Temple Beth Am Podcasts

Elul Learning "Series: Sustaining Our Skills: A Prayer Refresher"

September 12th, 2023  |  57 mins 15 secs

It’s been one whole year since we stood before the open gates and prayed our way through the High Holy Days. Rabbi-Cantor Hillary Chorny reawakens the melodies that permeate the season, from the oldest nostalgic tunes to TBA specials and favorites.

Elul Learning Series: "9/11, Covid, and Rosh Hashanah: What to Do When the World Changes"

September 11th, 2023  |  1 hr 6 mins

There are certain moments in history when everything changes. We all just lived through one of these world-changing times with the recent pandemic. On 9/11, we commemorate another day that profoundly changed our reality. The rabbis of the Talmud were likewise living through a major paradigm shift, trying to figure out how to live in a world without the Great Temple that had long been the center of Jewish life. Their response to the great catastrophe of their time can help us reflect more deeply on how we are responding to the calamities of our own age. This program was presented by Rabbi David Kasher, Director of HADAR West Coast, at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, on September 11, 2023, as part of TBA's Elul Learning series.

Elul Learning Series: "Sustaining Tradition in Modernity"

September 7th, 2023  |  1 hr 6 mins

Rabbi Rebecca Schatz examines different elements of the High Holidays as well as Elul and how we have shifted those rituals into modern-day life, or how we might do so. From Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, September 7, 2023.

Elul Learning Series: "T'Shuva with Our Bodies (Yoga included)"

September 4th, 2023  |  57 mins 2 secs

With Jewish text and movement inspired by yoga, Rabbi Kerry Chaplin explores T'shuvah, soulful return, to and with our bodies.

Elul Learning Series: "Sustaining Stories"

August 31st, 2023  |  25 mins 45 secs

‘We sustain ourselves through stories and our stories sustain us. Rabbi Matt Shapiro examines traditional and contemporary frameworks for exploring this important and nuanced topic and how it is central to our tradition, and offers a practical framework for how we can share our own stories in a way that both provides sustenance to others and helps to sustain each of us."

Elul Learning Series: "Helping to Support People Who Are Dying"

August 28th, 2023  |  1 hr 4 mins

It is always hard for us to be in the company of, let alone talk with, and support, friends, and family who suffer from a terminal, irreversible illness. In this session with Rabbi Elliot Dorff, we will talk about why and how to visit such people, the use of ethical wills in that process, and other ways in which those of us who are well can help those who will never be well again. The session is moderated by Rabbi Rebecca Schatz.

Elul Learning Series: "Sustaining Faith Amidst Doubt and Doubt Amidst Faith"

August 24th, 2023  |  1 hr 3 mins

Are faith and doubt in essential conflict? Or are they intimate friends, elevating and refining one another? Should a religious life, focused on faith in God, be one blessedly free from the existential doubt that can plague those who live without religion in their lives? Or should faith in God, which can so easily be pushed to the extreme, and harnessed for nefarious purposes, be tempered with healthy doses of doubt and uncertainty? We explore such questions, through traditional texts and through what is present in our own minds and hearts, as we get ready for a very faith-focused season in the Jewish calendar.

Elul Learning Series: "Onramp to Elul"

August 21st, 2023  |  58 mins 29 secs

Getting started with our yearly spiritual accounting can feel a little bit like sitting on the 405 during rush hour. Where do we even begin? How do we move this forward? Together we will navigate a few rabbinic sources, excerpts from Rabbi Alan Lew's "This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared" and more, to help us set up our Elul route!

Elul Learning Series 2022: Spiritual Poetic Expressions of the High Holiday Mahzor - Class 6

September 21st, 2022  |  1 hr 19 mins

Rabbi Joel Rembaum leads a class reading and reflecting upon the mystical spirituality of a selection of classical poems embedded in the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The text used is the Mahzor Lev Shalem, with its fine English translation and insightful commentary.

This is the sixth class in the series conducted via Zoom on September 21. 2022.

Elul Learning Series 2022: Back to Basics of Being a Gabbai Spotter - Class 3

September 21st, 2022  |  37 mins 31 secs

Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny leads a class on what goes into being a spotter at the Torah.

This class took place at Temple Beth Am and via Zoom on September 20, 2022