Ethical Legacy Wills
Jewish Wisdom Reimagined
All of us seek meaning and connection in our lives. These are powerful yearnings, driving us forward, but they also are hard to accomplish. We struggle to answer the question, “why am I here”? The Ethical Legacy Will helps us find the answer.
The Ethical Legacy Will builds on the profound understanding of the Jewish Ethical Will. Reimagining this important Jewish Wisdom helps us to understand ourselves and share our values with our loved ones. The Ethical Legacy Will gives us purpose and connection. The Ethical Legacy Will affirms our life stories and values, and binds us to the next generations in four extraordinary ways:
Teachers
As parents, we are teachers. Our values and the wisdom of our life experiences are unique gifts that we share with our children. The values we live by are the precious inheritance of our children. The Ethical Legacy Will embraces our on-going role as teacher and nurturer.
Life Journey Reflection
The Ethical Legacy Will helps us reflect on our own life journey, serving as a Cheshbon HaNefesh, or personal accounting, an opportunity to review our lives. We confirm we are on our proper life-path, and if we are not, this is the chance to consider how to get back onto it. Our life’s journey is deliberate and with meaning.
Connection
The Ethical Legacy Will is a living work-in-progress, just as we are. It is more than a posthumous letter, it is a chance to share our lives more deeply and richly while we are still here. The Ethical Legacy also gives us a chance to share special life cycle experiences common to parent and child bringing us closer through a deeper understanding and empathy. The Ethical Legacy Will gives children a way to see us in the moment, by sharing our reflections in “real-time” rather than the filter of memory.
Yet our memory is such an important piece of who we are. The Ethical Legacy Will gives voice to our memories, not as mere recollections, but as rich stories that capture our values and morals, similar to the ancient Jewish Wisdom known as Midrash.
Blessings
Finally, The Ethical Legacy Will is our chance to offer blessings to those who come after us. Blessings are our aspirations for our loved ones, based on an intimate understanding of who they are. Wishing them a good life is only the beginning of what these blessings can be when we comprehend both their potential and their frailties.
The Ethical Legacy Will is Jewish Wisdom reimagined. Based in our values and our stories, we bring our generations closer and make our lives a blessing.
I am Rabbi David Levin and I am here to help you create your Ethical Legacy Will.
How to Create an Ethical Legacy Will
Using Video to Create a Unique, Enduring Legacy for You and Your Loved Ones
How do we create an Ethical Legacy Will? At its heart, The Ethical Legacy Will is about you sharing your story. We ask you to share stories and memories. We guide you through a series of questions, about experiences in your life that stand out. These become the basis for your Ethical Legacy Will.
We are storytellers. Each story is a memory of something that happened. And beneath each memory are your values; The way you remember things is based on what you believe to be important. Your values drive the way you remember. We have learned that your stories are far more than a recounting of what happened, these are important insights into your world. This is like Midrash– the special stories of our tradition that embody the important morals about who we are and how we should live. And this is part of what explains why we often remember the same events as others.
The Power of Video
We combine the power of your personal stories with the power of video to create a truly impactful result. We have all experienced coming across an old picture. Seeing that image conjures up memories and emotions of that person and the relationship we had together. Some of us have had the opportunity to find a written document, they tend to be scarcer and when we read them, we go slowly pouring over each line and sometimes actually hearing our loved one’s voice by speaking the letter in our mind. The Ethical Legacy Will combines all of this. And, it is:
- Better for You
- Better for them
Better for You
Video is a way for us to share ourselves more easily. We sit down and engage in a conversation or tell a story. Writing is much harder. We need to sit down at a desk with pencil and paper (you remember those) or perhaps at a computer keyboard. And then we need to slowly have the ideas inside emerge and get them on the paper. This is not a skill that we are as facile with as we used to be. And once it is on the page, there is a lot of editing. We need to edit for grammar and whether the piece reads the way our minds thought it would. This is a difficult, time-consuming, and daunting process.
Better for them
Through a guided conversation, we allow the stories to unfold as our specially designed questions permit you to speak about life experiences. As we speak, your stories tell us who you are and your values. It is much more natural. Language flows as you recount things. Even the pauses add to the richness of the story. Further, your loved ones get to see you sharing and hearing your familiar voice. The more senses we employ the deeper the experience is. The Ethical Legacy Will is a richer experience for most of us.
The Ethical Legacy Will Create is the among the single most important things you can do; it is an enduring gift for yourself and for your loved ones.
Dr. Andrew Weill shares in his book Healthy Aging, A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being, that the Ethical Will is a gift of spiritual health to leave to your family at the end of your life. “But its main importance is what it can give you in the midst of life.”
Create an Ethical Legacy Will for yourself and for your loved ones.
Learn More About Creating Your Individual Legacy
The Power of VideoCommunities
Synagogues/JCC’s & Other Communities
The Ethical Legacy Will Scholar in Residence
The Ethical Legacy Will is a gift that serves to bind our generations. We use the synagogues as platforms to teach and engage anyone interested in exploring this extraordinary practice.
I teach The Ethical Legacy Will as a scholar-in-residence or lecturer at synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, and other settings to share this new perspective and power of the extraordinary gift our tradition has bequeathed us.
The Ethical Legacy Will strengthens the congregations it serves by creating an affinity group based on shared values. Relationships and bonds grow deeper as people realize they share common values with others in this special place of community.
More on the Community as Promoter of Your LegacyBring Rabbi Levin to your Community
Interested in bringing Rabbi David to your community?
Reach out at the Jewish Speakers Bureau by clicking on the logo below
