This initiative will help communities to give individuals space during both services and study sessions, and will empower individuals to use this space to bring themselves to the community and their Judaism.
Reform Judaism often focuses on “Mountain Top Moments”, shared communal highs often achieved through song, and during the High Holy Days hundreds and thousands of us gather in our synagogues. But how many of us have the skills and knowledge to find personal, transformative meaning both during those communal highs, and all year round? How many of us have a grasp of key prayers and blessings that we can hold onto, and that will hold onto us, in moments of congregational prayer and personal struggle?
This is an initiative for communities looking to create or develop existing parallel minyanim or Torah groups. This is for anyone who wants to grow and deepen their Judaism within their community and home, at festivals and throughout the year.
EMPOWERING JEWISH PRACTICE INITIATIVE SESSIONS
My Jewish Practice
Let’s dig deeper into our Jewish practice by looking at why we care about it, and the different ways in which we experience it. In this session we’ll explore, through some inspiring texts, the ways that we can engage with Torah, tefillah and mitzvot in our lives. We’ll also be listening carefully to what participants want from this process. And we will attempt to answer the big question – what is Jewish spirituality and how can we bring it more closely into our lives? With Rabbi Benji Stanley
The Amidah from a range of angles
Come and experience a close reading of the Amidah and use other texts to get at its range and meaning. Gain the confidence to be creative with it, and look at ways of bringing it into your own daily life. And how can we bring our enhanced understanding of this central prayer back into our communities?
The Shema from a range of angles
We will return to the shema, using other texts to help us interpret it. We’ll also include the use of tefillin, tallitot and the mezuzah. And again, as with the Amidah, we will consider how we can use our enhanced understanding of this prayer bother personally and in our communities.
Growing inspiring practice
It doesn’t end here! Come to this session to reflect on the ways your spiritual practice has developed over Chagigah. We will use these reflections to plan how you will take back your gains to your communities. We’ll also set up a network so we can all support each other as we start on our journeys towards more meaningful Jewish practice.
Mindfulness, Contemplation, Tefillah and Me
Danny will guide us through a contemplative and reflective experience where we will take some time for ourselves before the day begins. This session is designed to model that which we can repeat ourselves at home and help us begin to think about how we might develop our own personal spiritual practices.
with student Rabbi Danny Newman
Empowering Practice Initiative is run by: