SHAVUOT BY DAYLIGHT

We continue marking the holiday with in-person study, looking at how the themes of the Book of Ruth can take root in our lives.

Please Register So We Have Enough Dairy (and Faux Dairy) Treats!

TISH A (noon) Barbara Lesch McCaffry
“Gleanings from Ruth”

Barbara will lead us in a discussion of “The Story of Ruth, In Three Poems” by Erika Dreyfus. These are very accessible poems and copies will be provided.  Faced with challenges, how might we respond? We will end with a bit of writing / journaling and discuss how this night and day of study has shown us a path forward, a glimpse into the future, and provided a bit of spaciousness to see beyond the current chaotic times in which we are living. 

Barbara Lesch McCaffry, Ph.D, taught in Sonoma State’s interdisciplinary program, the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, as well as in the Departments of English, American Multicultural Studies, Global Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Since 2000, she has also been actively involved in Holocaust and genocide education. She is currently the Dean of Ner Shalom’s Beit Midrash: Lifelong Jewish Learning.

TISH B (1 pM) Rabbi Irwin Keller
Frume Shtern: Poet Itzik Manger’s Yiddish Retelling of Ruth

The Book of Ruth is the traditional secondary text read on Shavuot, with Ruth’s taking on the mantle of Judaism being likened to the Israelites’ acceptance of Torah. The Yiddish poet Itzik Manger (1901-1969) was a master at retelling our ancient stories, often setting them anachronistically in Jewish Eastern Europe and typically focusing on the unarticulated thoughts and emotional experience of biblical women. In this workshop we will read and translate several of Manger’s very sensitive Ruth poems, which will deepen and sweeten our experience of Naomi, Orpah and, of course, Ruth. No previous Yiddish knowledge required.

Rabbi Irwin Keller has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom since 2008. He is founder and faculty of the Taproot Community since 2017. He authored Chicago’s first comprehensive human rights law, in effect since 1989, and served at the helm of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a founder of the Kinsey Sicks, America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet and is the author of Shechinah at the Art Institute: Words, Worry, Wonder (Blue Light Press 2024). He blogs at irwinkeller.com.