Jewish communities gather to celebrate in times of joy and to comfort each other in times of sorrow. Occasionally, the community itself has a milestone to mark. It might acquire a new TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes “Torah” is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general. scroll, elect new board members, or reach a significant anniversary. All of these events provide opportunities to come together to honor our bonds with each other and acknowledge a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
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“We gather each month to do Your holy work for our space”
Honoring Bat Mitzvah pioneers
“In celebration we gather, / Knowing that what we celebrate is more / than the sum of the parts”
In this immersion, we will reflect and expand on our personal experiences of identity, using writing exercises and in-depth discussions to think about, challenge, discover, explore, and experiment with different ways to identify ourselves, to consider how those ways connect us to and separate us from others, and how they represent and misrepresent aspects of who we are.
Four sessions, starting June 15th
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