Mentoring Day One

On Monday February 23 was my first day of mentoring at my synagogue. I got to my synagogue around 4. The first thing I was going to observe was a B'nai Mitzvah meeting with Rabbi Adler. Unfortunately this meeting was cancelled because the student was sick. So instead I listend to a conversation between Rabbi Adler and this students mother on the phone for a while. Rabbi Adler referred this student to look at a sheet in her B'nai Mitzcah folder about writing a D'var Torah and asked her to come Wednesday for a meeting if she could. After the meeting I was going to meet with Judy Marshall, to learn more about the Caring Community Program but she was unable to meet.

Next, Rabbi Adler and I talked about how preparing for her class, A Taste of Honey. This class is every other Monday and teaches basic concepts in Judaism. On this night Rabbi Adler planned on teaching the class the different between the movements of Judaism, with a focus on the Reform platforms and a little bit on Purim. I helped Rabbi Adler gather her materials and copy some handouts. I learned how to use my synagogue's copy machine properly.

Rabbi Adler had to meet with someone after we prepared for her class so I ate my dinner, did some homework and took down pictures on the bulletin board to pass the time.

Later that night I observed the Taste of Honey class. I learned about how the different movements interpret Jewish Law, the Reform Movement Platforms and about Humanistic Judaism.

Overall the night went well. In the future I am hoping to do more hands-on activities.

Social Action Kallah Feb 20-21

So this is me catching up on my blogging because I haven't had time to in the last few days. Here is one of a few entrees I am going to do today.

Anyways, this past weekend I went to an amazing Social Action Kallah in Madison, Wisconsin.On Friday night the Minnesota bus made it to Madison at 6 pm. This was one of the few times the Minnesota bus has arrived on time. That night we attended services with the congregation. After the service, I talked to Rabbi Biatch about my mentorship and becoming a rabbi. We talked about why he wanted to be rabbi and what things I could do in my mentorship. Afterwards, the group received their housing assignments ( I was with Dana Joseph). I also hung out with Cassie Frankel, Sabrina Recnick and a few other people. Here is a few pictures of us.

The theme of the weekend was Naaseh V'Nishman, to do than to listen. This theme came from last week's Torah portion Mishpatim which set aside 53 laws that related to social action. The introduction program invovled reading a list of ridiculous laws from other states and determining if they were real or not. Another program involved reading some of the 53 laws given in the Torah portion and revising them to modern days laws. Another program invovled examining the different levels of social action, written by Miamonidies, and putting them in the correct order.

On Saturday I did my social action activity. Before of course we ate Rocky Ricocos ( You can't go to Madison without eating there). For my social action activity I chose to help children at an art festival make dolls for three hours. It was very fun and I got to make a doll of my own. Here is a picture of my doll and a friends doll. My doll has a babushka.

After I did my social action activity, I went to dinner at the Nitty Gritty. I had a really good hamburger. The evening program was going to a Madison hockey game at the Khols Center. Madison lost to Denver 5-0 but I still had a lot of fun. It was a really nice arena.

Overall the weekend was a lot of fun. I learned about that week's Torah portion and the levels of social action. As a closing program each social action group presented which level they thought their project was. My groups project was the four level. After the Kallah I had a five hour bus ride back to Minneapolis and lots of homeworking waiting for me but the Kallah was definitely worth it.

Placement Meeting

Today at 2 pm I had my placement meeting with Rabbi Spilker, Rabbi Adler, and Stephanie Fink. It went really well and I had no need to be nervous. I took a few notes about what we talked about just so I would know what to say in this blog. haha.

First I gave alittle bit of background on the program and gave them some time to read my resume, goals and annotated bibliography. They asked a few questions about some of the classes I am taking and some of the articles I read. Rabbi Spilker commented on the articles from I Am Jewish by Judea and Ruth Pearl and the article I read by Rabbi Wolf ( Thank you Rabbi Saks and Rabbi Sommer for the suggestions). During the meeting, Stephanie was very helpful in adding in points that I had forgotten to address. In the summer we had had a meeting of this same capacity so she knew more about the program than Rabbi Adler or Rabbi Spilker.

Than we started to talk about the exciting parts. This included when I will be starting my mentorship (Monday, February 23) and some of the things I will be doing. They had many ideas. Some of the things I will be doing are: observing confirmation and adult classes, attending torah study, hospital visits, becoming invovled in the caring community, observing b'nai mitzvot meetings, writing and delivering a sermon, co-writing a service, leading daily evening services, being invovled at Purim ( chanting Meguilah), a mitkadem data project and of course a lot more reading. As we discussing activities I can do that would help me in my mentorship the question popped up if Icould do projects that could benefit the rabbis. Rabbi Adler specifically had in mind that I could help her clean her library. And than Stephanie jokingly said I could help her pack her office. You can't have a meeting with rabbis without there being some humor.

After my meeting was over I went to talk to Judy Marshall. Judy is in charge of the Caring Community Program at the synagogue. This programs supports people in times of emotional need.

After I set up a few meeting times with Judy, I went straight to Amy's office to talk to her. Amy is always a busy person so when I first when to her office she was typing away while on the phone. One of the first questions she asked me when I came into her office was when will i be writting a d'var torah. Than she asked me how the meeting went. She gave me a few more suggestions about activities I can do and tasks she can help me with. Some mentoring I will be doing with Amy is Jewish value study, Torah study, classroom observing and leading youth programs. I also talked to her about how I want to make time to celebrate Shabbat every Friday. Currently I'll I do for Shabbat is light the candles with my mom.

It has been decided that most of my mentoring with take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I will also get some hours in on Sundays and Saturdays. On Monday I will start my mentorship off by observing Rabbi Adler in a b'nai mitzvah meeting about writting a d'var torah and sitting in on an adult class she teaches. In between the meeting and the class, I will be meeting wth Judy Marshall to learn more about the caring community program and how I can be invovled. On Wednesday I will be sitting in on the confirmation class, observing another b'nai mitzvat meeting and talking to Judy. Hopefully on Saturday morning I will be able to attend the Torah study.

After my meeting I could not stop smiling. Even now, after I had to work at Burlington Coat Factory for four hours and deal with an annoying boss and customoers, I am still smiley.

Reading Articles

Over the past few weeks I have been reading many articles on the internet, in books, journals and magazines for my annotated and extended bibliographies. Some have been interesting, while others have been confusing or boring. I feel like there is so many things I need to keep reading and start reading, that there is not enough time to fit it all in. I want to read about the women in Judaism and in the rabbinate, other Jewish movements, Jews in politics, Israel, Torah stories and so many other things.

Soon I will put up a list of the articles I have read with some descriptions and pictures to jog my memory.