What did you hear when we were all at Sinai?
June 14, 2013, 6:15 pm service
In honor of Pride month, Andrew Ramer will join us for Shabbat service and a discussion about the increasing participation of women and LGBT people in the Jewish world. He writes: “On an endangered planet… it is the role of stories to hold us, guide us, and sustain us. In this evening of storytelling and story sharing, we will have a chance to wander in and out of our core texts and share elements of our own callings to Tikkun Olam.”
Andrew Ramer is a writer, teacher, and maggid (story teller) whose work is grounded in traditional Jewish values and texts. He is the author of numerous books including Two Flutes Playing, Angel Answers and Revelations for a New Millennium. His most recent publication is Queering the Text: Biblical, Medieval, and Modern Jewish Stories.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519 by June 5, 2013. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs Change and Challenge: Reform Judaism at a Crossroads
August 9, 2013, 6:15 pm Service
Rabbi Rick Jacobs is president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Jewish Movement in North America.
A longtime and devoted creative change agent, Rabbi Jacobs spent 20 years as a dynamic, visionary spiritual leader at Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) in Scarsdale, New York. During his tenure, he reshaped communal worship, transformed the congregation into a community of lifelong learners, and strengthened the synagogue’s commitment to vibrancy and inclusion. Under Rabbi Jacobs’ leadership, WRT completed a new “green” sanctuary, one of only a handful of Jewish houses of worship in the nation to carry this designation.
Deeply committed to the State of Israel, Rabbi Jacobs has studied for two decades at Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is now a senior rabbinic fellow.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Learning to Talk Jewish, Words Used in Synagogue Life
October 2nd and 9th from 7:00-8:30 pm
Taught by Rabbis Gittleman and Kramer
Are you tired of feeling left out when Hebrew terms are bandied about the synagogue? Would you like to learn what some key words mean and a great source for future reference and study? If so, this class is perfect for you.
Class is free but we strongly suggest you purchase the book These are the Words by Arthur Green
Cantor David Frommer, Stranger in a Strange Land: My Unlikely Deployment as a Military Chaplain
October 11, 2013, 6:15 pm Service
Cantor, Liberal, Yalie, Jew. Which of these would you be least likely to meet in the US military today? David Frommer served as all four on his recent deployment to Kuwait and Afghanistan. It didn’t make sense but it made for a valuable year with America’s other one percent– her servicemen and women stationed overseas.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Rabbi Sarah Bassin, “The Stories We Tell Ourselves”
October 25th-26th Join Special Guest Rabbi for service and Torah study.
Sarah and Hagar share a story of rivalry, contempt, and competition. Or do they? Rabbi Sarah Bassin, Executive Director of New Ground: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change will explore the relationship between these two women as understood in Jewish and Islamic traditions. What might the story of Sarah and Hagar teach us about the stories we tell ourselves?
Saturday morning Sarah will lead Torah study in a comparative text study between Quranic and Biblical (and related traditional passages) on the relationship of the Sarah and Hagar.
SHALOM HARTMAN SERIES
Peoplehood and Its Role and Significance in Jewish Life: The newest addition to the Shalom Hartman Institute video lecture series.
This is a 6-part lecture series.
October 16, 23,30 November 6,13,20 7:00- 9:00pm
In this 6-part video lecture series, senior Hartman Institute faculty members delve into the idea of Jewish Peoplehood – its complex origins, its implications and how it might be sustained.
The meanings and implications of Jewish Peoplehood have a direct impact on nearly all of the central questions and tensions of Judaism and modern life. Anxiety about a dwindling sense of Peoplehood is increasingly defining the agenda for Israeli agencies and Jewish institutions and federations worldwide.
- The Meaning and Significance of Peoplehood in Jewish Life: SHI President Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman
- Genesis and Exodus: Two Models of Jewish Peoplehood: SHI President Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman
- Prioritizing Peoplehood: A Reading of the Book of Jonah: Senior SHI Fellow Dr. Micah Goodman
- The Individual and the Collective: SHI-North America President Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer
- The Poetics of Peoplehood - Presented by Senior SHI Fellow Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed
- Peoplehood and the Centrality of Place– Presented by SHI-NA President Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer
Taught by Rabbi Gittleman and Rabbi Kramer Member $90 Non-Member $100 + a $20 source book for the course.
Scholars Lecture Series
Come hear our Scholars teach their favorite texts. Pop in for $18 a session or attend the entire 4 part series for $54. Sundays from 3:00-4:30 pm
October 13: Naomi Seidman, “Finding ‘A Woman of Valor’: Gender, Americanization, and the 1917 JPS Bible”
We will explore the translation of Proverbs 31 as it appears in a number of Christian and Jewish translations, focusing in particular on the choice, in the 1917 JPS version, to translate eshet hayil as “A woman of valor” rather than (as the King James has it) “A woman of virtue.”
Naomi Seidman, Koret Professor of Jewish Culture and Director, the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union
November 3: Rabbi Jerry Danzig, Maimonides’ Philosophy of Ethical Responses to Aspects of Life That Do Not Admit Choice
Fate, astrological predetermination, predestination, and apocalyptic beliefs were orthodoxies of many religions of the middle ages. Adherence to these orthodoxies prevailed over ethics then and lingers today in the minds and behavior among the faithful of all religions. In the 12th century, Miamonides presents a polemic against these prevailing notions. We will study Chapter 5, Hilchot T’shuvah of the Mishneh Torah, in which Maimonides advances the primacy of “b’chirah” (choice) as the sine qua non of, particularly, Jewish ethics. Without choice, a person has no claim to human dignity, a fundamental of Judaism. In examining the implications of Maimonides’ philosophy, we will confront the challenge of, and ethical responses to, aspects of life that do not admit choice.
Rabbi Jerry M Danzig is retired, living with his wife, Joy, in Santa Rosa. In 1999 Rabbi Danzig retired from Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, CA; 1971-1982 as Rabbi of Cong. Beth David, Saratoga, Ca; Founder of Yavneh Day School, Saratoga, CA; Founding Board Member of the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School. Lecturer at University of Judaism, Department of Continuing Education as well as other various institutions and conclaves.
Rabbi Danzig is yeshivah trained at Mesiftah Tifereth Jerusalem, N.Y.; Rabbinical College of Telshe; Ordained Bet Medrish LaRabbanim, NY.
November 17th: Rachel Biale, Sex and Furniture in Jewish Tradition
This text study session will investigate traditional Jewish attitudes towards sexuality and procreation through the somewhat surprising lens of furniture: real and symbolic. We will do a close reading of Talmudic texts that are open to a variety of interpretations.
Rachel Biale was born and raised in Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin in Israel. She received her BA and MA in Jewish History from UCLA and her MSW from Yeshiva University. She is the author of Women and Jewish Law (Schocken, 1984) and two books for parents and children in a series titled “Let’s Make a Book about It:” My Pet Died and We Are Moving.
Rachel has worked in the Bay Area Jewish community for over 20 years, first as a clinician for Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay, then as Director of Community Education at the Osher Marin JCC and, most recently, as Bay Area Regional Director of Progressive Jewish Alliance. She is the Director of Bible by the Bay/Lehrhaus 360, a project of Lehrhaus Judaica. She also has a private practice of parenting counseling, now in its 25th year, and writes a bi-weekly parenting advice column in the J.: Parenting for the Perplexed. She also writes and illuminates ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts).
December 8: Rabbi Lavey Derby, Where Can God be Found?
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev was a much loved and God-imbued spiritual teacher. We will study one of his famous teachings on God’s presence in the world.
Rabbi Lavey Derby teaches meditation, mysticism and Hasidism around the country and is the eighth generation direct descendant of Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev.
Dr. Leah Hochman, Let’s Eat Already! Jews and Food
November 8, 2013, 6:15 pm Service
Nothing betrays our longest held assumptions, values, prejudices and commitments like the food we choose to put on our plates. Together we will look at the history of Jewish foods, the changing nature of contemporary Jewish eating habits and the ways that Jewish food production and consumption can have meaning beyond just whetting our appetites.
Leah Hochman is the Director of the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at USC and Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew Union College –Jewish Institute of Religion on the Jack H. Skirball Campus in Los Angeles.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Navigating the Prayer book: Basics of Synagogue Survival
Jan 15th, 22nd, 29th 7:00-8:30 pm
Taught by Rabbis Gittleman and Kramer
Is it hard for you to follow along during services? Are you standing up when everyone else is sitting down? Do you wonder what those strange movements are that Rabbi Kramer does on the bima? Come learn some of the practice (how to) elements of worship at Shomrei Torah.
Intro To Hebrew
Saturdays Jan 18- Mar 29 1:00-2:30pm
This ten-session class beginning on Saturday Jan 18, 2014 from 1:00-2:30 will teach you the fundamentals of Hebrew reading as well as the structure and meaning of the Shabbat morning liturgy. This class is designed for those who want to be able to follow along in Hebrew and those interested in having an Adult B’nei Mitzvah. No previous knowledge required. This class is $150 for the ten sessions and all materials.
Rabbi Shelley Wald, Humor As Protest and Moral Sanity: A Jewish Perspective.
February 14, 2014, 6:15 pm Service
The very real role humor has played in helping Jews survive centuries of persecution, displacing hostility with laughter - from biblical through modern times, and many stops in between; from Abraham to Woody Allen.
Rabbi Shelley is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. A Senior Lecturer at Holy Names University, and Principal Educator of the American Jewish Committee’s Bridges Program, building bridges between Jewish and Catholic high School youth. He was Visiting Rabbi at Shomrei Torah some years ago.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Spiritual Direction
February 12th, 19th, 26th 7:00-8:30pm
Alissa Hirshfeld-Flores was trained and certified in Jewish Spiritual Direction by the Yedidyah Morei Derekh program, where she studied with Alan Moranis, Rabbi Anne Brenner, Estelle Frankel, and Linda Thal (among others).
Participants are encouraged to sign up for the series. Spiritual Guidance is based on the ancient practices of spiritual direction and guidance found in many faith traditions. The Hebrew term for spiritual guidance, hashpa’ah (השפעה), is from the same root as shefa (שפה) which means “abundant Divine flow.” Spiritual Guidance helps deepen your connection to yourself, God, or however you define the sacred, so that you can understand and attend to what your soul needs.
People often turn to spiritual direction when:
–searching for what is missing in your life
–seeking clarity in your life purpose
–integrating spiritual practice into your daily life
–making life choices from a grounded place of knowing what is right for you
–exploring the question “Where is God in my life?”
–developing and exploring your spiritual needs
This class will be an introduction to different techniques used to connect more deeply with a feeling of spirituality in our lives.
Weeks 1: Using imagery to connect with the sacred.
Week 2: A contemplative approach to text/Torah study
Week 3: An introduction to Mussar: Ethical self-development.
Daniel Matt, Shekhinah: The Feminine Half of God
April 11, 2014, 6:15 pm Service
One of the boldest contributions of Kabbalah is the idea that God is equally female and male. Daniel Matt will briefly trace the development of Kabbalah and then focus on the concept of Shekhinah (the feminine aspect of God) from its rabbinic origins to its full flowering in the Zohar, where Shekhinah is identified with the Sabbath Bride.
Daniel Matt is one of the world’s leading authorities on Kabbalah. He has published over ten books, including The Essential Kabbalah (translated into seven languages), Zohar: Annotated and Explained, and God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality.
Daniel is nearing completion of his immense project of translating and annotating the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Maya Brodkey, Not Your Bubbeh’s Gender: Jewish Genders Through a Queer Lens
June 13, 2014, 6:15 pm Service
How is gender in the Jewish world different than gender in the non-Jewish world? Where has gender variance and non-conformance appeared in Jewish history, and how has it been addressed? This discussion will explore both Biblical examples of non-normative Jewish genders and modern-day instances of Jewish gender bending.
Maya Brodkey is the Bay Area Community Organizer for Keshet, a non-profit working for the full inclusion of LGBTQ Jews in Jewish life.
RSVP to CST at 578-5519. Suggested donation $10 per person.
Adult B’nei Mitzvah Training Program
Saturdays April 12, 2014- April 25, 2015
Did you miss the opportunity as a child to have a bar/bat mitzvah? Have you been looking for an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and understanding of Judaism?
The Adult B’nei Mitzvah Program is an exceptional opportunity for students to learn about Jews and Judaism as adults. This year long course will delve into Jewish theology, liturgy and an exposure to the Jewish cannon. The course will include study of the skills required for participation in, and leadership of, portions of a Shabbat morning service. The course culminates at the Shabbat morning service on April 25, 2015, during which students will share in leading the service.
The program will take place on Saturdays from 1-2:30 pm, beginning on April 12, 2014. The 90-minute sessions will be taught by Rabbi Gittleman and Rabbi Kramer, and a variety of guest teachers. In addition, students will occasionally attend Lifelong Learning lectures on Wednesday nights, and students will have 5 hours of private tutoring to learn to chant the parshah (Torah portion) in preparation for the service and ceremony on April 25, 2015.
B’nei Mitzvah Training Program $1310 tuition and materials
If you do not know how to read Hebrew you will need to take the 10-session Intro To Hebrew and Liturgy course starting Jan 18, 2014. $150.
For details, please contact the Rabbinic Assistant at 578-5519. Class size will be limited; register early.
Calling all Shomrei Torah women:
Come and join our Rosh Chodesh women’s group. It is a custom for women to gather for celebration and sisterhood every month at the time of the new moon. The meetings may be at a private home, or at an outdoor setting (under the actual moon!–weather permitting).
Each month will focus on a specific Jewish spiritual theme (from Kabbalah, mussar (Jewish ethical teachings), or a Biblical source). We will meditate, chant, sing, dance, study, and discuss in order to deepen our connection to the sacred, to ourselves, to each other and to the community.
We hope you will join us! Please contact Alissa Hirshfeld-Flores atAlissa Flores alissa.flores@sbcglobal.net or Rabbinic Pastor Judith Goleman at golemanjudith@aol.com for more information.
Rabbinic Pastor Judith Goleman and
Alissa Hirshfeld-Flores (certified Jewish Spiritual Director)
Torah Study
…and Breakfast for the Hungry Hearted is held every Shabbat morning at 8:45AM in our Kolbo. All are welcome, of any age, including beginners to Torah study. Sessions are led by Rabbi George, Rabbi Kramer, and by lay leaders. The best opportunity for ongoing in-depth discussion of Torah and related writings.