This year, we join communities across six continents for a Global Day after a year and a half of unprecedented change. As we learn and discuss how Judaism brings us together, join us for these online classes:
Rabbi Benjamin Sharff
Reform Temple of Rockland
In the early 16th century, John Donne, the English poet, wrote the famous “No man is an island,” frequently repeated in different circumstances to this day. Centuries earlier, though, from the very beginnings of Judaism, Jews were told that all of life is about sacred connections: connection to God, connection to Torah, connection to a Land, connection to each other.
In this session, we will explore some texts that give a fuller picture of the sacred connections of the Jewish community. This session will look a few texts to explore different connections, both traditional and modern, as we engage in a meaningful conversation about the importance of the sacred connections a Jew is engaged in.
Rabbi Paul Kurland
Congregation Shir Shalom
Loss and mourning are such fundamental parts of the human experience that it is no wonder that depictions of loss and mourning are found in the earliest stories of the Torah. Everyone, at some point in their life, experiences loss, and as such, while loss separates us from our loved ones, and has the potential of isolating us, the universality of the experience of loss and mourning also bonds us with each other. Judaism has a great deal of wisdom to share about how to deal with loss and the accompanying mourning process.
This unit focuses on the importance that Judaism places on the community’s role in helping a mourner cope with loss.
Rabbi Paula Mack Drill
Orangeburg Jewish Center
Most of the time, we think that sacred connections are built through interactions with others, through prayer or through ritual acts. We learn about these dynamics from our sacred texts. But how much do we pay attention to how we read those texts? By practicing different techniques of sacred reading we can build personal and sacred bonds to these texts and to worlds of sentiment and insight that can open up before us. We can read on our own or share the techniques with someone else. Each way helps us build a greater awareness of how the Torah can be a living document for us all.
Global Day of Learning is brought to you by Limmud North America, the Rockland Board of Rabbis and Jewish Federation & Foundation of Rockland County.