It was great to see everyone on Sunday. A big thanks to Rabbi Greninger for saving the day with last minute bagels. Before I do my usual recap and resources. . . a little house keeping. . . Here is the breakfast list for the rest of the year. Please email me ASAP (sjkotch@gmail.com or post a comment below) if you have not brought breakfast yet (and are not on the list for the future) and would like to (Weiss family, I already added you as per our discussion, let know if it doesn't work)
Feb 12 | Southerland | Berryhill | |
Mar 11 | Weiss | Spiegel/Zinn???? | |
Mar 25 | Meezan | Ing | |
Apr 15 | ___________Open | Setton??? |
Also, here is the schedule for the rest of the sessions:
Feb 5 - Kids-only
Feb 12 - Family Day
Feb 19 - No RS (Presidents' Day weekend)
Feb 26 - Kids-only
Mar 4 - Purim Carnival (come with your kids!)
Mar 11 - Family Day
Mar 18 - Kids-only
Mar 25 - Family Day
April 1 & 8 - No RS (Spring Break / Pesach)
Apr 15 - Family Day
Apr 22 - Yad b'Yad goes to the Family Retreat! More details forthcoming...
Apr 29 - Kids-only
May 6 - Mitzvah Day (come with your kids!)
May 13 - No RS (Mother's Day)
May 20 - Spring Fling, 10am-1pm for all RS parents & kids
Ok, now with that out of the way lets break this down by stations and I can provide you some resources for each of the topics/stations we spent time on Sunday.
1. Consecration:
Here is a quick and easy article from Barry Shainker at the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) that summarizes the history of consecration and its place in the Reform movement
URJ: What is Consecration? What is its connection to Reform Judaism?
2. B'nai Mitzvah:
I found this song at Tablet Magazine, written by a parent for her child's bar mitzvah. I think it has a nice message (though, highly sentimental). You can it sung and read the story of the mother's journey to its creation and finding meaning behind her Bat Mitzvah and that of her children here:
Tablet Mag: Abigail Pogrebin, Coming of Age Article and Song
“Taking Your Place” for Central Synagogue
Lyrics by Abigail Pogrebin, music by Tom Kitt
Taking your place
In an enduring line.
This is the day
that you stood up to say,
“Our tradition is mine.”
You have now read the Torah.
It’s been passed onto you.
It’s our law and our story–But each telling is new.
It is said we stood at Sinai
And today, you know you’re there.
You’re the promise of a people,
a blessing and a prayer.
Taking your place
In a resilient line
This is the day
that you stood up to say,
“Our tradition is mine.”
You have now held the Torah,
forged a link to the past.
You’re the face of our future,
and the reason we last.
Lalechet bidrachav v’lishmor mitzvotav kol hayamim.
May you walk in God’s ways and may all of your days be blessings.
It is said we stood at Sinai
And today, you know you’re there.
You’re the promise of a people,
a blessing and a prayer.
You’re the promise of a people,
a blessing and a prayer.
3. Conversion
Here is the link to the video I showed in class of the conversion and mikvah of the infant:
If you are interested in finding out more about conversion Interfaithfamily.com has some great resources here:
Interfaith Family: Conversion
This Sunday is a kids only day. We will be doing some Tu B'Shevat activities to celebrate our friends, the trees and in honor of that holiday (2/8/12) I leave you with this video. WOW. :
Shalom,
Suzan
