Adult Education

E-mail: execdir@bethisrael-aa.org

Adult Education Calendar

Upcoming Events

• Sunday June 1 7:45PM Erev Yom Yerushalayim The Copper Scroll and Hyrcania's Mysterious Tunnels" In 1960, the Copper Scroll expedition lead by John Marco Allegro made an archaeological survey in the Judean Desert. During their survey, two mysterious tunnels with stairs carved in the rock were found in a valley at the base of Mt. Hyrcania. the Copper Scroll, found in Qumran in 1949, describes the hiding place of ancient treasure, believed by many to be no less than the Temple treasure. Allegro's team tried to excavate the tunnels, but soon gave up because of the hard conditions. The tunnels were forgotten for almost 40 years, until Gutfeld was asked to lead a new expedition to the site in the year 2000. Could the tunnel steps be the steps referred to in the Copper Scroll? In this presentation, Oren Gutfeld will tell the fascinating story of the Hyrcania's tunnels and the Copper Scroll
  Dr. Gutfeld received his Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is currently Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at the University of Michigan where he is teaching several courses. He now serves as the Director of the Hebrew University’s excavations at Beit Loya and Co-Director of the University’s excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. He is also a member of the editing team completing the final report of the late Prof. Avigad’s Jewish Quarter Excavations. Dr. Gutfeld has extensive field experience. He served as excavation director on the following projects on behalf of the Hebrew University: the area of the Hurvah Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem (in cooperation with Hillel Geva), Nahal Sekhakha (Hyrcania Tunnels), in the Judean desert, Tiberias (in cooperation with Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld), and Ramla.
• Sunday June 15 8:00PM Spiritual Direction Session, led by Evelyn Neuhaus. This session is intended to assist people who would like to undergo a spiritual quest. Free and open to members and non members.
  My Spiritual Path By Evelyn Ruth Neuhaus There was little joy in the Judaism of my youth. It established a minority status with which I identified but about which I knew almost nothing. The only aspect I understood was the discrimination and the persecution my family experienced in Germany. God, if represented at all, was represented as a judgmental figure that watched and punished but provided little comfort. At age seven, when my father told me that my mother had died, my recollection is that he told me that God had taken her. There was little comfort from that God. There was a sense of belonging to a tribe, but little understanding of the spiritual depth and the sense of community that it could provide. Perhaps because of the multiple losses that my father has experienced, far from his family, his education interrupted and never resumed, his young wife taken, and despite his Orthodox youth, he must have experienced a loss of faith. That may have been why he never took me to services or provided me with little Jewish education Though more unaffiliated than many, I think that my experience was a variation of the experience of many Jews of my generation. The Judaism we grew up with was rational and devoid of mystery. How could we take comfort from the Divine when the Holocaust still seemed so close (I was born only four years after the end of the war) and affected my immediate family and my community? I always felt Jewish but because I felt so ignorant, Judaism could be intimidating. As I moved into my thirties, I was searching in an inchoate way for something to give my life meaning and connection and started learning about Judaism. I found the easiest connection with Jewish progressive political organizations like New Jewish Agenda. As my comfort with Jewish rituals increased, I began to study Hebrew and prepared for an adult Bat Mitzvah. But my search for a Judaism I could love and trust continued. In my early forties, I was laid off from my job and dealing with a divorce. As a friend helped me with life and career planning, I looked at the four worlds and sought balance in these worlds – the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual worlds, I realized that my spiritual presence was the least developed. Just at that time, a few members of Beth Israel began to develop an alternative participative service that became the Shabbos Circle. That group met for about four or five years, twice a month, and because we all participated in leading services, I was provided the opportunity to learn about the structure of the worship service and introduced to other the Jewish Renewal movement and the Havurah movement. These organizations offered retreats with the opportunity for short-term study, and my spiritual life deepened. I have been truly blessed that despite a pretty severe chronic disease and the attendant disabilities, I have been able to lead a full, full of fun and friend. My spiritual quest began about the same time as treatment for my disease became available. Without that continuing treatment, I would probably be dead today, or so debilitated that I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. Perhaps it is my continuous acquaintance with mortality that has opened my heart and led me to seek a place for the divine in my life. Retirement, more than two years ago, has provided me with the time and energy to cultivate humility and compassion for myself and others, and I continue to struggle with this cultivation. I found a training program on the Internet in Jewish Spiritual Direction that attracted me both because of the content and the faculty members, whom I knew and respected. The program provided the opportunity to study with Rabbis and Cantors and develop the skill of listening deeply to others. As I trained to be a spiritual director, I was required to be in direction myself with a spiritual director, and I continue to see her once a month. With her, I feel that my spiritual quest is deeply heard and made real. She has helped me to recognize the sacred moments hidden in life. This work is slow, as Marge Piercy says “connections are made slowly” and the bruised heart is reluctant to open, But one opportunity after another has presented itself to me, as if my long-dead mother was watching out for me, recognizing my needs and sending opportunities for growth my way, and helping me to recognize an opportunity when is it offered. I have come to learn the meaning of the word grace, in the opportunities that seem to come to me unbidden.
• Wednesday September 10 Noon Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Dobrusin
• Wednesday September 17 Noon Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Dobrusin
• Wednesday September 24 Noon Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Dobrusin
• Sunday November 9 Noon Cantor Shiovitz -- a program on the new styel of congregation singing.