There are many times when I talk to you about “interfaith life” but I don’t actually talk about religion.  This Saturday I will be leading a workshop on Shabbat (see just below) and while I will be talking about Shabbat as a ritual, you can generalize this information to other practices in your life.  I promised the participants one idea that will improve their life and the lives of their family members, but I will actually have several suggestions.  Let me give all of you one bit of useful parenting information right now.

Studies find that children who have rituals in their lives are more resilient.  The studies looked at kids who faced adversity.  God willing, our children will face less dramatic setbacks than those in the study.  But as the saying goes, into each life some rain must fall.  So how very good to create a home in which there are things that strengthen our children.  What is a ritual?  It is a repeated behavior that happens basically in the same way at a certain time and/or place.  It creates predictability and helps our children – and us – gain a sense of mastery.  I bet you have aimed to have bedtime rituals, mealtime rituals, homework rituals.  And for ourselves as adults, we shot for bill paying rituals, house cleaning rituals.  I hope you’ve also put in some self care rituals and socializing rituals.

On Saturday I’ll talk about the psychological gifts we give our children with rituals that also connect them to a larger community, a group of people to whom they belong.  If you have not decided which group of people you want to attach to, or you’re having a time of it getting that going, by all means come talk to me afterwards or contact me this coming week.

Here’s the Saturday program:

Making Shabbat Your Own

Would you like to start doing Shabbat? Need to start small or do you want to take it up a notch? Come learn easy steps to create “your” Shabbat. We’ll tell you how to have warm, homemade challah even if you work until 6pm. How to engage children of all ages. Ways to approach teens or other skeptics in your family. As a bonus, we’ll tell you how one simple ritual can improve your child’s and your health, happiness and well being. No kidding!

Date:            Saturday, Feb. 20

Time: 1:15pm

Place: Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette

Free

Contact Dawn for more information at 510-845-6420 x11 or email me at dawn@buildingjewishbridges.org

Posted by admin under A meaningful life, Children, Shabbat
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Would you like to start doing Shabbat? Need to start small or do you want to take it up a notch? Come learn easy steps to create “your” Shabbat. We’ll tell you how to have warm, homemade challah even if you work until 6pm. How to engage children of all ages. Ways to approach teens or other skeptics in your family. As a bonus, we’ll tell you how one simple ritual can improve your child’s and your health, happiness and well being. No kidding!

Join Rabbi Judy Shanks and Dawn Kepler

Date:    Saturday, Feb. 20

Time:    1:15pm.

Place:   Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette

For more information call Dawn at 510-845-6420 x11

Posted by admin under Holidays, Past Programs, Shabbat
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A New Year’s Resolution for 2008
Time – our most precious possession
A friend of mine has a new baby. Everyone says to her, “treasure this time, it goes so fast.” My twenty-one year old daughter looks at a picture of her “little” brother as a six year old and says, “Oh, mom, look how cute he was!” Those delightful times with cherub faces.

Yes, there are the long agonizingly moments too, when a child is sick or miserable. The endless nights of homework wars or timing soccer practice or making the 100,000th peanut butter sandwich. But those times too are quickly past.

Judaism makes time sacred. It sets aside one day a week to BE instead of DO. If you have children I urge you to make this a ritual in your week. Make the most of Shabbat. Use as many of those 25 hours (yes, Judaism wants you to get a little extra) as you possibly can.

If you don’t have children don’t you still deserve to enrich your life with precious moments, moments worth remembering? Of course you do.

Turn off your computer and TV. Ignore the phone. Invite friends over. Play charades, tell tale tales, read aloud. I promise you won’t regret it.

What are all the Jews around the world Reading this Week?
If you go to synagogue on Shabbat (Sabbath), any synagogue, the service will have a section of the Torah (Bible) assigned to THAT particular Shabbat. Every synagogue in the world will be reading the same section. Each section has a name, usually picked as the first NOUN used in the text. A child who is having their bar or bat mitzvah will chant from that section (called a Torah portion or, in Hebrew, parshat. Ask any Jew who has had a bar or bat mitzvah, “what was your Torah portion?” and they will have an answer. You may get, “Oh, it was horrible! All about boils!” Or “I got lucky! Breshit, the creation story!” But no matter the portion, each child (or now adult) will have learned and taught something from the text.

The Torah portion for Shabbat, week beginning Feb. 1 at sundown and continuing till Feb. 2 at sundown.
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Weekly_Torah_Commentary/mishpatim_summary.htm

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Judaism is an ancient tradition with its roots in an agricultural society. So in the summer time Jews were out tending the flocks and the crops. Thus, summer lacks the plethora of holidays that we get the other nine months of the year. What to do in the summer? Well, it’s a great time to shul shop. And a great time to learn about Shabbat. Go to the synagogues near you. Introduce yourself to the rabbi. Go to the oneg after services. See how you like the music, the chanting, the people. Services will be low key and rabbis will be on vacation at some point, lay leaders will step in. Get to know the place. It was in June, lo those many years ago, that my daughter picked our synagogue. She was four years old and she picked it based on the songs that the rabbi led them on at Tot Shabbat.

For Grown Ups Only
Years ago a woman I knew, not Jewish, was feeling very blue. Life was tough, she was young and her relationship was struggling. Because she knew me, she decided to go to services at her local synagogue. Later she called me and told me about it. She said, “I cried a lot. And after services a tiny old woman came up and hugged me. All she said was, it’s hard to be young.”

Why did she go to a synagogue? Why did the old woman speak to her? Why did it help? I don’t know. I just know there is something about community, something about a spiritual moment, something about Shabbat, that can heal.

Give it a try.

Feeling shy? Want to go with someone else to services? Then you need a Shabbos buddy – that’s a member of the synagogue who meets you at the door, sits with you, explains anything you don’t understand, and introduces you to others at the oneg. Want one? Call me and I’ll get you one.

Posted by admin under Community, Finding a Synagogue, Shabbat
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