Adult Learning

Our Adult Learning community is focused on seeking meaning, creating connection, and relationship building for all. We aim to offer a range of opportunities to gather, share, discuss, debate, and learn from each other.

In parallel with SEED, our Early Childhood School, and The Gan, our Youth Learning Program, our intended outcomes are:

Creating meaningful connections to the Jewish people, our congregation, and each other
Empowering each of us to articulate our relationship to Judaism through the soul, heart, and mind
Building the confidence and competence to live Jewishly

5783 Adult Learning Offerings

During Temple Beth Am’s 5783 year of Creating Home Together, we will offer three opportunities for Adult Learning to explore this concept more in-depth. Together, we will engage through the heart – looking at our personal experiences of creating and enriching our Jewish home; mind – studying texts around the concept of home and our role within the community; and soul – connecting more deeply with our Reform Jewish home and movement.

All Adult Education courses will be on Tuesdays from 7-8:30 PM, meeting both in the Sanctuary and via Zoom.

Sign-up for one course or all three!

Course 1

Being at Home in Our Community
Currently in Session!

4-week series in January taught by all 3 rabbis on the following dates: 1/10/23, 1/17/23, 1/24/23, & 1/31/23. This course will be in the evening, 7pm-8:30pm.

Join all 3 rabbis as we consider what makes a home. Together we will explore how Jewish rituals can be a source a daily sustenance and comfort. Taking a moment at night and in the morning can be useful and rejuvenating in feeling more centered in our lives. Let’s look at liturgy, melodies, memories, text, tales, and personal stories together, as the rabbis share openly from their own lives. Engaging in the deep work of the heart, we will have a chance to be open and vulnerable with one another, as we create our prayerful, spiritual home together.

Course 2

An Exploration of Home in Judaism: A Judaism 201 Course

9-week series in February and March taught by Rabbi Jason on the following dates: 2/7, 2/14, 2/21, 2/28, 3/7, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28, & 4/4. This course will be in the evening, 7pm-8:30pm.

Our Judaism 201 course returns with a focus on Home, as taught by Jewish text and tradition. Using texts gathered by the Shalom Hartman Institute, join Rabbi Jason in this weekly study of what makes a Jewish home – literally, symbolically, and communally. No previous text study is necessary, except a desire to engage with the words of our people and to expand our own concept about what home can mean.

Course 3

Our Reform Jewish Home

4-week series in May taught by Rabbi Jason and special guests on the following dates: 5/2, 5/9, 5/16, & 5/30. This course will be in the evening, 7pm-8:30pm.

Temple Beth Am is a congregation in the Reform Jewish movement, but what does that mean? Through this course we will look at the history, values, and practice of Reform Judaism and how it directly impacts our own communal Jewish home. Using this wisdom, we will consider what a Reform Jewish home looks like in the 21st century and beyond. This course will be taught by Rabbi Jason with special guest luminaries from within the Reform Movement.