LIFELONG LEARNING
Hevruta Study Pages Click here for '08-'09 Bet Midrash dates Study materials for the month of Elul Beth El continues to offer two complementary learning models: periodic Bet Midrash gatherings and Chevruta (partner or small group) study. Either or both are open to all, without regard to Hebrew ability or background in Jewish learning. There will be regularly scheduled Bet Midrash gatherings! Each Bet Midrash will focus on a particular theme with a designated text or texts and will feature:
All are welcome to attend these study sessions with or without a partner/s. The popular Chevruta study program designed by Rabbi Sager on designated themes continues at Beth El. New study partners/groups may begin at any time. Chevruta study involves pairs or small groups of students, committed to one another’s learning, who bring their different experiences, sensitivities and insights to a text. To date, the readings, always accompanied by guiding questions and suggestions, have included rabbinic texts, a Chassidic story, essays by modern theologians, and poetry. While Chevruta study is a traditional method of Jewish learning, it allows us and invites us to bring our contemporary questions and challenges to our partner/study group and to the text. Previous Bet Midrash and Chevruta study themes included Teshuvah during the month of Elul, B'tselem Elohim (In the Image of G-d), End of Life and Final Healing and Passover themes (in conjunction with the Kallah study month), Tzedakah, and Pirke Avot between Pesach and Shavuot. Click here to see some of these materials. If you already have a partner (or two or three), please let the office know. If you don’t have a partner and would like help in finding one, let us know that as well. 682-1238 or bethel.sec@verizon.net _____________________________________ Pirke Avot: Learn for Tzedakah from Pesah to Shavuot 2008/5768 One who seeks to be a hasid/kind-dependable- upright person should try to learn the lessons of Avot. There is an old tradition to mark the six weeks between Pesah and Shavuot by learning from the six chapters of Pirke Avot, a unique tractate of Mishnah that presents beautiful ethical teachings of the sages. In our ancient story of this season we began to learn how to leave slavery behind us and move towards the complicated freedom of Mt. Sinai. The responsibilities of freedom require the best of our character, our discipline, our hearts and minds. Pirke Avot offers us short teachings of the ancient sages; teachings that instruct us and remind us of those characteristics that we bring to living lives of responsible freedom: One who seeks to be a hasid/kind-dependable- upright person should try to learn the lessons of Avot. Here is an opportunity to be a hasid/kind-dependable-upright person and to fulfill the mitzvah of Tzedakah while learning Pirke Avot: First, follow this advice given in Pirke Avot: Get yourself a study partner/k’nei l’cha haver. Next, sroll down, where you will find excerpts from the Pirke Avot chapter of the week. All excerpts will appear in Hebrew and in English, in short lines so as to allow someone with a little bit of Hebrew training to identify a word or two. A chapter will be added each week until all of the chapters appear on the site. These weeks between slavery and Sinai not only mark our journey towards responsible freedom, they also span the time between the early grain harvest and the late harvest. During this time between plenty and plenty we will remember the hungry by making a $10 contribution to Mazon—the Jewish project to feed the hungry--for each reported hour of your Hevruta study. “Get yourself a hevruta” and identify yourselves and your hours to the Beth El office. This year, any Hevruta/Study Pair with an age difference of at least 20 years will earn $15 for each hour reported. On Shavuot, we will honor our hevrutot, their study and their contribution to Mazon. One who seeks to be a hasid/kind-dependable- upright person should try to learn the lessons of Avot.
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:10:05 -0400 From: Barbara Bergen
Your support is particularly meaningful because, as you suggest, it posits the abundance of harvest against the desperate need experienced by so many hungry Americans, Israelis and others. What a lovely way to teach a "living" Judaism by connecting history, text study and tikkun olam. I can't thank you enough for your ongoing generosity and support. MAZON is extremely lucky -- and very honored -- to call you a partner in our sacred work. Wishing you all the best for a wonderful summer, Vice President General Counsel
Here are study materials presented for chevruta discussion over the past few years. May the study of this holiday theme deepen your insights and inform your reflections for the renewal of the year.
_________________________________________________
Each Bet Midrash will feature some time for the study of a designated text, or texts from the catalogue of materials that have been available. That study time will be followed by a shiur/lesson drawing forth major ideas of our topic as they come out of the texts before us. This presentation will be sharpened and polished by the questions of those who have invested time and thought in the texts. These various modalities of study, hevruta learning and the shiur conspire to bring out the richness of ideas-in-community. Our 2008-2009 theme is "Torah, Avodah & G'mulit Hasadim" There will also be time for dessert and general socializing. The 2008/2009 Bet Midrash dates are: Tuesday, Sept.16, Thursday, Oct. 16, Tuesday, Nov. 18,Tuesday, Jan. 20, Thursday, Feb. 26, Wednesday, March 18 & Thursday, April 30
Click links below to download PDF versions of the Hevruta Study Pages If you'd like a hard copy of any these, please contact the office at 919-682-1238 or bethel.sec@verizon.net
The PDF reader is available at no charge at Adobe's web site. Please contact the office for any of the archived texts below:
|
