a matter of being authoritative, or persuasive, or facile with metaphor. It is the combination of all three, combined with a genuine caring for the other participants in the encounter. There is also, however, a deeper benefit that has emerged. Despite one’s best efforts, many business exchanges are predicated on information that is not merely incomplete but may, for reasons of either profit or self-preservation, be concealed or intentionally deceptive. In such exchanges, probing for more complete or accurate information is both challenging and exhausting.
The halakhic guidelines for business relationships can offer some guidance and surcease, such as how much of a change in price warrants a renegotiation or absolves one of further engagement. Even, or perhaps especially, when one is dealing with others who do not know or feel obliged to these requirements, adhering to them can elevate the exchange. Nonetheless, there remain many occasions when a simple adherence to halakha is insufficient. And it is in these moments that drawing on the skills and energies of maggidut can be most beneficial.
Unlike the previous example, in which a metaphor or story is explicitly and authoritatively engaged, these circumstances call for the discovery of a redeeming story about the “adversary.” What stories or scenes would help me understand my “opponent’s” position – preferably from an elevated position? How can I understand his or her motives in such a way that I see them as fulfilling a mission that has an elevated motive? And is this not the heart of maggidut?
Now, it would be naïve to believe that every endeavor is conducted for an elevated purpose, or by elevated means. Or is it? It is in fact my emerging experience that by searching out the Tov, by placing it before me in my business encounters, I am often able to bring matters to a much more beneficial conclusion. That is not to say that I am always successful, or to say that failure comes without its sometimes significant costs. But I do know that, when I approach these engagements filled with the determination to behave both ethically and immersed with the energy of maggidut, the outcomes are far more often far more positive, and the process is always more elevated.
“R. Eliezer says: ‘Let your fellow’s honor be as dear to you as your own.’”
Pirke Avos, 2:15.
Maggid Uriel Brulé is a musmach of Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum. He travels throughout New York and the country, inspiring spiritual and secular elevation. He can be reached at maggid@jimbrule.com
