JUNE 22 • 2023 | 43
Holiness: Discovering holi-
ness in everyday interactions
and using Shabbat and holidays
to find holiness all around us.
Care: Caring for our planet
and its inhabitants.
Awe: Developing our sense
that there is something larger
than ourselves, which we might
call God. Seeing freely who we
are and who we are not.
Freedom to: Working on our
characteristics, to live up to our
potential.
Teshuvah: Reflecting and
changing and turning from our
mistakes.
Study: Studying, learning
and continuing to study, grow
and renew our understanding.
Freedom to connect:
Connecting to others, connect-
ing our inner life to the outer
world.
For each of these core prin-
ciples, Strassfeld provides a
panoply of illustrations, drawn
from his wide familiarity with
classical Jewish sources, from
contemporary thinkers of all
sorts and from his personal
introspection.
DOING GOOD
He shows how by focusing
on meaning when practicing
good deeds — both good
deeds that make sense only
in a Jewish context and good
deeds that have universal
appeal — we can transform
ourselves and our communi-
ties:
“By doing good, we are not
guaranteed to win the lottery,
but we are ‘guaranteed’ to live
a life of harmony and peace
rather than discord and anger.
We create our own spiritual
environment. It can be an
environment so polluted with
negativity that it is hard to
breathe or an environment
redolent with the scent of the
Garden of Eden,” he writes.
He does not prescribe
one specific right way to
accomplish each of these goals.
Rather, he invites readers to
find their own paths, to try
practices and meditations that
have the potential to foster
their own growth.
Strassfeld grew up in a
Modern Orthodox community,
son of a communal rabbi.
That community provided a
structure for understanding
a life of obedience to
commandments. God created
the world, redeemed our
ancestors from slavery in Egypt,
revealed the Torah to them,
and continues to guarantee an
ultimate reward for following
Halachah, Jewish law. Strassfeld
eventually found that structure
unhelpful: It makes extravagant
claims of fact and demands that
we defend every problematic
text or practice.
Halachah, Strassfeld
explains, does not meet the
definition of law, in that it
has no real enforcement. He
acknowledges an advantage
to treating halachah as law:
“Otherwise, it is only up to me
whether to observe the practice
or not. Facing an important
work deadline, it could be hard
to resist the pressure of saying
to myself I will skip.”
But, except for the most
traditional of us, contemporary
Jews do not observe Judaism
as law. Strassfeld sees that as
returning to the literal meaning
of “Halachah” using Jewish
practice as a “path.”
Other Jewish movements, in
their encounter with modernity,
developed alternative
structures for explaining their
commitment to Jewish practice.
Nearly all, in Strassfeld’s
analysis, pay too much
attention to “fulfillment” of our
obligations and not enough
to the inner work. In Judaism
Disrupted, Strassfeld invites us
to engage in that inner work.
continued from page 41
been shown at the Detroit
Institute of Arts, Museum of
Contemporary Art Detroit
(MOCAD), Simone DeSousa
Gallery in Detroit and
the Public Pool Gallery in
Hamtramck as well as by other
art presenters in and out of
Michigan.
She also works as a freelance
writer, art reviewer and college
lecturer.
“When I was in high school
in California, I was interested
in fashion and went to the
University of California Santa
Cruz for theater design and cos-
tuming,
” said Sharp, 42. “When
I moved to New York in 2002,
I was working in the costume
shops.
“I have always done work
with fabric, but it’s become less
and less wearable with a focus
on my art career. I worked in
advertising for a time because
the pay was better, and I did a
lot of writing while always mak-
ing art somehow.
“When I got to Detroit, it
opened up my world as an
artist. There was so much more
space here, and I could make
a living. My first job when
I moved here was at Slows
Bar BQ. I was able to support
myself and still have enough
time to make art.”
Sharp was named a 2015
Kresge Literary Arts Fellow for
Arts Criticism and became a
2018 recipient of the Rabkin
Foundation Prize.
“I write for art mostly
in online publications, and
Hyperallergic is the main one,
”
Sharp said. “I do reviews of
student work at the University
of Michigan and the College for
Creative Studies. I write catalog
essays for shows.
“The way that I make art is
labor-intensive, and I hope that
it leads people to look at it for
a long time. One of the things I
think art helps with is attention
span, which, I think, is a big
problem in our culture right
now.
”
Natalie Balazovich, Janice
Charach Gallery director,
explained that exhibit pieces
range from the small to the
large and reach from fabric and
basket-weaving materials to
steel and man-made synthetics.
“We are thrilled to hold this
extraordinary exploration of
contemporary craft,
” Balazovich
said. “Kim Harty brings a vision
of what contemporary craft can
be and a network of brilliant
artists who share her under-
standing. It makes for a very
exciting experience for gallery
goers.
”
continued from page 42
Sarah Rose Sharp, Farnsworth Flag, 2016. Wool, salvage quilt frag-
ment, Indonesian decorative ribbon, glass buttons, prayer flag scraps,
printed cotton.