Home Online consulting My Madrichim Site information Contact us JewishPrograms.Org
Shavuot

Shivim Panim laTorah or 70 Faces Has the Torah

According to our tradition, the act of the Revelation in the Sinai, which we remember at Shavuot, was a unique event in the history of humanity. The Divine Voice was engraved in stone and the Ten Commandments were received by Moses and the people of Israel, later to be passed on throughout the world. A single voice with many listening ears and much looked upon.

To uphold the truth of the Torah in the One is to guarantee the plurality of faces that discover that same unity. To put possession of that oneness at a distance from ourselves, we humans, is to provide the possibility of receiving the message anew and transmitting it.

These are the greatest fruits of Shavuot, the first fruits that we may harvest by allowing room for our fellows, by receiving in every other person a new Ruth.

We Stand at Sinai

This program encourages participants to move from looking at what they believe about Revelation to their own relationship with Torah.

The multi-faceted program engages participants in writing haiku (non-rhyming) poetry, creative movement and writing, perspective clarification, responding to commentary and role playing. It concludes with an experience of torn paper midrash.

It allows for flexibility of format by the teacher as well as choice of activity by students. In the face of time constraints, it is not necessary to do all of the experiential activities.

See Program

The Numbers of Shavuot

Emphasizing numbers associated with Shavuot, this fascinating program provides young children with a variety of lively opportunities to explore an ancient and multifaceted festival. From Ten Commandments, Two Tablets, and Forty-nine Days to Two Friends, and Seven Species ... the numbers are in! Easy-to-understand Torah text, Hebrew, quick facts, discussion guides, bulletin-board ideas and, of course, wonderful developmentally appropriate hands-on activities are included.

See Program

Ruth and Lessons on Our Relationships with Each Other and G-d

Once again, we are going to look at one of the personal and practical messages that a Jewish observance and season, in this case, Shavuot and its telling of the story of Ruth, has for our lives. Here we observe our celebration of receiving the Torah as well as the interactions we have with each other and with G-d. It is these interactions in our lives and how we relate to each other that will be the focus of this set of lessons. We learn that every person is created BeTzelem Elokim, in the image of G-d. As such we are required to treat each other with regard and respect and the same honor we would accord to G-d. These relationships occur on many levels, within ourselves, our families and communities and in our consideration of “the other,” that is the outsider whom we bring inside. We do all of this out of respect for the human being as the handiwork of G-d.

See Program

‘Realistic Messianism’: The road I take from Sinai and try to travel on

The Torah is God’s great objective gift to all of us; but its reception and application to our lives is the subjective personal response-ability of each and every one of us as individual members of the Jewish people; we commemorate and celebrate the gift; it’s up to each of us to make good use of it!
Following this rabbi’s cue, I want to share with you in this essay my personal reception, interpretation and application of this great gift lent to us at Mt. Sinai: realistic messianism. This pair of terms “realistic messiansm” may legitimately be perceived, certainly at first glance, as an oxymoron. I hope to demonstrate in the course of this essay, the two terms composing it are dialectically interrelated: The strong drive and resolute determination to strive to humanize the world is encapsulated in the noun messianism; and the means to head in the direction towards this humanization and to ever-approach arriving at it are encapsulated in the qualifying adjective “realistic”. Furthermore, this adjective is meant to serve as a powerful anti-dote to the dangerous pitfalls into which other types of messianism - unrealistic and other-worldly ones - fall.

See Article

Be a Mentsch!! – Lessons from the Torah

As educators of Jewish children, we enthusiastically guide our children toward becoming compassionate, dependable, and morally upright human beings. In short, our primary responsibility is to help each of our kids discover what it means to be a “mentsch.” So what does the Torah mention about mentschen? Well, there is the list of 613 laws recorded and classified by Maimonides in the 12th century.

This month-long project highlights four kid-friendly Torah stories and four of the basic mentsch-making values that they inspire.

See Program

Choices

On Shavuot, Jews celebrate the handing over of the Torah and the fact that G-d chose us as His people. But what does this choice mean? What are its terms and conditions? In this article the author explores the genealogy of the concept of choice in the Jewish tradition to see how it acquired different shades of meaning as it was molded by different authors, looking specifically at the stances of a story of the Talmud, of Maimonides and of Rabbi Yehuda haLevi.

By Rabbi Joshua Kullock

See Article

The Big Ten – Inside and Out: An Exploration of the 10 Commandments for Shavuot

Shavuot provides a wonderful opportunity for study sessions. This project proposes the rediscovery of the Ten Commandments through multiple activities based on the different perceptions and spectrums from which they can be studied. The project also incites the learner to explore nuances in the relationship between the one who Commands and the one who is Commanded, and apply the themes of the Commandments to modern life. The participants will approach the subject by exploring their own ability to define classification categories and creatively write parodies based on the Decalogue.

See Program

Of Priests, Prophets, Mystics and Sages

Just as the Torah has many faces, many are the ways of connecting with it and through it. In this article, the author invites us on a tour of four classical paradigms, each with its own characteristics and peculiarities. In parallel to the four children of the Haggadah of Pesach, the text delves into the lives of the pragmatist, the idealist, the seeker and the educator—lives borne of the Torah, lives that draw their sustenance from their relationship with it, lives that encourage us all to choose with whom we identify most.

By Rabbi Joshua Kullock

See Article

Tikkun Leil Shavuot


This project consists of a series of workshops to be carried out during the first night of Shavuot. The workshops will provide information, artistic values, and amusement

See Program
Page 1 of 4Next