The Newton Friends of The New Jewish Academy is forming a Torah Chevre in Newton Centre.
WHAT IS A TORAH CHEVRE AND HOW WILL IT BE ORGANIZED?
A TORAH CHEVRE is an intentional community, sanctifying time through study and friendship. This chevre will meet in Newton Centre five times a year – in advance of Passover (Song of Songs), Sukkot (Ecclesiastes) and Shavuot (Book of Ruth), and in the course of the month of repentance (Elul) and the Days of Awe. You are invited to join. Avi will offer further context and elaboration on May 17.
A TORAH CHEVRE IS A PLACE OF LERNEN (לערנען). Discursive Learning (e.g. lots of back-and-forth) is the beating heart of Jewish civilization. If it fades, the civilization withers. It is the acquisition of knowledge to be sure, but it goes beyond knowledge acquisition; it carries moral and spiritual connotations. Engaged in LERNEN, we tap into ancestral wisdom and carve out novel understandings particular to us.
DISSEMINATING THE TORAH CHEVRE IDEA is core to the NJA mission: Our aim is to set a teaching and learning movement in motion – to every desiring person an opportunity to belong to the life of Torah, in a community of friends, to every desiring educator an opportunity to participate in a teaching profession, not merely as a career, but with fellow teachers and learners as a way-of-life.
THE TORAH CHEVRE at Newton Center, composed of philanthropic supporters of THE NEW JEWISH ACADEMY is an embodiment of the larger mission, every bit as important as your financial contribution to help build and sustain NJA’s movement.
A TESTIMONIAL: “It’s the feeling of belonging that stands out – we become a family for the hours that we are together. We listen to our chaverim read it aloud. We bend over our books and peer into the Torah text. We squint our eyes and strain our ears so as to take in every last word – both the Torah on the page and the Torah on our lips; and Avi conducts the thing like an orchestra. Gently he encourages us to make music of the text, like a symphony, where one of us is never equal to the sum of us.” Marla, Newton, MA
WHAT ARE THE GIVING EXPECTATIONS FOR A MEMBER OF THIS CHEVRE?
Annual Giving
The chaverot we are establishing – to begin with in the Boston and New York areas — will lend financial, and operational support for THE NEW JEWISH ACADEMY, and be advocates for it in their communities.
As a condition of membership, every chaver will make a financial contribution on an annual basis, choosing from the tiers listed below. Anyone is welcome to join us on a one-time basis to give TC a try.
The Kaplan Circle: $1.8K to $3.5K Mordechai Kaplan pioneered the understanding that Judaism is not only a religion; it is a civilization, with accumulated folkways, musical habits, ethical foundations and a literary style (among other features). In other words it is a precious legacy that we cannot afford to lose.
The Shakla V’etarya Society: $3.6K to $5K These Aramaic words, shakla (taking) and v’etarya (and giving) refer to the back-and-forth movement –deep listening and energetic, thoughtful response – characteristic of Jewish civilization at its best.
Abraham Joshua Heschel Society: $5K to $9K “More than textbooks we need text-people” I Asked for Wonder, 1983. Syntax slightly altered.
The Song of Songs Society: $10K to 100K “Love can outrun Death – Azah K’Mavet Ahavah,” Song of Songs 8:6, a creative translation.
Judith Plaskow Society: $100K to $249K Plaskow’s clarion call for women to “stand again at Sinai” was the perfect note to hit in 1990, and was instrumental in bringing women alienated from the Jewish experience back to the literary sources of Jewish civilization.
The Alasdair Macintyre Society: Founding Members and Foundations giving 250K and above become members of the Alasdair MacIntyre Society. – Alasdair MacIntyre famously defined a tradition as “an historically extended, socially embodied argument…about the goods which constitute” the very thing – tradition – we are trying to define. A living tradition is a dynamic, self-correcting conversation about its own foundations, values, and purpose over time, a pilgrimage in which the destination is part of what’s contested between parties, who willingly engage in the argument “for the sake of heaven,” and feel privileged for having the opportunity to do so.
All contributions are tax-deductable less the fair market value of our five meetings (=$300). Contributions should be made out to “Clal – National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership” with “Avi Bernstein-Nahar” noted on the memo line. Donations 5K or more — please approach Avi Bernstein-Nahar for instructions about how to direct your gift.
RSVP to Elkan and Zelda Gamzu, Sunday May 17
4PM Arrival, 4:30PM Study Circle and Remarks by Avi Bernstein-Nahar, Concluding Reflections 5:45PM