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My non-traditional Path to Jewish Learning...
and yours
January 2008
By CBI Board President Amy Corton
Saturday morning, November 17, brought a wonderful experience at our temple with the Torah Study led by the associate editor of The Torah: A Women's Commentary, Rabbi Andrea Weiss. This was followed by our Minyan service, where our clergy used a draft of the new prayer book-Mishkan Tefillah, to lead services. Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, a member of the editorial committee of the Commentary, delivered the sermon and used poetry from the Commentary to engage the worshippers.
I do not regularly attend Torah Study or Minyan. But this morning’s experience truly made me want to attend more often. I would like to find different avenues to advance my Jewish education and to experience the excitement that comes with insight and knowledge.
My desire to advance my Jewish education is recent. My formal Jewish education ended when I completed fifth grade. At that time, my family moved from Scarsdale, New York, to Gainesville, Florida. In Florida I refused to attend religious school because there were few Jewish families and all kids at religious school were considered “weird.” During my remaining formative years, my mother served as my only Jewish education teacher.
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The next chapter in my Jewish education occurred years later when my children attended the Bill and Sid Rubin Preschool. At that time, I reconnected with Jewish rituals. When my children started attending Beth Israel Day School I learned our service prayers by attending Monday morning services at the school, led by Rabbi Jonathan Stein. Since first becoming a Board member eight years ago and most recently feeling deeply connected to our clergy (thanks to Rabbi Berk, Cantor Bernstein and Rabbi Ettman and all their encouragement), I truly want to attend services more frequently and study Torah and our Jewish traditions.
My own experience and listening to the experiences of others have led me to embrace the concept of creating different paths or doors for people to enter our synagogue, to pray and to advance or re-engage their Jewish understanding. These are concepts Rabbi Berk and the other clergy members are committed to. Although I have not followed a traditional path, mine is not unique.
The new Mishkan Tefillah prayer book has been designed with the intention of reaching Jews with varying levels of understanding of our prayers, tradition and Torah. The book provides transliteration and translations for those who do not read Hebrew (that includes me) so they can recite the prayers and understand their meanings. Also, the prayer book offers additional prayers and poems for those who appreciate reading scripture and text as a guide to prayer and understanding. I believe the additional text will appeal to people like my husband who was introduced to Judaism when he was 20 and often likes to read supplemental text and commentary during services to help his understanding and connection to the services.
When I discussed the new prayer book with a dear friend, she expressed concern that with transliterations and translations people may not have the incentive to learn the language and certain worship traditions may fade away. We are hopeful that the opposite will happen.
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We believe people will become engaged through the Mishkan Tefillah and then choose to learn Hebrew to advance their personal knowledge in a continued exploration of Judaism, or have their children attend religious school so that they can read Hebrew.
We believe our new prayer book will make our traditions alive and accessible to more Jews and also to non-Jewish partners of interfaith couples. Perhaps then, more people will be inspired to continue their and their childrens’ Jewish education.
We need to open our doors to all Jews who can be reached by our Reform temple and help them open their own doors to their heritage, identity and future as Jews. My own experience as a mother, a Board member and as a Jew is a wonderful reminder of that.
I truly was enriched by that Saturday morning experience at our Temple. I know my education is continuing as a Jew each time I attend services and each time we study Torah in our Board meetings. Being a leader in our synagogue has allowed me to see how I can help open the many doors of Judaism to those in our community.
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