When Rabbi Stuart Kelman prepared to conclude his service at Berkeley's Congregation Netivot Shalom, he transformed the deeply personal Jewish tradition of ethical wills (tza'ah) into a revolutionary tool for congregational leadership. By adapting this traditionally parent-to-child document, Kelman created a systematic framework for articulating and transmitting core Jewish values to an entire religious community. Drawing primarily from Talmudic principles in Shabbat 127a, the framework identifies essential congregational values including adam shutaf bema'ase bereishit (partnership with God in creation), tzimtzum (making room for others through personal contraction), and letakayn olam bemalkhut shadai (establishing divine sovereignty through world repair). These principles, integrated with commitments to halakhah, Israel, and holy time observance, establish a comprehensive ethical foundation for Conservative Jewish communal life. The analysis reveals how successful religious communities must balance unwavering core values with adaptive evolution—a pattern reflected in institutional survival across alternative educational movements. This innovative application demonstrates the enduring relevance of traditional Jewish literary forms in modern communal leadership and value transmission.