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Adult Education

Adult Education

Beit Haverim offers programming throughout the year to inform and inspire. Please check our bulletin for topics and scheduling. Events, unless otherwise specified, are held at Beit Haverim. Regular programming includes:
* Torah Study with Rabbi Berg
* Mussar with Peter Barbour
* Book Discussion Group

The Song of Songs

The D'var Torah for Friday, April 11 continued Rabbu Berg's  Song of Songs sermon series. Please find the whole text of all three parts here: Song of Songs

Jewish Wisdom for Great Life Questions
How do I relate to others? While the particulars of this shift and change over the course of our lives, how we interact is an abiding question we each engage. Relating to other people is fundamentally messy work that asks us to regularly refine our approach and examine ourselves anew. In this new class, Jewish Wisdom for Great Life Questions, we will reflect on just a handful of the essential gestures of this pursuit from a Jewish perspective— forgiveness, discerning purpose, our public presentation, speech, and communal responsibility. Please join us for this Zoom only series. 

This series will meet for six sessions every other Wednesday, beginning on March 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM. 
(Click here for event Zoom links.) 

Members, and non-members, please pre-register to attend here. 

Torah Study
Torah study occurs most Saturday mornings at 10:00 am in person and on zoom. A dynamic and safe place to learn more about Torah, members of the group offer their own insights, engage in discussion, or just listen to others as the weekly Torah portion is discussed. All are welcome to join us.  We meet on most Saturdays at 10:00am by Zoom.
(Click here for event Zoom links.) 

Non-members and guests -- for everyone's safety and security, please pre-register to attend here.

Mussar is an ancient Jewish practice that evolved from traditional thinking, but in the past was a personal and private study. Mussar literally means moral conduct instruction or discipline. In the mid-1800s in Lithuania, to bring greater relevance into religion, Rabbi Israel Lipkin Salanter (1819-1883) reconstructed the study of Mussar. Mussar subsequently changed from a personal endeavor to become a popular social and spiritual practice.
 
The practice of Mussar involves study, discussion, implementation, and reflection. The study of individual values, such as humility, patience, faith, is well defined from the Jewish perspective; resources include Alan Morini's book Everyday Holiness, Greg Marcus' book The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions, and The Mussar Torah Commentary by Barry Block. 
 
At our meetings we begin with a short meditation, followed by discussion of the virtue (midah) of the month, its significance, and the consequences of practicing too much or too little of it. The emphasis is on practice and how to bring the study into mindfulness. We ask ourselves: How will we use what we have learned? How will we make ourselves mindful, so we opt for the best behavior in the appropriate context? The last part is personal, observe how you do with the virtue studied and keep a journal. Study, discussion, implementation, and reflection. We have identified sixteen virtues and discuss a new virtue each month. When we finish the cycle, we begin again, so you can enter the cycle at any time.
 
We meet on the third or fourth Thursday of each month at 7:00pm by Zoom (click here for event Zoom links). If you have any questions, email our office at office@beithav.org. Tentative dates and virtues are listed below:
 
February 27         Responsibility (complete)
March 20               Humility (complete)
April 24                   Patience
May 22                    Enthusiasm
June 26                   Order
July 24                     Silence
August 21              Equanimity
September             -- no Mussar --
October 23           Truth
November 20      Honor
December 18      Gratitude

 

Past Programs and Events
For information on previous speakers, series, lectures and programming, click here.

 

Wed, April 30 2025 2 Iyar 5785