Why Chabad E-Myth?

The reprint of the article below, from Chabad.org, clearly articulates the need for everything that we are working to accomplish with our project!  Chabad E-Myth will give shluchim the tools they need to systematically and effectively organize their "House" and teach them to be true entrepreneurs, true CEO's of their communities.

Parshas Behar 

The Recession
The recession hasn’t made many headlines this week, but it’s still usually news on the second page, and  we are all still a little worried, a little skeptical, waiting to see how it will turn out.

Large powerful institutions were found to have made fundamental mistakes – forgetting basic rules that we all learn in preschool… ‘What goes up, must come down’.  Now, it will never quite be the same. The bedrock of our economy has been shaken, and we have lost our trust in them. 

In times like this, it is easier than ever to see which companies are REALLY successful.  Google, for example has been labeled by some as ‘recession proof’, and whilst I’m not here to give you any stock tips, I want to focus on one point that is the CORE of every successful company and is the BASIS  of any business-management philosophy.

The Vision.

Shared Vision
In any company it is vital that the management has a clear plan and goal.  But what about the clerk and the janitor? What do they have to do with the vision of the company?  A good CEO will be dedicated to achieving the company goals, but does he expect the same from the technician?  The technician’s goal is to fill his job description to the best of his abilities, what connection does he have to the company’s goals??

One of the keys of a successful company is a shared goal, where ALL of the employees share, live and breathe the company’s vision. Everyone. Not just the CEO and the top managers, but even the secretaries and janitors believe in, and feel passionate about the vision.

Not only companies, but a successful synagogue or chabad house ALSO needs a clear, shared vision.

The Jewish Vision
A Jew comes home from synagogue and tells his wife: "They say the Messiah is coming any day, and will take us all to Israel."

The wife becomes hysterical. "Oh no! It would be terrible. It took years till we could finally move into this neighborhood and buy the house we wanted. Now we've spent a fortune fixing it up. I don't want the Messiah to take us away."

"Okay, okay, don't worry," the husband says. "We survived Pharaoh, we survived Haman. With G-d's help, we'll survive the Messiah too!"

The job description of a Jew is to follow the Shluchan Aruch (The code of Jewish Law), to keep all of G-d’s 613 commandments.  But at the same time we also have G-d’s mission statement: To bring Moshiach Now.  It’s not enough to just follow the laws and ‘do our job’.  In order to achieve the goals, we have to be passionate about this dream, and truly LIVE the vision of making the world a comfortable, home for G-d.

Whilst we are, secularly, the best educated people in the history of the world, our Jewish education is sorely lacking.  We still have a long way to go to come close to the CEO’s of Judaism like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we are far from the ‘managers’ like Moses and Miamonides.  So how can we capture this vision of and make it our own?  How can we make every one of our actions work towards the goal, and wake up every day LIVING and BREATHING the vision of Moshiach?

Shmita
To live and breathe G-d’s vision, Moshiach, you need to take the time to study it and grasp it.  Too often we get caught up in the details and forget the big picture.  We need to find a balance between working IN and working ON.  On one hand we need to work IN our judaism, do the mitzvos, the details, the small stuff. On the other hand we must not forget to work ON our Judaism, think about WHY we are doing this? What are we trying to achieve?

Shmitta, the sabbatical year is G-d’s command to every one of us to MAKE SURE to take the time to focus on Moshiach, on His ultimate goal for our world.

The parsha this week, Behar, opens with the details of the Shmitta.  The Sabbatical year.  “For six years, work the land, prune the vineyard and gather the crops” says the Torah, “And in the seventh year the land shall rest.. you should not work, prune or reap”. 

Once in 7 years, G-d commands that the entire Land of Israel , all the fields and orchards must left alone, they cannot be worked on, sown, planted or reaped, they must left to rest.

Shmitta = Refocus
At first glance shmitta is all about resting.  Stop tilling the land, stop planting, don’t gather the grain… But really it’s much more.  G-d is commanding us, that once in 7 yrs we must get our heads out of the ground, out of our work and daily matters.  We have to stop focusing on our fields, our businesses and jobs, we have to get above our vineyards, our bonds and investment portfolios.

Once in 7 years, we have to stop ‘just doing our job’  and blindly following our job description, we have take a year to question it, and refocus on the vision.  We have to spend a year studying the Torah, G-d’s divine plan, the blueprint of the world.  We have to revisit and redefine our goals in Judaism and tweak our personal job descriptions – our commitments to G-d, to ensure we are getting closer to our goals.  We have to get out of the details and see the big picture.

Balance
On the other hand we need a balance, we cannot forget that our job description is to get our hands dirty and purify the world, we can’t be too intellectual or wait until we fully understand what it is that G-d wants.  We have to wake up each morning and WORK the field, PRUNE the vineyard, HARVEST the crops… trying each day making the world a little better. But it is vital that from time to time we also stand above it. 

We cannot get too caught up IN the world, we also have to work ON world.  As the saying goes: “You can’t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” -  IN ORDER to achieve the goal of a perfect – Moshiach world, we must be able to stand above our daily work and our daily struggles with the world’s details, and from time to time refocus on the divine vision, the masterplan. 

A good employee is one who doesn’t just do his job, but lives and breathes the company’s motto.  It’s not enough just to follow G-d instructions, we need to identify with his dream and be 100% commited to making this world a better place, a place of Moshiach.

Ideally we should all take off the next shmitta year (2014), we should leave our office and our jobs and just sit and study Torah for an entire year… but if you find that difficult then at least take every Shabbat, work for 6 days, but take today, just take the day of shabbat to study G-d’s vision, learn more about Moshiach, and reconsider your personal goals and how they tie into G-d’s masterplan.

When we study and identify with G-d’s vision, making it part of our OWN dreams and our own desires, When we are commited to the vision of moshiach –the big picture, rising above ourselves and personal desires, we ensure that not only do we not become affected by the latest materialistic trends in our society, but WE end up influencing others and having a real, lasting impact on our world.