How to turn every challenge in your
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About me | Dr. Moshe Meir
Dr. Moshe Meir, PhD in Philosophy and Jewish Philosophy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Currently serving as Content Manager for the ADRABA initiative in the city of Lod, Israel.
Graduate of Netiv Meir Yeshiva, & Har Etzion Yeshiva.
My teachers and Rabbis are my grandfather,
Rabbi Dr. Avraham Arazi; Rabbi Yehuda Amital;
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein Born in Jerusalem. Married,
4 children, 3 grandchildren.
My experience and background include serving as a teacher and educator in the Himmelfarb School, Pelech Educational Network, and Hartmann School. I served as a lecturer at Hebrew University Jerusalem, the Shorashim organization, Mandel Educational Leadership Institute, Shalom Hartmann Institute,
and Kolot Beit Midrash.
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Afarkeset – The Method
The AFARKESET Method is inspired by two modes of thinking. One is the traditions of the Jewish sages manifesting in Talmudic and Mishnaic works. The second is based on philosophy and in particular, the father of Greek philosophical thought, Socrates.
The objective of the AFARKESET Method is to drive group thinking towards creating knowledge
during the group’s work.
Afarkeset Method’s guiding principle is to shake up the state of awareness relative to the issue being explored at every stage in the work process. The method’s beating heart is based on locating the points of dispute within the group and viewing those points as a resource for opening increasing numbers of possible perspectives on the subject being discussed and investigated.
The Afarkeset Method group facilitator does not present knowledge but serves to assist in the birth of ideas deriving from group members, as Socrates describes in the quoted excerpt. An Afarkeset Method facilitator seeks to be a better midwife than Socrates, who is revealed as a manipulator leading his fellow conversationalist towards Socrates’ own thoughts. Unlike Socrates, the Afarkeset facilitator does not present her or his own views but rather, trusts the thinking individual vis-à-vis the subject under study, and assists in birthing and bringing to light the thoughts expressed by members of the group. The Afarkeset Method relies on the principle that
the knowledge is already in the group.
Why talmud inspires the afarkeset method ?
The AFARKESET Method is inspired by two modes of thinking. One is the traditions of the Jewish sages manifesting in Talmudic and Mishnaic works. The second is based on philosophy and in particular, the father of Greek philosophical thought, Socrates.
The objective of the AFARKESET Method is to drive group thinking towards creating knowledge during the group’s work.
Afarkeset Method’s guiding principle is to shake up the state of awareness relative to the issue being explored at every stage in the work process. The method’s beating heart is based on locating the points of dispute within the group and viewing those points as a resource for opening increasing numbers of possible perspectives on the subject being discussed and investigated.
The Afarkeset Method group facilitator does not present knowledge but serves to assist in the birth of ideas deriving from group members, as Socrates describes in the quoted excerpt. An Afarkeset Method facilitator seeks to be a better midwife than Socrates, who is revealed as a manipulator leading his fellow conversationalist towards Socrates’ own thoughts. Unlike Socrates, the Afarkeset facilitator does not present her or his own views but rather, trusts the thinking individual vis-à-vis the subject under study, and assists in birthing and bringing to light the thoughts expressed by members of the group. The Afarkeset Method relies on the principle that the knowledge is already in the group.
Afarkeset is jazz jamming ?
A group operating in line with the Afarkeset framework of thinking is very similar to a jazz band. And those are very different to classical orchestras. Musicians in a jazz band need to listen carefully to each other. You won't find a detailed set of sheet music being used by the band’s musicians. Jazz jamming is dialogue, it’s improvisational.
Jazz musicians must show openness, they must be willing to slip easily into unexpected twists and turns, using their creativity, being adaptable, while keeping the common goal in mind. This creates one-off events. Playing music together requires imagination, freedom, the ability for self-expression, blatant individualism merged with close attentiveness to each of the band’s members. The jazz band can be likened to the optimal mode of democracy.
1 | Listen
In the preliminary encounter, the group manager describes the group to the facilitator, and explains the problem with which it is coping.
4 | Defamiliarization
In this stage, the group distances from the problem and studies other areas of inspiration, such as Jewish sources, philosophy, or literature that relate to the concept being investigated. These sources are read aloud, interpreted and used to add layers to the exploratory work.
7 | Reinterpretation
Reinterpretation offers a creatively linguistic opportunity to take a statement, usually scriptural, and explore it. This may take the form of reading it from end to start, examining its proximity to the statements that precede or follow it, altering letters or vowels, or applying synonyms. The objective is to produce a new statement relative to the concept being studied.
2 | Suspend the Issue
An initial dialogue with the group is used for choosing the concept that the group will explore.
5 | Camera Obscura
So far, the spotlight shone outwards, focusing on the concept being observed and studied. Now the group’s members are asked to turn the spotlight inwards, and find an autobiographical linkage to the concept. Exploring the concept from the perspective of self-observation leads to new horizons being discovered.
8 | Ruling
The discussion focused on opening new avenues is halted at this point, the outcomes are collected, and the group is called on to think of operational solutions to the dilemma or ways of coping with the challenge presented at the outset of the work process.
3 | Conceptualization
Opening the concept to diverse possibilities while discerning the disputes arising in the group around how to define the concept.
6 | Legend
The facilitator presents a source that leads the group’s awareness into a poetic, surrealistic, legend-style mode of thinking which differs from the analytical and insightful mode used so far. This might be achieved using poetry, song, an image or a game. Group members are asked to be attentive to the way their awareness is redirected into new forms of thinking from which new insights can be drawn relative to the concept under discussion.
9 | Documentation
The Afarkeset activity closes with documentation of the dynamics around the thinking process, the developments, the main points of dispute, and the outcomes of the ruling. Documentation provides both the individual and the organization with a record that can be used to assist other members of the organization who did not participate in the group’s productivity, and can additionally be conveyed to future generations.
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SOCRATES: How absurd of you, never to have heard that I am the son
of a midwife, a fine buxom woman called Phaenarete? THEAETETUS: I have heard that.
SOCRATES: Have you also been told that I practice the same art?
