Welcoming Elul

By Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College 

This coming Saturday night, when we mark the end of Shabbat, we will usher in the Hebrew month of Elul, and as we do so, we will fully enter our sacred season of teshuva. Elul offers us a prolonged, preparatory period of personal and communal soul-searching leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is both a responsibility, and a gift. I am increasingly moved by the wisdom of the Jewish calendar and its built-in, boldly counter-cultural recognition that the process of teshuva—like everything that matters most—takes time.

Often translated as repentance, the word teshuva comes from the ancient Hebrew root meaning to return. That small three-letter root makes a large promise—that however lost we may feel, however far we may have wandered or fallen, somehow, we can find our way back.

As I write those words, this year even more than most, my inner cynic immediately starts to clamor. You must be kidding. Everywhere we turn, we are surrounded by devastation and damage that we know cannot be undone. Lives that cannot be brought back. Innocence that can never be regained. Ecological degradation that can never be reversed. In the face of such unfathomable loss, it feels false, dangerous, even cruel, to suggest that we can “go back” to what was before. This is undeniably, achingly true. Which is precisely why teshuva is not about the impossible fantasy of returning to what was. That fantasy is profoundly understandable, born as it so often is out of grief, but it is nostalgia—not teshuva.

Teshuva entails a different kind of return—arduous, uncertain, unpredictable, and alive. It is a return not to what was, but to what is and what might be. It is a return not to who we were, but to who we long to be. It is a return not to an irretrievable past, but to each other and to God. In this sense, the call to teshuva is a call to both belonging and becoming.

Read more...

SEVENTY FACES OF TORAH
The Source of Our Joy (Simcha)

By Rav Rachel Adelman, Hebrew College Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible

Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9)

The Hebrew root for “joy” or “happiness”, s.m.ch. (שמח), is found no less than seven times in this week’s parashah (Deuteronomy 12:7, 12, 18; 14:26; 16:11, 14, and 15). Simcha is intrinsically related to enjoying the bounty of the land. Once the Israelites arrive and settle there, they must make offerings to the Tabernacle or Temple, “in the place where YHWH (‘the LORD’) will choose to make His name dwell” (12:11). “And (there), you (pl.) shall rejoice before YHWH (‘the Lord’) your God (וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָה אֱלֹקיכֶם )….” (v. 12). What is the nature of this joy or happiness? It is related not to wealth or achievement, not to “having” but to “being”— being with others, in the present and in shared purpose.

Read more...

ENTERING ELUL

Sounds of Awe Concert, Workshops, & Tefillah for Elul 

Hebrew College is pleased to host Hazan/Paytan Roni Ish-Ran (right), returning in September for three exciting programs to welcome Elul and lead us into the High Holy Days.

Community Selihot Services (beginning Rosh Hodesh Elul) with Roni Ish-Ran
September 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |  7 AM
Hebrew College
Join the Hebrew College community to sing, pray and ask for forgiveness. 

Sounds of Awe: A Concert for Elul with Hazan/Paytan Roni Ish-Ran and Friends
Thursday, September 4 | Concert 7 p.m. | Hebrew College
Tickets: $5, $18, $36 | Hebrew College students & faculty: Free
Join us for our first Soul Sounds concert of the academic year. One of the greatest living interpreters of Syrian, Turkish, and Sephardi-Yerushalmi piyyutim, musician Roni Ish-Ran will lead us into the High Holy Days with music and prayer from Jerusalem. Thank you to our Soul Sounds Concert Series sponsors: Suzanne Priebatsch, Diane Troderman, anonymous.

The Heart of Selihot with Roni Ish-Ran
Wednesday Workshops: September 3 & 10 | 3-5 PM | Hebrew College
Hebrew College students: Free | Non-Hebrew College students: $18 | General public: $36
Study the music and text of the Sephardi-Yerushalmi Selihot service with Roni Ish-Ran and faculty of Hebrew College Rabbinical School. Join us for either or both sessions. 

Learn more, purchase tickets & register for workshops...

SHARED CAMPUS PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS 

RUACH + Path LAByrinth: Art, Movement & Meditation 

Celebrate the start of Elul, the month when Jews around the world begin preparing for the High Holy Days, with campus partner RUACH on Monday, August 25 for "RUACH + The Path LAByrinth", three mindfulness and meditation programs that integrate with Hebrew College's current outdoor LAByrinth art exhibit (above). Choose one or more experiences to connect with yourself, friendly faces, and the spirit of life that animates and renews us all. (Right: a vessel on the Path LAByrinth).

Authentic Movement as Jewish Practice: 11 AM–12:15 PM
Walk the LAByrinth, created so beautifully by Boston-area artist Shirah Rubin, and walk in silence to the RUACH Studio on campus to practice Authentic Movement—a movement meditation practiced with eyes closed in the presence of a compassionate witness.

Breath Lab: 3-4 PM 
Explore the diagram of the sefirot (Kabbalistic energies) on the amphora vases at the LAByrinth’s entrance, then engage in a gentle, meditative breath practice.

Jewish Meditation: 4:30–5:30 PM
Incorporate two niggunim from the Elul season into a walking meditation through The Path: LAByrinth.

Learn more & register... 

A Hebrew word meaning "wind," "spirit," and "breath," RUACH (roo-akh) is the air that connects us all. RUACH, a Jewish meditation and movement studio located at Hebrew College, connects seekers through breath, movement, ritual, meditation—and a dash of play.

Creating with the Seasons:
Elul Series with Jewish Studio Project

Four Thursdays beginning August 28 | 7-8:30 PM | Zoom

During this season we open our hearts to embrace the new and shed the old, awakening our spirits as we transform and draw closer to the Divine. Together, Hebrew College Tamid adult learning and campus partner Jewish Studio Project invite you to journey through four metaphorical gates—from awakening to release—each one inviting us to pause, reflect, and create as we prepare ourselves for the turning of the year. Drawing on powerful images from Jewish text and tradition, we’ll explore how the gates of awakening, tears, justice, and return can soften and open us to transformation.

Virtual sessions, led by Rabbi Adam Lavitt `12, will engage in the Jewish Studio Process, a unique methodology that builds creative capacity by combining art therapy practices with a reimagined approach to Jewish learning 

Learn more & register... 

Teshuvah Workshop for Elul 

Mondays, September 8 and 29 | 6:30-7:30 PM | Hebrew College

In a time of disconnection, uncertainty, and rising injustice, the High Holidays call us to return—to ourselves, to our values, and to the sacred work of repair. Kirva and Hebrew College are partnering to offer an in-person Teshuvah Workshop for space to reflect, reconnect, and recommit. Rooted in the Jewish spiritual practices of Mussar (applied Jewish ethics) and Chassidut (applied Jewish mysticism), this two-session workshop supports you in developing a spiritual action plan for the year ahead—one that strengthens both your inner life and your work for collective transformation.

Learn more & register...

Remembering Loved Ones Who Died by Suicide

Sunday, September 28 | 6:30-7 PM | Zoom

As the High Holy Day season approaches, we are reminded that remembrance is integral to the Jewish experience. Hebrew College is proud to co-sponsor Jewish Family & Children’s Service’s virtual Yitzkor moment and gentle remembrance of those who have died by suicide on Sunday, September 28. We are grateful to JF&CS for offering this Jewish response to suicide loss, remembering those who have died and supporting those who live with this unique loss.

Register ...