Intro to the Jewish Experience
With Rabbi Ruth Adar
 
This three-part course is an introduction to Judaism designed to engage students with Jewish life and Jewish institutions.

In part 1, we study the Jewish lifecycle in the context of Jewish understandings of God and the cosmos.
In part 2, we learn about Jewish history and texts in order to understand Judaism in our own time.
And in part 3, we look at aspects of Jewish people and the Jewish community, including our own Bay Area Jewish community.
Each part can stand on its own as a separate course.
Please visit the website that Rabbi Adar has set up for this class.
Part 1: God and Jewish Lifecycle
Jews express their faith more by “doing” than by “believing.” Jewish lifecycle celebrations and rituals express the relationship of the Jew to the world, and Jewish understandings of the Holy. This course will explore Jewish concepts of God and the world as they are expressed through the experiences of Jewish lifecycle events.
Part I: Thursdays, October 27–December 15
Part 2: Torah, Memory and History
As Jews have traveled through history, they recorded experiences in various texts: the Bible, the Midrash, the Mishnah, the Talmud, Codes, Responsa literature, and the Prayerbook, which Jacob Petuchowski, a scholar of Jewish liturgy, has described as “the diary of the Jewish people.” This course will begin with an overview of Jewish history, followed by an examination of how those texts illuminate Jewish life in the past, as well as in the present day. The class will culminate in a study of the Haggadah, the “script” of the seder.
Location: Congregation Kol Emeth
8 classes: Thursdays, January 19–March 8
Part 3: The People Israel
Who is a Jew? Who are the Jews? We will explore these questions by looking at Jewish life from many different angles: kashrut, Israel, the movements of Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionism and Renewal), Jewish institutions and the relationship of Judaism and its sister religions, Christianity and Islam.
Location: Congregation Etz Chayim
8 classes: Thursdays, April 5–May 24
Register for all three topics and get a discounted rate: $200 Members, $250 Non-Members. Registration for all three classes in the series is available here.
 
Advance registration required.
In partnership with Lehrhaus Judaica, Congregation Kol Emeth, Keddem Congregation and Congregation Etz Chayim.
 
Dates: Part I: Thursdays, October 27–December 15
Part II: Thursdays, January 19–March 8
Part III: Thursdays, April 5–May 24
Includes one Shabbat dinner, date TBD based on participant schedules
Time: 7:30-9:00 PM
Location: Part I: OFJCC, Room G-103
Part II: Congregation Kol Emeth
Part III: Congregation Etz Chayim
Fee: $100 Members, $125 Non-Members for each part.
Contact: (650) 223-8700
jewishlearning@paloaltojcc.org





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