By Morris Malakoff, JTNews Correspondent
In a hectic world filled with the demands of the daily routine, it is easy for spiritual life to become a rote part of the schedule with little thought as to the whys and wherefores of practice and meaning. But a program that made its debut at Congregation Beth Shalom in North Seattle over the weekend of Feb. 27–March 1 seeks to change that.
The “Yeshiva Experience” brought together more than 100 members of the local community, including many from outside the ranks of Beth Shalom, to immerse themselves in hours of learning and discussion of issues that have touched the lives of Jews for millennia.
The participants varied widely in age. While the program is geared to adults, Sunday sessions included students in the congregation’s religious school who worked in specially facilitated groups.
The program was facilitated by the congregation’s staff and Rabbi Jill Borodin, who brought in two scholars from the New York-based Mechon Hadar: An Institute for Prayer, Personal Growth and Jewish Study, an independent, egalitarian program that seeks to expand the horizons of Jewish learning and intellectual thought for young adults. The event was this year’s Edwin L. Bierman Scholars-in-Residence program.
The weekend was filled with study sessions interspersed with prayer, communal dining and singing.
The core of the program was the study sessions. Each concentrated on a specific topic such as “Defining the Essence of Shabbat,” “Troubling Texts,” or “Making Decisions about Kashrut.”
The sessions began with an introduction by either Rabbi Ethan Tucker or Jewish Studies scholar Sara Labaton, both of whom came to Seattle from Mechon Hadar for the event. Participants were given selected pertinent texts in Hebrew and English and then broke off into small groups to read the texts aloud and discuss their contemporary application in everyday life.
The sessions were designed to replicate the learning process that occurs at Yeshivat Hadar, Mechon Hadar’s intensive yeshiva program.
“Most people are not able to take the time to go to a yeshiva,” Tucker said. “In a small way, we are bringing it to them.”
Tucker said this is the first time Mechon Hadar has done the “Yeshiva Experience” program, but it was something he sees as an outreach program that he hopes to do again in other locations.
Having that yeshiva experience close at hand was something that struck a chord with Congregation Beth Shalom member Shelly Crocker, who said that at first she was skeptical.
“This is not a style I grew up with,” she said. “I had resisted analyzing texts, but I am finding there is a great richness and this weekend makes them accessible. I am seeing where they came from and why and how they are used. I am a lawyer and that is what I do. I have found that this is intellectually stimulating.”
According to Borodin, that is one of the attractions of the program, particularly to her congregation at Beth Shalom.
“This program brings together both the academic and the rabbinic,” she said. “That fits our community well. It gives people an opportunity to under
stand that the Torah is not just about learning, but that it has practical consequences as well. It gives it a dimension of relevancy.”
Borodin said that the program also had another positive outcome — one that she found equally exciting for the congregation. As she looked across the Beth Shalom sanctuary, filled with the cacophony of people of all ages seated around tables discussing the topics of the “Yeshiva Experience,” she expressed her pleasure at the communal activity.
“People are sharing and people are learning,” she said excitedly. “These are people who have given up much of their weekend because they want to learn. They are learning about relevancy of the Torah, but they are also learning about their community and the people in it.”