Facilitator prompts the group:
- This Mishna can be understood as referring to different things (what “the work” is is left unstated). What is one interpretation you might offer?
- What is the overall tension that the Mishna raises? (Express it in your own words.)
- How does this relate to the way you view your responsibility in the service work you are doing today?
Facilitator asks someone to read a summary of the Starfish Story.(The story is adapted from a 16 page essay – “The Star Thrower” – published in 1969 by American anthropologist Loren Eiseley.)
As an old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young boy picking up starfish and putting them into the sea. He asked the boy why he was doing this. The boy answered that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. “But the beach goes on for miles and there are thousands of starfish, ”countered the old man. “How can your efforts make any difference?” The young boy looked at the starfish in his hand and placed it safely into the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.
Facilitator continues:
In many ways this story connects to the Jewish ethic of responsibility. It is something we do one person at a time, one day at a time, one act at a time. And yet, there are things we can do and notice that can bolster our sense of responsibility, so that one act becomes two acts, and more.
*PROMPT BEFORE SERVICE*
Facilitator prompts the group:
- As you go through service, what actions/reactions - of your own and the population you are serving - do you notice that bolster your sense of responsibility?
- What are there moments that compel you to do more, and what are there moments that cause you to pause?
*BREAK FOR SERVICE EXPERIENCE*
