#BlogElul 14: Learning {Guest Post}

I decided that I would invite friends to do a "guest post" here on Ima on and off the Bima during BlogElul. There were quite a few motivations - 1) writing daily posts on two blogs - whew! 2) encouraging non-bloggers or new bloggers to "get out there" and just do it and 3) to hear from other people! So I hope you enjoy them - there are a number of guest posts coming up in the next two weeks! Yay!

Today's guest post is from Beth Ellen Young, who is the Director of Education at Temple Judea in Coral Gables, FL where she enjoys blending love of education, Judaism, and technology. Her novice blog is bethellenyoung.blogspot.com. On a totally personal note, you never know when people are going to resurface in your life. Beth and I were in the same cabin in Chalutzim at OSRUI - and now here we are as colleagues and friends! I am so happy to welcome her writing today. She has been participating daily in BlogElul, too, so make sure to click over to her blog to read all her insightful posts.

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Overheard in my office - with some regularity...

Parent: I'm sorry [child's name] can't come to religious school. [s/he] is really struggling with [subject matter] and needs to complete additional tutoring.
Me: I'm so sorry to hear that school is a struggle right now. I hope you get the support that [child] needs!
Parent: I think we are on the right track. It's just frustrating because [child] is so good at [other subject matter or skill set].
Me: Yeah, it's one of the crazy things about school. As a child you are supposed to be good at everything and it is only in college when you get to really specialize on the things that are of interest to you.
[insert other commentary about miss the days you need, we look froward to seeing child return, etc.]

If I were developing Beth Young's Stages of Learning, it would go something like this:

• Learning things for survival
• Learning things you are told to learn
• Learning things you want to learn

However, in reflecting on my past year I have realized that even as an adult there are things that you "have to" learn - and often these are things that you don't want to learn.

This year I did a lot of learning about cancer. Following my mom's diagnosis, and in rapid succession, I learned about medications and treatments, specialties and sub-specialties, tests and what they can show and can't show, staging of cancer and markers for identifying types of cancer, resources and support programs. I also learned about helpful websites (American Cancer Society) and non-helpful websites (pretty much any chat board). In a matter of hours words like "oncologist," "palliative care," "subcutaneous injection," and "neutropenia"went from vocabulary words to commonly used in everyday conversations.

I hope that no one reading this blog has had to go through this sort of education. And I know that many of you have. While I was very angry with God that my mom was facing this trial, I was also grateful that as a human I had the ability to continue to learn and understand what was happening in my mom's body.

Learning truly is a gift from God - both for the enjoyment of exploring areas of interest and fascination and for coping and handling the unexpected curve balls that are thrown our way as well.

May the year ahead be one that is filled with enjoyable learning!

The Jewish month of Elul, which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and reflection. It offers a chance for spiritual preparation for the Days of Awe. It is traditional to begin one’s preparation for the High Holy Days during this month with the Selichot, the prayers of forgiveness. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew, refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for each day to help with the month of preparation... I will be blogging here, and sharing #Elulgram photos on the same themes at imabima.tumblr.com. Follow me on twitter @imabima for all the #BlogElul posts, not only mine but others' as well! 

Leave your blog Elul post in the linky below!

My Brief Try at Daf Yomi

Seven and a half years ago, I was somewhat enchanted with an idea that appeared in the Jewish news of the week. On March 1, 2005, Jews around the world marked the end of the 11th cycle of Talmud study known as Daf Yomi (daily page).

I said to my husband....let's do it. Let's start the 12th cycle. It starts on March 5, 2005, and ends on August 2, 2012. He agreed. I said...I'm going to blog about it. He said....go for it.

Let's think back....in March of 2005....

I had one kid. (Sam was born in November of 2005)
I didn't have a blog. (Not totally true. I did have a blog that chronicled a brief trip to Russia. But I didn't blog regularly.)
I had been out of rabbinical school for under 2 years.
Michael was still a few months shy of his ordination.

Life was so different. Was it easier? It's hard to remember back that far.

Remember, now I've got four kids.
And by the way, I didn't even have Facebook until May 9, 2007.
If you're interested, I joined Twitter on February 8, 2008.
And I started this blog in February of 2007.

And even then, with all those factors working in my favor, it didn't quite work out....

There are 17 posts on that Daf Yomi blog.
We read 20 pages of Talmud.

And then...we gave up.

I don't remember much about why we gave up, except that it was hard to do it. We didn't have a class or a podcast or anything that kept us going. Just two people sitting together, hoping to get through the whole daf. We were such amateur rookies!

I was excited to be a part of something big. Something that kept a whole bunch of Jews "on the same page" -- but I lost that enchantment quickly. I wonder if, doing it now, there might be more of a feeling of community. I'm sure there are Facebook groups. I bet someone tweets a dafyomi tweet (hey wait, if not...). I know there are bloggers and podcasters and tumblr'rs and all sorts of ways to share the Daf with the whole world. (And by the way, I re-read all the posts, and it seemed that I had a good time coming up with interesting things to write about each daf!)

But I'm not going to do it.

It's not because I don't see value in Talmud study. Heavens - I do! So much to be learned and to share.

And I'm not even going to do it because I'm "too busy."
Sure, it's a great excuse. There's a lot going on in my life, no question.

But it's not a good enough excuse to not study. I'm just not going to do this particular project.

I think the real reason is that I have so many things I'm interested in. There are so many books and blogs to read, so many newspaper columnists and writers and teachers who saying things that teach and inform me. There are people to see and talk to and engage with. And there are movies to watch and television shows to see and silly, wonderful stuff to do...like take a picnic at the beach.

I am constantly learning. From so many places.
Daf Yomi can wait. (Forever, maybe!) I am loving the broad spectrum of learning that I gain on a daily basis from a variety of sources. I'm not prepared to focus my learning on one place, with one goal. It's admirable. But I'm interested in a broad-spectrum look right now.

Like Miriam Krule, I continue to love the study of Talmud. I don't do it every day. But when I do, I love the opportunity to read more than one page. Or to skip around. Or to only study a short passage in depth for a long time.

Each and every day brings new opportunities for learning...of all kinds.
May those opportunities all bring blessings.

The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting

Wow. I am totally in love with this lecture, The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting by Brené Brown that I've been listening to. I was lucky enough to win a book from her blog (it was so good, by the way) and when she mailed it, she threw in a copy of her recorded lecture. I had no idea what a gift she was giving to me.

{{{{Deep breath}}}}

I am so excited about it, I keep sharing bits with my husband, my friends, my colleagues, basically anyone who will listen to me. And I'm not even done with it yet.

So far, this is the basic idea that permeates all that I've heard:

“What if our children are imperfect when they get here and it’s our job to teach them loving-kindness?”

A while ago, I wrote this in an interview for Bella...

I want to be patient and quiet and unruffled. My children teach me daily that I'm not any of those things quite yet. I want to be loving and joyful and strong. My children teach me daily that these are what I have to be.

What I love about the connection between these two ideas is that not only are my kids imperfect (and that imperfect is OKAY), but I'm imperfect too...and that's part of life.

I feel like I have so much more to process and consider and think about thanks to Brené. My mind is racing, I have so many ideas and thoughts on how to integrate and accept and use her beautiful words.

A few more thoughts: First of all, Brené is running a track-by-track commentary on her blog for the whole CD. It's great. And since she writes like she talks, I can now hear her voice. Which cracks me up. Secondly, run, do not walk, to buy this CD. Trust me on this one.

This is definitely working for me right now. Go see what's working for other people.

Chazak Chazak - May we be Strong (100th post!)

Rabbi Harold Kushner teaches, "When I pray, I speak to God. When I study Torah, I keep quiet and let God speak to me."

One of the ways Jews worship is through study. Through examining and wrestling with the text of the Bible, we find meaning and purpose in our lives. And it's not just a personal wrestling -- usually our study is in groups or pairs, known as chevruta.


Each week, members of my congregation engage in our Shabbat Morning Torah Study. It's a relatively small group, varying from 10-15 people each week. Most of them are "regulars" and most are much older than I am. Most have been through the cycle of Torah reading many many times before.


Because that's what it is. We re-cycle the Torah each year. There is a set rhythm to the year, as we end at the end and begin at the beginning again on the holiday of Simchat Torah (this year on the night of October 3rd). The Torah, divided into its weekly portions, guides our lives, guides our seasons...it's fall, and I know it's time to read Genesis. We come into the winter and I know that we are onto the story of Joseph and his dreams. As the weather gets colder, we sing the Song of the Sea and as spring begins to dawn, we explore the priesthood. We travel with the Israelites through the desert as spring turns to summer, and as the heat turns up, we begin the sad and uplifting final moments as Moses imparts his wisdom in Deuteronomy...and it all begins again in the fall. And it happens each year. Each year we study the exact same words, the exact same portions.

And it never gets old.


I never grow tired of reading and sharing and studying and learning the text of the Torah. I never find it boring, I never find any of it to be dull or ordinary. Each time I re-read the text, I know that I am finding something new. Rabbi Ben Bag Bag said in Pirke Avot, the Ethics of our Fathers, "Turn it and turn it and turn it, for everything is contained within it."


How true.

How powerful.


To know that for my whole life I can be consumed with the study of this one book -- and all the peripheral knowledge that the Jewish people have collected and written alongside it, the ancient and modern writings that accompany the Torah -- to know that there will always be new books written that will try to illuminate and illustrate its ideals, to know that Judaism will always have this learning...it is powerful. It is inspiring. It is amazing.


To know that the Torah will not change but that I will. That each time I read it, I come from a new and different place, a new and different perspective, a new and different opportunity to find wisdom.


May my learning continue to bring me closer to God, with each word that I study. As we come closer to the end of our cycle, may this end bring us strength. The words that we say as we come to the conclusion of a book of the Torah are "chazak, chazak, v'nitchazek" -- Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened. Each conclusion brings the strength to begin again. May it always be so.

Written as part of Scribbit's Write-Away Contest...the theme of Learning.
(and hey...it came out to be my 100th post. Chazak Chazak v'nitchazek!)