Lifelong Learning

Need to talk?

As always but especially during this stressful time, your rabbis are available to meet you for a virtual coffee or pastoral visit. Be in touch with Rabbi Brusso (rabbibrusso@bettorah.org) or Rabbi Sacks (rabbisacks@bettorah.org) to schedule a time to talk. And please let us know if there is someone in our community feeling isolated and in need of outreach.

Last updated January 11, 2021

More on Special Programs and Regular Offerings

• Paired Learning Program
• Matan: Adult Jewish Learning
• Great Jewish Books Club
• Small Groups
• Women’s Torah Study
• Beginning Hebrew
• 929  Online Study Program
• Bet Torah in the City

PAIRED LEARNING PROGRAM –  2021 Dates below

 Introducing Matan: Adult Jewish Learning

Give Yourself the GIFT of Jewish Learning – weekly classes begin Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 9:45 am

One of the foundations of Jewish tradition is a lifelong engagement in study. Regardless of your background – whether you studied as a child or not, whether you had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or not – the opportunity to advance in Jewish learning is for you!

Matan will bring together adults from the Bet Torah community in a multi-faceted course of learning, exploration and synagogue skill-building, which will culminate at Shavuot services next year (June, 2022) when we celebrate your journey with the broader Bet Torah community. Topics will include:

• Prayer and liturgy
• Hebrew bible and rabbinic literature
• History and theology
• Lifecyle and holidays
• Jewish law and practical living
• Contemporary issues including Israel and the variety within the Jewish world

By the end of the program students will:

• Enhance their experience of and comfort with services
• Be exposed to the many elements of Jewish life and tradition on a level appropriate for adults
• Feel confident in pursuing further studies both within the Bet Torah community and in the wider Jewish world

The teaching schedule will rotate between the clergy with Rabbis Brusso and Sacks focusing on Jewish studies and Cantor Ezring focusing on prayer and Torah skills. The only prerequisites are a desire to learn and basic Hebrew reading skills.

Our course will begin with the first class on Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 9:45 am and will meet weekly thereafter with breaks for holidays and the summer.

Interested in learning more or signing up? Contact Rabbi Sacks at rabbisacks@bettorah.org.

BEGINNING HEBREW

Thursdays at 10 am  –  Have you always thought about learning Hebrew? Do you wish you could follow along with the prayers, or wish you could help your kids as they prepare for their B’nei Mitzvah, or hope to read the signs when you go to Israel? Well now’s the time learn! Nili Ionascu offers a weekday beginning Hebrew. If you have any doubts about how much fun and how easy it is to learn, just ask her very enthusiastic students from last year’s class! Interested? Contact Nili at nionascu@bettorah.org.

FRIDAY MORNING WOMEN’S TORAH STUDY GROUP

Fridays 10:00-11:30 am    Share a morning of study and exploration of the weekly parashah, from the woman’s perspective! Learn how to incorporate the teaching from the Torah into your everyday life. No experience necessary, the only requirement is an eagerness to learn and discover the treasures of Torah. Participants may take turns leading the discussion and providing a light breakfast for the group. New participants are always welcome and encouraged to join in.

SATURDAY MORNING PARASHAH DISCUSSION

Each Shabbat at 9:00 AM a group of Bet Torah congregants gets together to discuss that week’s Torah portion before services. Members of the group take turns each week leading what is always a lively and informative discussion. A wide range of Torah knowledge is on display as every participant brings their own perspective and insight to the conversation. Coffee and cake help lubricate the exchange of ideas. No one knows too much or too little to participate. Please join us for this fast half hour of Torah conversation. We meet in the small conference room and look forward to having you share your thoughts and ideas with us. Saturdays at 9:00 am 

SMALL GROUPS

Bet Torah’s ongoing small group initiative is an effort to help people get to know each other better, to explore a challenging topic in a small group, and to deepen people’s connection to the Jewish tradition. In keeping with our theme for this year, these groups of approximately 15 people will share thoughts and ideas about Concepts in Jewish Thoughts such as revelation, God, the afterlife and more. The groups include people with a wide variety of backgrounds and Jewish knowledge and are facilitated by Rabbi Sacks. If you would like to join a group, or start a group and think you might be able to gather some other interested folks, please email rabbisacks@bettorah.org.

GREAT JEWISH BOOKS CLUB

Why are there so many Jewish opticians? Jews like to read. We are, after all, the people of the Book. Since the 2nd century CE, at least, Jews have been voracious readers – outnumbering much of the world in literacy. So what could be more natural for a thinking synagogue, like Bet Torah, than to have a club devoted exclusively to books of Jewish significance. The Great Jewish Book Club, is devoted to important works that have Jewish Content or Jewish Authors or subjects significant to Judaism. Our selections are as varied as Bintel Briefs (Letters to the Forvarts) and Judah Ha Levy. Each time we meet we select the next book and appoint someone to lead the discussion. I can’t predict what is coming but I can tell you what read in the years past: What Went Wrong, Lewis; Ornament of the World, Menocal; Salafism in Lebanon, Rabil; NY Times Magazine – Middle East, Anderson; Mamelah Knows Best, Ingall; Acts of Faith, Patel; Disobedience , Aldeman; Night, Weisel; Genius of Judaism, Levy; A Horse Walked into a Bar, Grossman. Not all were masterpieces, – some were serious works, some novels, some light and fluffy. But all contributed to our understanding of who we are . Join us. You can select which books you want to participate with and how much you want to do so. We meet Thursday nights every month or so. We start at 8pm and rarely are here after 9:30. You choose what books you want to read and your level of participation. You will gain an expanded mind. You lose nothing but ignorance. To join send your email address to Edgfeinberg@gmail.com. There is no cost and no obligation.

929.ORG ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAM AND SHABBAT DISCUSSION

Please join us during Kiddush each Shabbat, as we gather in the social hall, enjoy dessert, and chat about a few chapters from Tanakh, the Jewish Bible.  We are following an on-line program called 929.org (named for the 929 chapters in Tanakh), which provides the weekly text as well as helpful essays and podcasts.  The chapters are not long, and the short commentaries come from a variety of perspectives, some more traditional, some less so.  Choose what you find interesting and bring it to the group to discuss.  Whether you have read all, some, or none of the chapters we will be studying together, and whether or not you have read or listened to the commentaries, please join us for lively and friendly conversation.  All are welcome.