BRIDGING THE YAMIM NORA'IM (HIGH HOLY DAYS)
10 DAYS OF LEARNING & REFLECTION
WITH KOL NEFESH MASORTI 5782/2021
Our programme is over, but recordings of the Zoom sessions are here:
Sept 9th - Pirkei Avot, the orchestra and the musician
Sept 9th - Dr Adi Amit: ‘The individual and the collective: A moralistic view of social identity.’
You can download the Source Sheets for this programme here.
Each year, Kol Nefesh Masorti Synagogue offers a unique programme of learning and reflection during the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
As a community we take a pertinent theme and explore it in depth from a variety of perspectives. Through this process we allow ourselves to stop, think and re-order our priorities; to reconnect to our deepest understandings of reality. We aim to arrive at Yom Kippur having done the inner work necessary to prepare for that great day of reckoning.
This Year's Theme:
The Individual and the Collective
This year we will be exploring the relationship between the individual and the collective. In the Middle Ages most people would have remained members of the same groups for their entire lives, and these groups would have thoroughly shaped their outlook and responsibilities. In our age we feel much freer to control our own social relationships, to move around, to experiment with who we are and the groups we belong to, and to determine for ourselves what those memberships demand of us. What does membership
of a collective mean now, and can it still make deep demands on us?
Please join us for all or some of the shiurim this year! All sessions are stand-alone, requiring no background knowledge. We have an amazing programme which includes teachers from within our community as well as guest teachers. In addition, Rabbi Joel will be at all of the sessions, in person and on-line, ensuring that there is a constant conceptual ‘shape’ to our ten days of learning.
Schedule of Events
Monday 6th September
6.30pm
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Join us for our in-person service. Rabbi Joel will kick off our programme with a drasha,
‘I and/or We?: A gentle introduction to the theme of the individual and the collective’.
Tuesday 7th September
9:00am Service starts
1st Day Rosh Hashanah
Rabbi Joel will speak on this theme in his drasha around 11:15am.
After the drasha (approx. 11:45am) Nahum Gordon will lead an alternative session, ‘Another Fine Mess’, as an alternative to the Musaph service.
Tuesday 7th September
5.00pm
Tashlich
Join us for Tashlich followed by tea and a light study session with Rabbi Joel:
‘Things that we have to do together – are there such things as irreducibly social goods?’
Wednesday 8th September
9:00am Service starts
2nd Day Rosh Hashanah
Rabbi Joel will speak on this theme in his drasha around 11:15am.
Thursday 9th September
4:00pm
On Zoom
Our weekly Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Rabbis) discussion group (on Zoom) will pick up the theme of the Individual and the Collective and look at how musicians as individuals come together to create a joint musical project. Some of the many professional musicians in our community will be joining us for this fascinating discussion.
(Note, this topic was not in the printed booklet distributed to members.)
Thursday 9th September
7.30–8.00pm: Reflections and processing
8.00–9.00pm: Session
9.00–9.30pm: S'lichot
On Zoom
Dr. Adi Amit will lead this session on ‘The individual and the collective: A moralistic view of social identity.’ Social identity is one of the prominent constructs studied in social psychology, reflecting how a collective (a social group) is embedded in one’s own identity. More details about this session and the speaker can be found here.
Shabbat 11th September
5:30pm
Tea, study and Havdalah: Rabbi Joel’s shiur will be ‘Am I doing this for me or for we, and how can I tell?"
Sunday 12th September
3:00pm
On Zoom
'Self and community around the world’, with Avi Bram, Leon Fenster, and Lisette van Lieshout. Members of our community will discuss how different counties address the relative weight of the individual and the collective. More details about this session and the speakers can be found here.
Monday 13th September
7.30–8.00pm: Reflections and processing
8.00–9.00pm: Session
9.00–9.30pm: S'lichot
On Zoom
Gary Bloom will speak on ‘Me and my team: Reflections on the interplay between the individual and the team in sport and at work’. Gary Bloom is the only sports psychotherapist working in professional football in the UK. More details about this session and the speaker can be found here.
Tuesday 14th September
7.30–8.00pm: Reflections and processing
8.00–9.00pm: Session
9.00–9.30pm: S'lichot
Join us for Rabbi Joel’s final evening shiur, ‘Weaving and un-weaving the rainbow: Does
reducing things to their constituent parts inevitably ruin them?’ This session will be in person, at the Leonard Sainer Centre.
Wednesday 15th September
6.30pm: Service starts
Kol Nidrei
Rabbi Joel will continue his teaching on the theme of the Individual and the Collective in his drasha around 7:00pm."
Thursday 16th September
9.30am: Service starts
Yom Kippur
Rabbi Joel will complete his teaching on the theme of the Individual and the Collective in his drasha around 12:30pm.
In the Alternative Session during Musaph on Yom Kippur (around 1:00pm), Sara Levan will lead a discussion on the impact of our individual needs and those of the collective, reflecting on all we have studied and discussed these past 10 days.