Home > Middah of the Month
What do community/kehilla, do not waste/bal tashchit, and bravery/gevurah have in common? These ideas are three of the 48 Jewish values/middot that are the core of what makes Judaism special. In 5785, Beth El will take a page from a program that has been happening for years in the Beth El Religious School – and each summer at many Jewish camps – as we celebrate and explore a different middah each month.
Starting in this month of Elul (September 4–October 2), we will focus on Teshuva/Repentance. As we move toward the High Holidays, we traditionally take this month to reflect and make amends as we head into a new year. So, it only makes sense to kick off our middot program with this idea to learn and explore the idea of repentance together. We’ll start with a movie at the DCJCC, a lunch and learn with Rabbi Harris, and a parent learning session on how to teach and model forgiveness in the home.
Teshuva (תְֹּשוּבָה) is most commonly translated as “repentence.” However, it actualy comes from the Hebrew root shoov (שוּב), which means “to return.” Teshuva is based on an attitude that people are good at heart and want to do the right thing, but at times they move off-course and conduct themselves inappropriately. Teshuva, therefore, is a person’s effort to enact a course correction, to return to the proper mode of conduct.
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