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Tiferes B’nai Israel
A Reconstructionist Synagogue
Torah School
Y
When God tells the Children of Israel in the book of Exodus, “Build me a Mishkan, a sanctuary or tabernacle, that I may dwell among you.” The Children of Israel reply with a question, “God we know that you are everywhere, so why do you need us to build you a place to live?” God explains gently, “When you were young, I nurtured you like a parent. I fed you with manna, I listened to your cries, I carried you on eagle’s wings out of Egypt. Now you are growing up and our relationship must change. As a symbol of your maturity, your independence, I am now asking you to create something that expresses your wish to care for me. I promise that it will give you great pleasure and satisfaction to be able to do this and it will show me that I have succeeded in nurturing you to adulthood” (Midrash Rabbah).
Religious education is like building a Mishkan but the Mishkan is now the entire world. The mission of TBI Torah School embodies the values of this midrash, we have a responsibility to teach our children to build a world where God can reside. We do this not learning about facts of our religion, ethnicity and culture we do this by learning how to be Jews through devotion to God: Studying Torah, Avodah (Prayer) and Gemilut Hasadim (Deeds of Loving Kindness). Religious education is about moral and religious formation.
One of the greatest challenges that our children throughout their lives will face is how they will learn to make moral decisions? How will they know to make the ‘right’ decision? We need to look at religious education as a means to provide our children with learning how to be moral human beings. The foundation of morality is Jewish ethics and religion.
TBI Torah School (5 hours a week for 30 sessions for 9years) is but a small vehicle to touch a student’s heart. If we can accomplish this then the child will feel positive and self-assured and will want to act in Jewish ways, morally. Then he or she will want to learn more about being Jewish and hence live a Jewish life.
The prayer based and ethical based curriculum of TBI Torah School is established on nourishing our students spiritually, intellectually and emotionally. Our students will learn through prayer and ethics about the past, present and future of the Jewish people. When we pray we relive that history and covenant with God, never forgetting for a moment who we are, and our responsibility towards tikkun olam, (transforming our world). Torah truly is a ‘tree of life’ and a guide how we can live our lives to bring God to dwell among us
- We as a Torah School strive to build a community of teachers, students and families as integral part of the larger TBI community.
- Every child is unique but no child should be treated as different. We will work towards how we behave towards each other in a Jewish way.
- The curriculum is an integrated one: prozidor through hey students will concentrate on Hebrew through prayer, Bible, ethics, etc. and in confirmation students will concentrate more on history: rabbinic, medieval and modern with a continuation of Hebrew studies.
If we succeed in this task then we will have built a Mishkan here on earth where God will dwell among us, hence, bringing the world closer to a complete peace.
Shalom,
Rabbi Jon Cutler
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