For 5 Mondays from July 12-August 9, we'll take an innovative look at a different Jewish topic, presented by talented educators from across Philly.
This Week's Topic:
Reflection and Returning: Exploring the Themes of the High Holidays
with Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann
During the High Holidays, we are are asked to acknowledge our wrongdoings and seek forgiveness. Doing so is never as easy as we hope it would be. This "Topics on Turf" falls on the eve of Rosh Hodesh Elul, the beginning of the month of Elul, when we are supposed to engage in heshbon hanefesh (the accounting of our souls). Thus, we will explore the meaning and power of the High Holidays, exploring concepts like teshuvah (repentance/turning) and consider practices that will help us prepare ourselves for these holy days.
Lauren Grabelle Herrmann graduated from The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in June 2006. After serving rabbinic internships in Indiana, New Jersey, New York City, and Boston, Rabbi Lauren founded Kol Tzedek in West Philadelphia along with a handful of community members. While at RRC, Grabelle Herrmann was the recipient of the Lillian Fern Award for Service to the Community and the Rabbi Kenneth and Aviva Berger Memorial Prize in Practical Rabbinics. Rabbi Lauren is passionately committed to building a community that reaches out to the margins, seeking to bring in new voices to shape Jewish community. Most recently, Rabbi Lauren became the founding co-chair of LimmudPhilly, an annual festival of Jewish learning. She lives in West Philadelphia with her husband Jonathan and her daughter Aviel.
Co-sponsored by The Collaborative, Birthright Israel NEXT, and Moishe House Philadelphia
