The connection between the 3P Framework and Jewish Wisdom

For thousands of years, the centrality and integration of PURPOSE, PRACTICE and PEOPLE has been implicit in Jewish wisdom. Our hope is that the 3P Framework can help reveal these elements and their integration to inform the current application of Jewish wisdom. A few examples below highlight Jewish wisdom’s focus on each of the three Ps, as well as their integration.

PURPOSE

Throughout the centuries, when Jewish thinkers debated how to summarize Jewish wisdom, they pointed to different understandings of higher PURPOSE.

Hillel said that the entire Torah could be summarized as not doing to others what you wouldn’t want done to you
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a
Ben Azzai said that the greatest principle of the Torah is that the history of humankind points to all people being created in the divine image, b’tzelem elohim.
Sifra, Kedoshim 4:12
Maimonides wrote that the purpose of the Torah is twofold: to perfect the body and to perfect the soul.
Guide for the Perplexed, 3:27
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PRACTICE

From the 613 mitzvot (commandments) to thousands of halakhot (rabbinically prescribed norms and rituals) to countless minhagim (customs), Jewish wisdom contains a large menu of routinized norms and rituals for achieving PURPOSE and connecting PEOPLE.

The Passover Seder concretizes a commitment to a PURPOSE of liberation, while also connecting friends and family, PEOPLE, to one another.
Jewish food practices can help achieve the PURPOSE of treating other living beings with dignity, while also binding PEOPLE together through shared dietary decisions.
Pausing communally on Shabbat helps achieve the PURPOSE of equalizing society, while also bringing PEOPLE together in celebration and reflection.
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PEOPLE

Strong relationships have always been a central component of Jewish wisdom.

Ḥavruta (learning dyad) is premised on the idea that we learn better together than alone.
Minyan (a quorum) suggests that some PRACTICES that achieve our highest PURPOSE benefit from connection of at least 10 people.
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