Adult Engagement/Adult Learning

Overview

We are so excited it's all happening…again! Every fall, like clock-work, we come back together to mark the New Year. And though we are ever grateful, the question is: WHY?

Naturally, to see our friends and be together with our congregational family, and, as tradition would teach, to do
teshuvah, or return by changing our ways and doing what we must to be better…But, in retrospect, it all actually revolves around one thing: Remembering, which means thinking back to where we have been, so as to know which way we need to go.

Yet, as members of this vibrant Covenant Community, the pun is powerful: We join together to
RE-Member—to remind ourselves on our individual journeys that we are not alone. Reflecting on our own dreams deferred or the parts of us in disrepair, we recognize the support of others is always there. Not only is our peoplehood part of an endless chain—one generation’s story informing/inspiring the next—but all of our life-journeys are somehow linked.

RE-Membering
helps us realize there are invisible lines of connection we share; our stories are dependent on one another; they find fruition in each other.

Our sincere hope in coming together this New Year is that our services and spectrum of spiritual offerings will help you/your family find something that speaks to you: moments of joy & sacred meaning, inspiration that touches your heart & sparks your spirit, feelings of gratitude that we are able to be together again… Ultimately, we pray you will Re-member, on this annual road to return, you never walk alone.

With wishes for a 5783 filled with blessings, hope and light,

Rabbi Jeffrey J. Sirkman
Cantor Katie Oringel
Rabbi Leora J. Frankel

 

Current Adult Classes

Chevrah Torah

Saturday Mornings Our Chevrah Torah is a transformational hour when the text comes to life through a round-the-table-sharing of the weekly portion’s key question [KOSHI] and the commentaries of the ages. It’s a time when congregants gather together to explore and gain insight from our sacred texts, and from one another.

Customarily led by Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman, along with the many teachers who join us weekly, the best way to become part of the conversation, and discover the sacred wisdom that only Torah can bring, is to take a seat around our table!


B'nai Binah
(Children of Wisdom)

Oct, 2022 - June, 2023
Selected Tuesdays, 7:00pm
Fee: $500

Rabbi Leora Frankel

Looking to build a deeper connection to Jewish learning and living? Join other adult LT-ers on a transformative journey towards becoming B’nai Binah (“Children of Wisdom”), culminating in a special Shabbat service led by the group on Friday night, June 9, 2023.

The B’nai Binah class consist of 45 minutes of Hebrew reading and prayerbook skills. Then we’ll delve into an array of Judaic Studies including a survey of Jewish history, theology, rituals, and more taught by Rabbi Leora Frankel and our clergy team.

This is a wonderful opportunity to deepen your own Jewish knowledge while building a community through our dedicated learning cohort.

Questions? Contact:
Rabbi Frankel

Women's Study Group

Oct 2022 - May, 2023
Selected Fridays
Rabbi Leora Frankel & Rabbinic Intern Lily Goldstein.

Each meeting the group will explore a different Jewish theme or text with a feminist twist.

  • -- A. Bartlett Giamatti, “Baseball as Narrative,”  University of Michigan Law School, 1989
    "H-O-M-E…Is a concept, not a place; it is a state of mind where self-definition starts.  It is origins…wherein one first realizes s/he is an original, perhaps like others, especially those one loves, but distinct…HOME is where we first learn to be separate, ourselves, and it remains the place where reunion, if it ever were to occur, would happen…HOME is about restoration of the right relations---and going HOME is where that restoration occurs because that is where it matters most… To attempt to go HOME is to go the long way around, to stray in the hopes of finding completeness…in reintegration with those left behind…To truly go HOME may be impossible, but it is a driving necessity, our compelling dream."  
    -- A. Bartlett Giamatti, “Baseball as Narrative,” University of Michigan Law School, 1989