Just keep swimming!
I am a huge fan of film. My wife Audrey sometimes hates seeing a new movie with me. I cannot watch without looking for that moment that screams out TEACHABLE MOMENT to me. And I usually mutter it under my breath when I see it. (Not so much a mutter as a yelp, she says.) You see, I often use film in my own teaching. So let’s take a moment for a classic – Finding Nemo.
Ellen DeGeneres voices Dory, a Blue Tang (fish) who suffers from short term memory loss. She is sweet and helpful, but cannot remember what she started out doing. She develops a mantra – “Just keep swimming.” It can be a challenge for adults to make time for their own learning. And for those with kids at home, it is even more challenging. Between work, driving kids to activities and sports, supporting homework, family events and getting food on the table (to name only a few of the things you may be juggling), finding time may feel like a non-starter.
Many of us settle on the idea that learning is just for kids and young adults. Rabbi Joshua ben Perahiah used to say (in Pirkei Avot 1.7) “find yourself a teacher and acquire a friend (with whom you can learn).” The rabbis once referred to the corpus of Jewish learning as the Sea of Talmud. We need to be like Dory and just keep swimming. Our world is complicated. Judaism offers us lots of tools for encountering it and making values-based decisions. And taking time for your own learning is also a form of self-care.
In this issue of the Shofar you will find information about our amazing TBT Scholar in Residence, Mark Oppenheimer. Please read it and join us! You will also see the schedule and links for our weekly Torah Study. You don’t need to be a regular or an expert. Torah speaks to all of us if we are willing to engage. We meet in person AND on zoom.
I also want to invite you to check out the online offerings at the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. It is a fantastic collection of courses and one-time online learning opportunities. Visit them at this link.
And visit reformjudaism.org/. This is the blog of the Union for Reform Judaism – the Reform Movement in North America. You and I and all of TBT are members and it offers all kinds of online learning opportunities and puts lots of information at your fingertips.
Please jump in to the sea of Jewish learning with us. The water is perfect!
L’shalom,
Ira J. Wise, DJRE
Temple Educator