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Adult Education Fall 2024

Adult Education

Lifelong Learning  5784 - October 2023-May 2024

GROWING SOULS, BUILDING CONNECTIONS, AND COMMUNITY

At Mishkan Shalom, we believe in learning for life. Below you’ll find a varied, robust range of classes, workshops and experiences to help you grow, learn, and connect with others—no matter your age or prior experience with Judaism.

Winter 2025 Offerings

Torah and Film: 'The Book of Job' and 'A Serious Man'
Taught by Rabbinic Intern Noah Dor Lind
Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, 5:30-9 p.m. (dinner provided)
Tuition: $40 members, $60 nonmembers
Register

Rabbinic intern Noah Dor Lind brings their passion for cinema and scripture together with this two-part adult education offering. Please note this class is only open to those over age 18. "The Book of Job" is one of the most powerful and paradoxical stories in our tradition.

Through its recitation, we hear ancient questions echoing across time: "Why is there suffering? By what process does misfortune fall on one person and not another? Where is Hashem in the midst of tragedy?" These questions are also at the heart of the 2009 film, "A Serious Man," which follows Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Midwestern physics professor who turns to his faith to try to understand why his life is falling apart.

This class is a two-parter: The first week we will study excerpts of Job to get an overview of the themes and do a close reading practice to reveal its resonances in our modern context. The second week there will be a screening of "A Serious Man," followed by a discussion on the movie and the same close reading practice adapted to fit the medium of film. Dinner will be provided.

Though the Coen brothers have since debunked the rumor that "A Serious Man" is an adaptation of the book of Job, putting these two Jewish stories of misfortune and absurdity next to each other has rich spiritual lessons for us to uncover.

Shifting the Paradigm: The Power and Importance of Praying in the Feminine
Taught by Shoshana Bricklin
Sundays, February 2, February 23, and March 2 2025, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Zoom Only
Tuition: $60 members, $75 nonmembers
Register
 
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in his essay “On Prayer” that “[p]rayer is meaningless unless it is subversive” and “the [l]iturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement, seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision.”

For Kohenet Shoshana Bricklin, praying in the feminine is critical for our collective transformation in these challenging times. This three-session class on Zoom will explore—through text study, personal sharing and davenning—the role that praying in the feminine and non-gendered prayer formulations can play in empowering us to repair not only the broken world but our own broken souls. We will explore the rich liturgical offerings that have evolved in the recent past; we’ll also delve into Mordechai Kaplan and Reconstructionist Judaism’s contributions to reshaping our prayer practices.

At the end of the three sessions, there will be an opportunity for participants to gather in person, try out some of what we’ve learned and create our own service to offer to the broader Mishkan community.

We will be looking at prayers primarily from three texts: our own Reconstructionist prayerbook, The Book of Blessings by Marcia Falk and Siddur haKohanot (A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook). PDF handouts will be available so there is no requirement to purchase these books.
 
Soulful Sunday
Taught by Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Sundays, February 2 and March 2, 10:00-11:30 am.
Tuition: $10 members, $15 nonmembers
Registration Coming Soon
 

Join Rabbi Shawn Zevit and guests for a nosh and interactive learning on a range of topics from a Jewish lens over the course of the year. These are issues that Rabbi Shawn has been exploring for many years and more recently in the journey to awaken more fully as a human being and in a Jewish activist spiritual context.

Soul Collage
Taught by Susan Windle and Wendy Galson
Sunday, February 9, 2:00-5:00 am.
Tuition: $40 members, $45 nonmembers
Registration Coming Soon
 

Awakening to Earth’s Call through Soul Collage offers a quiet afternoon gathering of intuition-driven creativity, informed by the season and the moment in the Jewish year.  Participants assemble collages from Mishkan’s collection of visual images; journaling and sharing allow the collages to unfold their personal meaning.

 We use the card-making techniques of Seena Frost’s SoulCollage® (https://www.soulcollage.com/). We invite participants to experience the card creation process as dream work, to journal and talk about our cards as dreams, using a process developed by the Kohenet Institute.

No experience necessary; all materials provided. 

Mon, January 20 2025 20 Tevet 5785