Ep 66: Shleimut - Wholeness and JOC’s Multi-dimensional Consciousness

In this week’s episode, Tracie and April reflect on the concept of Shleimut, Wholeness, and how it was a driving force for April when she created the Ko’ach Fellowship, supported by Rise Up. April shares more about the Ko’ach Fellowship and together with Tracie, they discuss how healing, wholeness, and peace are all interconnected. 

Check out our discussion/reflection questions for this episode:  https://joyousjustice.com/blog/jews-talk-racial-justice-ep-66

Find April and Tracie's full bios and submit topic suggestions for the show at www.JewsTalkRacialJustice.com

Learn more about Joyous Justice where April is the founding and fabulous (!) director, and Tracie is a senior partner.: https://joyousjustice.com/

Support the work our Jewish Black & Native woman-led vision for collective liberation here: https://joyousjustice.com/support-our-work

Learn more about Rise Up: Nurturing the Soul of Jewish Justice here: https://www.riseupinitiative.org/

Read Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s. Letter from a Birmingham Jail here: https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf

Learn more about the Ko’ach Fellowship here: https://joyousjustice.com/koach-fellowship

Read more about W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of Double Consciousness here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1897/08/strivings-of-the-negro-people/305446/

Read Tracie’s Op-Ed from eJewishPhilanthropy here: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-leadership-of-jews-of-color-the-future-is-now/  

Learn more about The Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project here: https://www.insideoutwisdomandaction.org/

Learn more about Musar here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-musar-movement/

Transcript

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- [Tracie] Today we're looking back at a fellowship that April ran for other global majority Jews and thinking about shlemut, wholeness.- This is Jews Talk Racial Justice with April and Tracie, a weekly show hosted by April Baskin and Tracie Guy-Decker. In a complex world, change takes courage. Wholehearted relationships can keep us accountable. Hi, Tracie.- Hey, April. Great to see you.- It's great to see you too.(Tracie laughs) Okay, so, I had a really cool idea the other day while I was walking my parents' dog, Quincy. I was doing some preparation work for an upcoming event that I am so excited about. A research launch event for the philanthropic and social justice group Rise Up. By group, I mean, funding body, the Rise Up program. And they have an event that by the time it's published, it will be that day. And it's called the Rise Up Ecosystem Research Launch. This is a virtual place to be. (laughs) And for those who went to the event who are now checking out our podcast, in this episode, we're gonna talk a little more deeply about some of the themes that I shared in my presentation. Welcome. And you know Rise Up as a relatively new funding body that arose in the last few years and funds different social justice and radical initiatives and efforts that are in the Jewish community that both work for transformative social justice change, and are also in various ways deeply spiritually rooted and nourishing and foreground in their work. The connection between or the key role that spirit and spirituality and divine nourishment plays. The key role that that plays in helping to guide, sustain, provide resilience for deeply impactful social justice work. So, that's a little bit about Rise Up. And they fund about 10 projects every giving cycle which is annual. And I think we came in around their third round of giving. And when they do it, they give and they create different communities of practice based around each grant cohort. Oh, my goodness. For me, in terms of Rise Up, being able to apply to funding with a funder who unequivocally supports black liberation and centered that in their application, it was the first time in my professional career where I got to speak openly and proudly about my leadership and work and all of the strategic moves I had made and be more fully seen in my wholeness, which is the theme we're going to come back to (laughs) in this episode. Tracie, I'm going to turn it over to you to share some of your opening thoughts before we get further in.- I just want to say that the community of practices that Rise Up convened, it was really amazing. It really was deeply meaningful. I can remember multiple times where I looked at my calendar and there was this like big two-hour block in the middle for the COP. And I was like,- Right.- "Oh, there's so much to do."(April laughs) But then once I got there, it was like I wanted it to be three or four hours because there just was- The questions asked.- the people who were in the space... Yeah, and the way that people connected and the insights that they brought, it was just deeply meaningful and downright transformational in some ways.- Those who are on our email list, we haven't talked about this on the podcast, and it's kind of fun (laughs) as an organization because different folks connected different facets of what we do at different times. So, a number of you who are on our list and have been for a while know that the program for which we applied and got funding was a fellowship that I launched for a select number, about 10 phenomenal Jewish leaders of color or a global majority Jewish leaders supporting them and working with them over about an eight-month time span. And you can see more about the fellows if you go to our website, if you go to joyousjustice.com and click on the Courses tab or joyousjustice.com/courses. And if you click on the Ko'ach button, ko'ach, meaning strength and power. So the context here is that Claudia, the current Director of Rise Up, Claudia Horwitz, who I just adore invited me to share some reflections during this launch event, the Ecosystem Research launch specifically on the subject of shlemut, which immediately tugged at my heartstrings because shalem and shlemuut are two Hebrew words that have always meant a lot to me. shlemut meaning wholeness or whole, shalem meaning whole. Tracie, do you want to say a little bit more about that?- The words, they're from the same root as Shalom, which is peace. And so, there's something... I don't know. The words are so resonant, the idea that peace and wholeness have the same core, that they're related in that way by the language has always been really powerful for me.- Agreed. As I've been thinking about shlemut and shalem more in preparation for this event, it helps me feel it gave shalom more meaning, it gave the concept of peace more meaning. I love how different words are so interrelated like that in Hebrew with the same root..- When we think about those two and the connections between wholeness and peace in the language, I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's letter of Birmingham jail where he talks about people who are more interested in the absence of conflict than in actual peace. And feels like such an important distinction, and helpful framing that peace is not just the absence of conflict. It's more than that. Like the wholeness. The fact of wholeness brings... I don't know. It feels really resonant and bigger than in a good way.- And to me, the word that's coming up that feels so relevant here too is healing. That to me, there's something about this that means that in order to get to peace, and if you're broken, that to have wholeness, like to have peace, there needs to be a reconnection of things that were once broken and being put back together. And yeah, so shlemut and shalem, Like I literally used to have a sign. Can't remember if it was in one of my binders in college. Like just tacked on my wall (laughs) in my studio apartment like a sticker. Like it's something that I've had in different places, because it's something I strive for in my own experience as someone with a multidimensional identity living in societies that often aren't equipped to recognize the full breadth and depth of my identity and different connections. That it is a brave and intentional act and process and practice to regularly reach for wholeness and say, "No, all of these parts of me belong, and I embrace them and I acknowledge them and I get to decide how they show up and when on my terms." That's part of what shlemut and wholeness means for me. So, one of the things that I will have talked about by the time some folks listen to this that I learned through my qualitative research and literature review, however long ago when I worked on my honors thesis at Tufts, which I wrote about the experiences and identities of Jewish young adults of color in American Judaism. And one of my core, most significant takeaways from that research was that Jews of Color consistently possess multi-dimensional identity. And what I mean by that is so that I developed that term inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois concept that he wrote about for black people of double consciousness, of knowing what it's like to be as a black person in America. And because of white supremacy and white dominance, deeply knowing the white experience too and also navigating that, which obviously there's both pragmatic parts of that, and there's also oppressive parts of that once when another group's consciousness is something that you need to feel profoundly accountable to. So, there's layers of that. I used to just when I was younger think of it as a strength. And as I've been getting deeper into my healing journey, I've been noticing the ways in which some of that also manifests as internalized oppression. It's not all just increased cultural capital. There's also ways at times that some of those consciousness is the one consciousness can silence, being a part of silencing or dominating another within ourselves. But back on track here, so, as I did research and did quantitative intake research with about 50 Jews of Color from around the country, and then did deeper extended interviews with a smaller subset, what became clear is that every person I spoke with and also just, too what I'd seen with the many Jews of Color I had organized and worked with in recent years is that we are incredibly diverse. This is something that a number of Jewish leaders talk about, and that is so true. We are incredibly diverse (laughs) and have all sorts of ideas and opinions and identities, but one thing that I found through this research that we shared is that we have a magnified experience of what W.E.B. Du Bois talks about as double consciousness. And so, I talked about that as multi-dimensional consciousness or identity. That Jews of Color, being a person of color, and so not all of them experience this because some of them have fairly light skin, and quote-unquote passed, or are not identified as a person of color, but most are identified and labeled as a person of color. So they have that double consciousness around being whatever racial identity they possess in the context of white supremacy culture. So they know their own experience and also the dominant experience. Then they're Jewish, and so they know what it's like to be a Jew religious double consciousness around being a Jew in the context of a Christian or not just a Christian society, or a Christian hegemony more specifically. In the context of Christian hegemony. So, that right there already is two dimensions. And then many, but not all, but many Jews of Color have multiple other dimensions around their gender, around their sexuality. A number of them like me are multi-racial. So, then also within specific spaces, depending upon their appearance and also the ways in which they were raised, they were raised with multiple frameworks deeply around different identities. And what I saw both in my research, and again, in my activism and community building at the time is that without even a lot of investment and leadership support, this led Jews of Color as a group to often possess many different and be more open about many different talents and skills typically not discussed in Jewish spaces. This led to different questions and ideas coming up in spaces. And it led to often, I kind of always, I'm speaking generally here, but much more nuanced conversations and more openness than closed-off-ness. It became clear to me that Jews of Color needed protected and safe space to be able to express and explore even more deeply this multidimensionality and its different implications in their personal and professional lives.- I think that the protection and the connection between that protection and wholeness is really bright for me right now. I'm thinking about the ways that... I mean, the ways that I have heard friends, Jews of Color and people of color talk about needing to sort of leave their blackness at the door, or they can't,- Yep.- but they have to be- Yep, blackness, queerness- smaller-- multi-racialness. Yep.- Yeah, and like constantly fearing that if they express too much emotion, they'll be seen as sort of the angry black, whatever gender they are. And that any emotion is seen as angry. And so, that protection just is really resonating for me. I mean, I'm telling stories that have shared with me. Just knowing that I can talk about things without explaining what I mean. So, like for instance, in an explicitly Jewish space, being able to talk about like,"What do you do on December 25th? I don't actually want to go to the movies or eat Chinese food," and having it be understood what I mean. And so, it's that same sort of inside jargon, but it's more than that, because there's also sort of like an acceptance. That I don't have to explain what I mean or why it's bothersome.- Right.- People just understand. I mean, talk about an ability to be whole. To be able to just be like this thing happened and have the person on the other side be like, "Oh, wow!"- And to have that be- Sorry that happened- the set point or the starting point. That that's not the destination, right? So to me, one of the core parts of any of this work that I'm doing, that other various groups are doing in similar ways is that we're starting out. That what you just talked about, Tracie. And the most other spaces, that's what a number of us are positioned to have to fight for and work to. And what I am fundamentally asserting in having created Ko'ach, power and strength. The Ko'ach Fellowship is that that gets to be our baseline. That gets to be the beginning. And unlike in many other programs, most other programs in the Jewish community. And I think honestly in general, I don't have a specific destination in mind. I don't have... I mean, I guess I do in a broad sense of this further contributing to a world of wholeness, justice and compassion, but that I wanted to have the set point be the profound, clear, unequivocal centering of the JOC, Jews of Color multi-dimensional wisdom experience, knowing, and need for exploration be at the center. That's the starting point. And as someone who has lived and continues to live and navigate this myself around not feeling or perceiving even to this day, and I've just gotten to a place of peace with it, (laughs) it's not like my perspective about it has shifted, it can be challenging to hold a number of identities and live in a world or live in, not in a world. I think actually our world is beautiful and whole and abundant, but live in societies, in human constructed societies, in oppressive societies and contexts that often are only comfortable with more disempowered versions of us. There's some word I'm looking for that would be like that (speaks faintly).- They're like slices.- Yeah.- They're slices. They're incomplete.- They're just little slices,- They're sketches of ourselves.- And often those contexts, they want to celebrate the fact that... And I want us to be able to bring the whole loaf (laughs) of ourselves. (laughs)- Yeah. The full painting, not just the sketch- The shlemut,- of the portrait.- wholeness, shalem,- The shlemut. Yeah.- right? And so, different spaces take different slices of us. And one of my takeaways that has been further validated over the years in this work for my thesis is that Jews of Color have the potential to be incredibly powerful change agents in this world. And what I know from being one of those change agents and on that path is that incredible power also requires incredible nourishment, protection, unconditional love and support to back it up because incredible power, especially when it's contradicting certain forces at times can be greeted with pushback from the system or the structures that are in set times inherently opposed to the very existence (laughs) of people like Jews of Color who are often queer,- Yeah.- who are often multi-dimensional and counter-cultural in a range of honest, just in who they are elements of their being.- I was telling someone when we weren't together, and I was telling a colleague about some of the work with the fellowship, and the colleague was asking like,"Well, what does the fellowship do? What's the deliverable?" And I was like, "No, no."(April and Tracie laughing) The whole idea is that folks can show up with their whole selves, which they almost never get to do, and once that happens, amazing things will happen. And so, it's really about creating the space- And the conditions.- for that generative work without sort of putting guardrails on it, without saying,"We are going to create this specific deliverable,- Yeah.- this publication, this whatever." It's about like, "Let's see what wholeness can create,- facilitate if we can make the space for it."- Yeah.- Months ago, I had a small piece in the eJewish Philanthropy where I talked about sort of working with you and this fellowship helped me recognize just how much whiteness had been centered in all of the workspaces that I've ever worked in, both in the Jewish community, in higher ed, and in just general nonprofits. And one of the things that feels really exciting and generative about this, the Ko'ach Fellowship and the idea of shlemut there, that individual global majority Jews can come and bring and find and celebrate their wholeness, then that's a micro of our broader Jewish community and American society in general to actually find its wholeness, because as we sort of slice individuals, then they're not bringing those pieces into the whole. And we also slice those individuals out of the whole. And this Ko'ach Fellowship and the wholeness that we're hoping to celebrate and allow for individual global majority Jews feels like synecdoche for the potential for shlemut and wholeness for our whole community. And it feels really exciting to me.- Yay, right?- And I'm not there, right? Like that's the thing that like April named. Like this is not for me. This is not for me. And that is different, right? (laughs) Like everything in my experience has been for me as a white person. And so, there's something also really awesome about that. That I can sort of step back and be like,"This is a thing that is beautiful and whole, and I can celebrate it, and it's not for me." And I want to get more used to that feeling. (laughs) I want us all, white people to get a little more used to that feeling.- So, I have a couple of things to say in response to all this. So, this is amazing, and I feel a little embarrassed that I said, "Yay," when I did, because when you said this is so exciting, like you said that, and I just couldn't agree more. I said, "Yay" 'cause it's all I could say in that moment, but like I had full body chills because this, Ko'ach is the next step in me moving toward realizing my biggest dreams for this world. And so, thank you for opening up this idea of micro and macro. And I want to take it on a slightly different angle because that framework that you provided, Tracie, again, like I said, creates a nice container for some other ideas I have, right? And what I would say is that I was very much aware that I was countering traditional communal patterns that typically prioritize the macro, in this case, the world and specifically the Jewish community and what its needs are and map it back onto the micro. But to Tracie's point and to my point, and to points I've made before, I believe in this podcast, but also I think I've talked about this more in depth in some of the programs that I and we have led. Is that I've come in recent years to deeply believe that individual profound healing is pivotal and fundamentally also has an enormous impact on the world. Like I'm almost there, and I know that's kind of a bold statement, but I believe each of us is a world unto ourselves. And when we heal and make our world whole, I actually think metaphysically and spiritually, that is powerful. And as a change agent, I believe my work has been profoundly deepened and evolved, not from my work in the broader world, although that has continued to have a good impact in different ways, but my work fundamentally shifted when I did deep trauma healing and nourishment work, and really learned increasingly more effectively how to not only take good self-care of myself, but also heal and establish networks that nourished me and shifted and helped me continuously to be more courageous and to take a number of actions and to take a number of stands that I always believed in, but I hadn't gotten enough healing to be able to have full clarity that that was the right course of action. And I didn't have enough counter-oppressive folks with exceptional analysis around me who would be there to say,"April, you are not crazy." They're saying, whether literally that you are crazy or that you are being illogical. That is not true."What happened is what you saw happened, and we have your back 100%." Right? So-- I think...- Please.- I want to quickly sort of give an example. I think you're right about the macro first,- Macro.- and then we pull it down to the individual. So we look at the community and pull it back down to the individual. And it's not always about sort of gaslighting in that way, but it's always oppressive, I think. And another example that I think might help make it (speaks faintly).- Oppressive or... I think there may be scenarios. I mean, if it's with Jews of Color, oppressed groups, then I think that may be true, but at the very least more neutrally, it's fundamentally limited.- Limited and potentially harmful. So, the example I want to use- Yep.- that maybe people can see having happened is the attitudes toward interfaith marriage, where we say like, we as American Jews say,- The royal we.- "We need more Jews. And we need more Jews because there's so few of us, and we need to stop Jews from marrying non-Jews because their kids may not be Jewish." And so, they do that so that they sort of look at the communal level, but then what they end up doing is then ostracizing people who- Right.- are in interfaith marriages, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that their kids feel distanced from the Jewish community, because they were ostracized as kids for being interfaith kids. Like I am an interfaith kid. I'm very committed to my Judaism. And in some ways it's despite the treatment that I got as an interfaith kid when I was a kid.- Yep.- And so, that's like a specific example. And I am not advocating a policy, folks. I'm not advocating policy. I'm just saying, if we at the societal level say this thing is undesirable and then treat individuals as undesirable, it has consequences. And I completely agree with you April that as we as individuals heal, society can't help but heal and improve.- Right. Most fellowships that I've seen in the Jewish community, and this is not to criticize them, this is just to notice, and to notice what I want for my future and for my different peoples, many if not most are set up to be guided by macro needs to the micro. So, as Tracie said, we want a particular outcome and we are going to implant that. And to me, at the root of that dynamic is control, and the root of that is fear, right? Whereas spiritually, metaphysically, energetically, the micro to macro model that I'm proposing is rooted in trust, in possibility and open-hearted and open-mindedness. Around one not wanting to be rooted in fear and saying,"I trust the beauty of y'all's dreams." I trust that our world will be a better place when each of you has a network and a support system and is nourished profoundly, personally and professionally. And one of my goals has been expansion. And explicitly not necessarily in terms of only success. Expansion could be spiritual, it could be deepening, it could be in their personal lives, of growth and of expansion of whatever it is they want. If it's expansion of quiet for them because they need that. And looking at this over the long arc of, again, not being rooted in what I want now, which is also there's a dynamic there that I think is a part of the culture of capitalism, where there's urgency and a timeframe as opposed to a more indigenous earth-based approach of the best, most beautiful things take time, and they take their own course. And I'm going to trust in the inner wisdom of these folks. And I think a number of them will thrive. Most of them are already thriving to an extent, but I selected folks- Yeah.- who I believe and I perceive immense capacity for profound growth and impact on this world that might be subtle and spiritual and quiet from the energy they radiate, or might be profound and big in the ways we often are conditioned to traditionally think of impactful leaders. And could be anything anywhere in between. Powerful movement leaders who are never seen on video, but make the shifts and difference and contributions that get different things over the finish line.- Right now I'm taking a Mussar Va'ad. So this is a study group with the IOWA, the Inside Out Wisdom Group, which is another Rise Up grantee.- And is another... in that name, I wanna note the alignment that we have with Rabbi David Jaffe around the micro. That Inside Out is another micro to macro model.- Exactly. So, right now, my Va'ad is we're thinking about Kavod, honor or dignity.- One of my favorite concepts.- And so, one of the things that Mussar, which is Jewish ethics... That's not a good translation, but I'm gonna run with it.- That's good enough for now.(April laughs)- So, it examines soul traits, middot. Middah is the singular. And each one is on a sort of a continuum. So, they're not inherently good or bad. Like too much of a good thing is not a good thing. Anyway, Kavod goes on a spectrum from sort of complete kind of self-abnegation, which is where you don't take any credit or dignity for yourself to Kavod seeking where you do everything sort of performatively for the accolade. And in the middle is the appropriate level of Kavod, that is the dignity that we are looking to give others and ourselves. And the thing that I was thinking about, because this is fresh in my head, as you were talking about where some fellowships can go and the control and the fear, and this sort of Kavod seeking-- And this is subtle. I'm talking about the deeper layers. It's not usually not- Right.- in the foreground or spoken of. It's the underlying motivation.- Right. No, I don't think- It's in the basement.- that very few, if any, folks who are creating fellowships in the Jewish community are thinking about controlling their fellows. It's not a conscious thing.- Right.- But there is sort of a degree... I'm hearing sort of like the difference between Kavod seeking by like really channeling it, make sure it turns out the way that you want it to and offering true Kavod dignity and honor to the fellows to see what they might then provide. And there's something that feels very resonant between that notion of Kavod and dignity and appropriate honor and wholeness, right? Because when we deny some piece of the other or ourselves, we are not giving ourselves the full, or we're not giving that person the full Kavod, the full dignity for their wholeness.- Yep.- It just all feels really resonant and related.- Yeah.- And as you know and as I think I may have mentioned on this show before I probably have that in my own life, for me personally, and I wanted this to translate to them too, is a sense of... For lack of a better phrase, I'm gonna make my own little phrase out of it right now. Of divine or mindful sovereignty. That I've been working for sovereignty in my life, from healing from childhood trauma, and also as a woman of color, as a Jewish woman of color, but specifically as a woman of color in this world where often women and people of color are not given space to have their own thoughts. It's been incredibly important to me and my leadership and my ongoing development to continue to remain connected with a number of communities and people, and to be a sovereign being who is fully grounded,- Self-determinant.- determined and grounded in my truth,- Self-truth. Yeah.- which doesn't mean that I don't continue to evolve as a very dynamic truth, but that it is mine, and that I have clarity about the different relationships I have and also the point at which it almost feels like some of Bren Brown's teachings. The point at which there's a line where that's fully in my territory, and I get to think whatever I want, and I have different accountable relationships, and I navigate those. And those are really important. So, that also... I think the piece that I want to add to what you, that felt important to say in related to what I'm saying, although I'm not, I'm missing the exact through line here, as we start to wrap up this episode is I love that you mentioned what you just did, because one, it was really smart, Tracie, and I think different fellowships and programs often push for specific more concrete outcomes. Again, like desired outcomes that we're looking for. And in mine, I'm more interested in cultivating and nourishing those balanced middot for the fellows to use however they choose, right? And what I wrote down, and this is more just in English, not specifically out of the Jewish traditional, but I could take more time later and map them. But I wrote in some of my notes in preparation for both this episode and my talk, my five-minute presentation is that I fundamentally wanted through the Ko'ach Fellowship to nurture within each of the fellows a sense of clarity, courage, and confidence. That whatever it is they're trying to get clear about and sort through, that they start to feel that clarity. And I find clarity is often dynamic. We go into fog, we get clarity, And then we have more questions, and it gets foggy and then we get clear, right? But it's not about a specific piece, it's not about a specific project. It's to water these seeds because when these areas are strong, to me that leads to people having a range of possibilities.

- I think, April, those three words: 36:19

clarity, courage, and confidence are all essential ingredients to wholeness. They're different components of wholeness I think. And I think to me- Oh, so good.- that's what's really nice about... I mean, you were just sort of talking about what you want to nurture and engender and very specific aspects of it, but each of those is an aspect of wholeness, right? Because how can we be whole- Yep.- if we're not clear about who we are? How can we whole-- or to be whole is a prerequisite for clarity too.- They feel so interrelated to me.- Yep, agreed.- And likewise, with courage and confidence, it's hard to be courageous when one is working- Fragmented.- in fragmented ways. It's hard to be confident when one feels the need to or is told they must suppress a piece of themselves. So, those three aspects of living and of those soul traits, if you will, if we want to call those, I don't know whether they're- Yeah.- officially middot,- Right.- but they certainly feel- Similar.- in the same- Middot adjacent (laughs)- kind of-- Yeah, I mean, maybe so.- Probably.- Anyway, they feel like in the same kind of category.- Yep.- And also both nurtured by and nurture wholeness, they affect and are affected by wholeness. And so, I feel like that's a nice turn on sort of thinking about what the work that you are doing with and for other global majority Jews as a pursuit of wholeness and a container for wholeness and invitation to wholeness, but just, I don't know. It feels really resonant and beautiful to me.- Yeah. And so, to conclude, I think I want to share the quote that I'm planning on sharing in the presentation from the legendary Audre Lorde. I included this in my thesis because it's so beautifully to me articulates the the kavanah I have for Ko'ach or the intention I have for the Ko'ach Fellowship as it continues to evolve."My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves without the restriction of externally imposed definition." I think that is a great (laughs) way of articulating an element of wholeness or shlemut that we've been talking about in this episode, and continues to feel just as powerful to me as the first time I heard it. Thanks for tuning in. Our show's theme music was composed by Elliot Hammer. You can find this track and other beats on Instagram @elliothammer. If this episode resonated with you, please share it and subscribe. To join the conversation, visit jewstalkracialjustice.com where you can send us a question or suggestion, access our show notes and learn more about our team. Take care until next time, and stay humble and keep going.