Andy Scherer, you make a good point about the the significance of place (and spaces). This is something we also talk about in higher education: the architecture of the lecture hall is a big barrier to new kinds of interactive, dynamic, digitally-enabled learning. I think one of the ways forward for American Judaism will have to involve new kinds of physical spaces, as well as virtual spaces.

As with many things, Heschel recognized this 50 years ago. He talks about Shabbat as a “cathedral in time,” juxtaposed against temples and churches that function as cathedrals in space. With the internet, we now have the opportunity to create cathedrals in community, virtualized across both space and time.