Temple Shalom

Temple Shalom offers a comprehensive selection of courses focusing on the needs of our congregants. Programs throughout the year, often open to the community, explore both the "how-to" and "why" of Jewish life, the basic building blocks of holidays and customs and the insights, struggles and historic circumstances that gave birth and give power to the rites and rituals of the Jewish people.

Our program includes weekday brown-bag lunch Bible study; book groups; classes in religious studies and rabbinic texts; opportunities to learn Hebrew; and topics of contemporary interest developed at members' requests and inspired by current events. Recent programs have included workshops for interfaith couples, Jewish identity at mid-life, Jewish meditation, a weekly Talmud study group, and music of the High Holidays, as well as courses offered at Leisure World, the JCC and in downtown Washington D.C. through the Foundation for Jewish Studies. Classes are taught by our professional staff, lay leaders, and scholars-in-residence.

It’s Never Too Late!
New Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class
forming at Temple Shalom

Didn’t have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah at age thirteen? Are you from a non-observant home where none of children went to Hebrew School? Are you a woman from a family where only the boys received a Jewish education? Were you not Jewish growing up? Or did you have a Bar Mitzvah when you were young, but are approaching the age of 83 (and, since some say that “counting begins again” at age 70, you would be turning 13 all over again)? There are many reasons leading adult Jews to go through this relatively modern ritual of an “adult” Bar or Bat Mitzvah. At Temple Shalom we have a proud tradition of welcoming those who want to explore this process, no matter their current level of Hebrew, and working with our adult learners to shape their Jewish studies to follow the leads of their own interests. Think an Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah might be for you? Then here are three steps that might change your life:

· Let us know you are thinking of this and that you might be interested, by contacting Lauren Harrison, in Rabbi Feshbach’s office, at lharrison@templeshalom.net, or 301-587-2273.

· Come to Shabbat Morning Services on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 10 AM, when our current “class” celebrate their learning and accomplishment at their Adult B’not Mitzvah, and come to a meeting to explore the next, new Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah class, on Sunday, December 5, from 10:30-11:30 AM, in Rabbi Feshbach’s study.

Reading the Writings: The Book of Job

Fact or fable, legend or parable, Job stands as the starting point for any discussion of evil, power, purpose, and God's ways in the world. Does this book even belong in the Bible at all? Did some pious editor centuries later try to save an otherwise too-radical worldview by adding one verse at the end which challenges the thrust of the entire message? And do the friends and family in our own lives help, or hurt, in what they say to be supportive, in our own times of trouble? Come for the year, or drop in as you can; the discussions are lively, open and accessible to all.
Thursday afternoons, October 7, 2010-May 26, 2011, Noon-1:00 PM
(except for November 25, December 23, December 30, January 27, February 3, March 31, and April 21)
Open to all. No charge. Primary instructor: Rabbi Michael Feshbach

Reform Responsa: Introduction to the Unfolding Letters of Jewish Law

We enter into an important, but little-known world: how the Reform movement and its great scholars use ancient sources to answer modern challenges. Topics will range from stem-cell research and same-sex marriage to issues such as preventative war and human rights in the face of terror threats or ongoing occupation. Controversial questions have come up in the course of the daily life experience of our people (can non-Jews be buried in Jewish cemeteries? Can you give a dishonorable person an honor during a service?) To some extent, topics can be determined by the interests of the participants; as long as Reform "responsa" have been written on the topic and you are interested in it, we can study it together.
Wednesday evenings, October 6, 13, and 20, 2010, 7:30-9:00 PM
(to be continued in November and December if interest allows)
$36/members, $45/non-members for October