Learning, Wondering, Growing Together

The Days of Awe invite us to pause, reflect, and ask questions. Yom Kippur, in particular, creates space for the kind of learning that doesn’t necessarily lead to easy answers but can open us to new questions, new perspectives, and perhaps even new ways of seeing ourselves. In the coming week, we are offering two opportunities at Temple to enter that kind of learning together, exploring our ancient texts through the lens of our own lives.

On Yom Kippur afternoon, we’ll spend time with Jonah, a prophet who seems determined to do almost everything except what a prophet is supposed to do. He runs away, gets angry, argues with God, and takes a nap—literally as the ship is sinking. Yet Jonah’s very resistance may be what makes the story so powerful for us on Yom Kippur. What happens when we resist the work before us? Where do we see ourselves in Jonah’s complicated relationship with God, responsibility, and change? In Jonah: A How-Not-To Guide for Prophets, we’ll discuss this familiar story and see what new questions emerge when we slow down and really listen to it. No prior study or Hebrew is required—just curiosity.

Sukkot continues the introspection of Yom Kippur with a focus on the world we inhabit—and the physical structures we build to make us feel secure. During Lunch & Learn on September 24, we’ll explore what the sukkah can teach us about where true shelter comes from. We’ll encounter biblical and rabbinic understandings of the sukkah, the mystical image of it as the “shadow of faith,” and modern literature and music that wrestle with wandering, refuge, and the longing for home, asking: What do we truly need from shelter? Can memory, faith, relationship, and community shelter us? And if no shelter can protect us forever, what kind of shelter can we create for one another?

One of the gifts of learning together is discovering how ancient stories inform and instruct questions that we are still asking—and that those questions become richer when we explore them in community. Moreover, Jewish learning is rarely about arriving at one definitive answer. Rather, it is an invitation to sit with a text, bring our own experiences and questions, and discover what becomes possible when we think alongside others. In the sacred rhythm of this season, we are reminded that we don’t have to have everything figured out, and we don’t have to navigate the questions alone.

May this season give us opportunities to learn, wonder, and grow together.

L'shana Tovah Tikateivu v'Teichateimu,

Rabbi Bell