Community

Spirituality

Rabbi Lauren Eichler Berkun

Eilu Eilu offers Beit
Midrash study series.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

New Class For New Year

Staff Writer

The first four-week session, beginning
Aug. 22 at the West Bloomfield Jewish
Community Center, is titled "Elul, a
Time to Prepare."
The series, co-sponsored by the JCC
and the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit (JAMD), will use
the month prior to the High Holidays
to culminate study, reflection, self-eval-
uation and repentance. Kaplan sees the
classes as "an opportunity to encounter
texts relating to Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur and other aspects of the days of
awe in order to come to those days
with a more prepared heart and spirit."
Sessions will be led by Rabbi Hal
Greenwald, JCC's director of educa-
tion; Rabbi Lee Buckman, head of
school at the JAMD; and Rabbi
Lauren Eichler Berkun, the Detroit-
based Midwest rabbinic fellow for the
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America.
Having led a beit midrash-type exer-
cise for a crowd of more than 500 at
the kick-off event of Seminars for
Adult Jewish Enrichment (SAJE) in
February, Rabbi Greenwald is familiar
with the program.
"There is nothing more exciting in
the world of Jewish education than see-
ing two seekers sit down over a piece of
Torah and watch the sparks fly."
While introducing adult learners to
the process on one-to-one study,
Kaplan says it also builds "a network of
personal learning relationships with the
rabbis." For most participants, the class
will be the site of a first introduction to
Rabbi Berkun, arriving in Detroit in
July with her husband Rabbi Jonathan

A

lways searching for new
ways to entice adult learn-
ers, Nancy Kaplan, program
director of Eilu v' Eilu, the
Conservative movement's local adult
Jewish learning network, continuously
looks to the community and its edu-
cators.
So, when the concept of imple-
menting a one-on-one beit midrash
(literally, "house of learning") study
format was suggested on more than
one occasion, she decided to form a
series of classes to include the age-old
method of one-to-one learning.
"This project represents a collabo-
ration of many institutions," she says.
"It has been percolating within the
local Conservative movement for
some time."
In addition to being offered as part
of adult learning programs in
Conservative synagogues, the beit
midrash format has been included in
the Hillel Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit's eighth-grade curriculum for
several years.
"And why should eighth-graders get
to do it but not their parents, or other
adults?" Kaplan asks. "Our current
plan represents an organic evolution
of these earlier efforts."
Other, non-Conservative groups
who implement variations on beit
midrash-style learning include Aish
HaTorah of Metro Detroit in
Birmingham, the Kollel Institute in
Oak Park and the Southfield-based
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.

8/3
2001

46

Rabbi Hal Greenwald

Berkun, newest rabbi at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek.

One-To-One Study

Each class is self-contained and will
begin with an orientation and overview
of the beit midrash-format as well as the
texts and issues to be explored. The
group will later pair off for supervised,
facilitated study, reading texts aloud to
one another and discussing them.
The hope is for the class to attract
learners of varied text study skills and
experience, with different learning tiers
set up for those who want to study in
both Hebrew and English or in English
only. "We hope eventually to develop a
cadre of relatively advanced students
who would be interested in working
with less-experienced learners as men-
tors," Kaplan says.
Although students are encouraged to
register with a pre-selected study part-
ner, those who don't will be paired in
class, based on their text skill level.
Rabbi Buckman, among those who
proposed the idea for the class, sees it as
a way to "give adults an opportunity to
immerse themselves intimately with a
text so that all the participants can
develop a common vocabulary for a
more thoughtful conversation."
Future Beit Midrash series are
planned, with the next one a study of
Chanukah. "By next summer, we hope
to have an ongoing Beit Midrash up
and running that will meet every week
throughout the year," Kaplan says. "If
all goes well, the Beit Midrash will
become our signature offering and will
greatly reduce the number of 'frontal
learning' classes that we offer."

Rabbi Lee Buckman

Kaplan's hope for participants of the
Beit Midrash series is for them to find "a
deeper appreciation for the texts, a sense
of confidence in the ability to engage
with the text and with a study partner
and exhilaration, excitement and a com-
mitment to carry on with Jewish study
on a regular basis."
Rabbi Greenwald sees beit midrash
study as being "about returning Torah
learning to its rightful place; in the
hands of every Jew." He says, "I'm
always fascinated to see how many
people who engage in chevrutah [small
group] learning, no matter their prior
level of knowledge, take to texts with
such energy, like they'd been doing
this their whole life. Jews were made
for this kind of interaction with their
tradition." ❑

Elul Beit Midrash will take place
7-9 p.m. Wednesdays Aug. 22 and
29, Sept. 5 and 12 at the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center. Cost, $12. For informa-
tion, call (248) 593-3490, or
access the Web site at:

www.eiklearn.org

