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.
Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Education’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es), or you can mail your registration and a check. If you have a suggestion for a class you’d like to take—or teach—contact Kiera Faber, Lifelong Learning Committee chair at and Rabbi Shawn Zevit.
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SOULFUL SUNDAYS AND SACRED SATURDAY EVE: R. Shawn and Guests
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.
$10.00/session (members); $15.00/session (non-members). We will not collect money on Shabbat. Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
Sunday Oct. 22, 10-11:30 am. Finding our Sacred Center with GPS systems: God, Process, and Soul. Exploring and experiencing Jewish approaches to spiritual guidance and questions of purpose/meaning.
Sun. Nov. 12, 10-11:30 am. The meaning and deep structure of Jewish Prayer.
Sat. Dec.16, 4-6 pm (Havdalah and Candle Lighting inc) with Rabbinic Intern Noah Dor Lind: The Spiritual Art of Havdalah: Making Distinctions and Connections. The deep meaning and structure of Havdalah in study, song and ritual.
MUSSAR APPROACH TO ANTI-RACISM WORK (Thurs. Sep 21st, 7:00 pm: Open House Zoom session (free); Sunday, Oct 15th, 2-6 pm half day plus 5 additional Thursday eve 7 pm sessions Oct. 19, 26, Nov. 2, 9, 16). All required in person at Mishkan.
$120 members/$150 non-members. Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
Join us for a new anti-racism course: Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out. Work with daily concrete Jewish spiritual tools alongside community members to confront, subvert, and heal implicit and internalized racism within ourselves and others, supporting our collective organizing, advocacy, and service-work efforts to dismantle racism systemically. Efforts to dismantle racism often consisted of education, advocacy, and systemic change. These efforts are inadequate —it’s necessary that we also do the inner work necessary to change our habits of mind, body, and spirit to wholly dismantle racism. We have ancestral wisdom available to support this change: Mussar is the Jewish spiritual discipline designed to integrate what the head understands with what the heart feels through daily practice. By working together and supporting each other we will emerge from this program with renewed ability and resilience to disrupt racism, a regular spiritual practice, and a set of concrete tools to support your anti-racism efforts. This is not an intro course in anti-racism work: you need to have familiarity with the basics.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling and Rabbi Meryl Crean are both long time leaders in anti-racism work and have been trained in the use of IOWA's "Dismantling Racism" Mussar and Anti-Racism curriculum Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out. Mishkan Shalom's leadership has financially invested in this curriculum as part of our ongoing work to dismantle white supremacy and look at our own internal individual and communal work alongside our racial justice efforts in the broader society
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LEARN TO CHANT TORAH With Cantor David Acker
Saturdays 12:30-1:30 pm (after Shabbat Services, in person), Oct. 14-Nov. 18
Meeting at Mishkan Shalom, 3rd Floor Library
6 Sessions: $108/members - $150 for non-members
Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
David is a long-time Mishkan member, teacher, and Cantor's Assembly member. By the end of six classes, participants will be able to chant at least one complete aliyah, approximately 3 verses in length. Students will have the option to participate as a Torah reader in an upcoming service. An elementary facility with decoding Hebrew letters and vowels is a prerequisite.
7 Great Reasons to Learn to Chant Torah:
- You like puzzles and challenges.
- To exercise your mind.
- To build community.
- To connect to 2000+ year old traditions.
- To share in the “joys and oys” of what your B-Mitzvah kid is doing.
- It’s a MITZVAH!
- It’s FUN!
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CHOOSE LIFE! CONVERSATIONS ABOUT JEWISH DEATH and MOURNING PRACTICES With Rabbi Tsurah August and Patricia Quigley
DATES/TIMES: 4 Sunday mornings, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm ( zoom access).
1. November 5th in person, Mishkan Shalom social hall.
2. December 3rd, 2024 (Zoom).
3. February 4th, 2024 (Zoom).
4. March (March 31st ) or April 7th (at West Laurel Cemetery).
Sessions can be taken as a series or individually. $18 for members/ $25 per session for non-members for individual sessions; $72/$100 for the series. Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
Gevalt! We are all going to die someday! (Baruch HaShem, that day is a long way off!) But before it comes we fortunately have the wisdom and practices of Jewish tradition from ancient days to today, to make our final days meaningful and comforting for ourselves, our parents, children, partners, and other beloveds.
This 4 session course will offer valuable information on end-of-life and mourning that can also serve as a tool for helping parents and adult children initiate “the discussion” so that all parties know each other’s wishes, beliefs, and plans well in advance of their final days.
TOPICS INCLUDE: Ethical wills, living wills, bedside practices and rituals, prayers; hospice; palliative care; bikkor cholim; death doulas; assisted death, autopsy, organ donation, funeral homes, cemeteries, burial, cremation, green burial, shemirah, taharah.
Mishkan members Rabbi Tsurah August, a hospice rabbi for over 20 years, and Patricia Quigley, Funeral Director for West Mount Laurel Cemetery, are the course facilitators.
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SOUL COLLAGE: with Susan Windle and Wendy Galson,
Join us in person Sunday, November 12th, 2-4 pm
The fee is $40; all materials included; no previous experience is required.
All COVID standards set by Mishkan Shalom at the time of the workshop will be enforced.
Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
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Soul Collage: Awakening to Earth's Call was first offered by Wendy and Susan in 2019, following SoulCollage® with a Jewish Spin, originated by Susan Richards, who brought SoulCollage® to us and gifted her SoulCollage® materials to Mishkan Shalom. "Originated by Seena Frost, SoulCollage® is a process for accessing your intuition and creating a….deck of cards with deep personal meaning that will help you with life's questions and transitions.” (https://www.soulcollage.com/)
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Our session includes written journaling as well as the visual journaling of Soul Collage; we experience our card creation process as dream work, and talk about our cards as dreams, following a dream interpretation process developed by the Kohenet Institute.
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Bring a journal and pen. Mishkan Shalom has an extensive image library for you to choose from. If you wish, bring a few wordless images trimmed from magazines on our theme or any others that inspire you.
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Cost $40
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Questions Contact: Wendy Galson, wendy.galson@gmail.com.
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WALK THE TALK- NATURE THROUGH A JEWISH LENS : 1:00-3:00 pm
Led by Steve Jones, “Walk the Talk” is a series of guided outdoor experiences in which participants learn about “reading” the natural landscape as a text. Participants walk for about an hour and a half in the nearby Wissahickon forest, observe the elements of the natural world, learn about ecological relationships, and study short Jewish texts.
Sukkot, Saturday Sept. 30, 2023.
Tu B'Shevat, Sunday Jan. 20, 2024, a time in the calendar when we note that the sap is rising in the seemingly sleeping forest, and we can sense the forest coming back to life through the cold.
Our spring walk (tba) will focus on the bird migration from Central and South America to our woods, along with the flowering of many of the plants native to our valley.
All ages are welcome to meet at Mishkan Shalom after services at 12:30, or meet directly at a designated starting point for the walk in the nearby woods. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and sensible clothes for the outdoors.
$5/session (members & non-members). We will not collect money on Shabbat.
Please register and pay in advance via the website. Click on 'Adult Ed’ in the “type” drop down and also insert the total sum of the class(es).
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Coming 2024/5784- Winter-Spring
i. Soul Collage (Sundays, January 21, 2024 April 14, 2024)
ii. Soulful Sunday and Sacred Saturday Eve w. Rabbi Shawn (cont’d)
iii. Learning Hebrew with Rabbi Meryl
iv. Art and Spirit with Rabbinic Intern Noah Lind Dor (sessions in spring)
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ONE BOOK MISHKAN- LIBRARY COMMITTEE OFFERINGS
New Book selected annually and explored through facilitated book discussions, Saturday Nite at the Movies, Panel Discussion, Art and Music programs.
Watch Kol Shalom, Ma Hadash and https://mishkanshalom.shulcloud.com/library for details. Questions? Suggestions? Write library@mishkan.org.
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ONGOING WEEKLY SPIRITUAL LIFE AND COMMUNITY OFFERINGS
Members: check your weekly Ma Hadash for Zoom info. Non-members can e-mail Rabbishawn@mishkan.org.
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION with Meredith Barber (zoom), Mondays, 8:00-9:00 am.
RESTORATIVE MEDITATION with Abby Ruder (zoom), Tuesdays, 4:00 pm.
AWAKENING TO THE DAY with Rabbi Shawn Zevit, (zoom), Wednesdays, 8:00-8:45 am.
SPIRIT OF SHABBAT with Susan Windle & Wendy Galson (zoom), Fridays, 8:00 am.
WEEKLY TORAH STUDY with Rabbi Eugene Sotirescu and guests, Sat. 9-10 am (on zoom and monthly in person in the Mishkan Shalom library as well).
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MAH JONGG OPEN PLAY Mondays, 7:00-9:00 pm
For more information, contact Susan Schewel, susanschewel@gmail.com
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MEN OF MISHKAN Mondays (biweekly) 7:00-9:00 pm is a men's group open to all adult members of Mishkan who identify as men. The group meets every two weeks to share life's joys and difficulties and provide support to each other. If you would like more information or to consider joining please contact either Marc Jacobs, Marc@MarcJacobsLifeCoach.com, or Mark Heller, CuisineVoila@aol.com.
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MAKHELAT MICHA'EL: MISHKAN CHOIR https://mishkanshalom.shulcloud.com/community-choir, Tuesday evenings. For more information please contact Miriam Davidson, choir director: miriamdvdsn@gmail.com .