open source judaism

Our sages loved parables, short stories to illustrate religious principles. For example, rabbis of the Talmud and Midrash often described God’s incomprehensible majesty by comparing God to a flesh-and-blood King. Here is a modern parable: A healthy synagogue is comparable to an Open Source Software program. Open Source Software is a computer program for which the source code – its recipe or blueprint – is publicly shared. Unlike proprietary software by Microsoft or Google, for which the program’s code is a trade secret and users are legally forbidden to make changes, Open Source Software is publicly distributed – anyone can see the lines of code, the DNA, that makes the program run. Everyone can see how the program was written, and like Wikipedia, anyone can modify or re-write the program in a process of continual renovation and innovation.

Open Source Software is developed in the public domain. The “source code,” building blocks of computer life, is freely accessible, and everyone has the same rights to use it or evaluate it. Since no one can own the copyright, everyone can study, edit, copy, and improve it in a collaborative fashion. For this to work, the code and the program must be rigorously clear; it cannot be deliberately vague or confusing. An Open Source Jewish community is one that hashes out ideas in public, in collaboration. Everyone’s task is to improve the communal “code.” All Jewish information is available to each member, but no one member can “own” it. A rabbi’s job is simply to ensure that source code – Bible, Talmud, Midrash, Halakhah, Philosophy, Chassidut – is clearly presented.

An Open Source Community is managed in a grass-roots fashion. In his 1997 essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond says that Open Source Software is not built like a cathedral, using an architect. Instead, he suggests that software should be developed by “a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches.” In Open Source Software, each user is a “co-developer,” each reader is a an author whose contribution gets constantly integrated into the program. A healthy Synagogue treats each person as a co-developer in the future of Judaism, whose ideas are constantly integrated into the living organism that is dynamic Judaism. As a result, Open Source Judaism is decentralized, and roles are loosely defined and flexible. The person who sold melons at the bazaar last week may sell leeks next week. Likewise in the Synagogue, members try on and learn from different roles throughout their spiritual lives.

The process that underlies Open Source Software may appear to be chaotic, but it is ultimately fruitful, because there are far more sets of eyes looking for problems and making fixes. The key is that users and customers of Open Source Programs can, should, and do offer advice to improve the program. Mistakes are a vital part of the process – it is only by trial and error and learning from mistakes that Open Source Programs become heartier, and more robust – and the rule of thumb is “Plan to throw one away; you will anyhow.” Open Source Judaism requires making mistakes, and learning from them. We try out new policies, customs and practices in an continual experiment to discover what makes a better Jewish community. Some fly, some fall. In an Open Source Jewish community, a rabbi’s role is to listen and try to recognize good ideas. I am, after all, just another co-developer of this wonderful program we call being Jewish. You are the most valuable resource in Open Source Judaism.