Principles for Teaching About the Jewish Lifecycle

Principles for Teaching About
the Jewish Lifecycle
1. Well-educated Jewish adults are prepared to meaningfully participate
in Jewish lifecycle events.
2. Jewish lifecycle events respond meaningfully to developmental
issues. Judaism helps us mark, sanctify, and make meaning out of
transitional moments in our lives.
• For example: Bar/Bat Mitzvah marks and sanctifies the
period of adolescence. How? Adolescence is about the
acquisition of responsibility. Bar Mitzvah is about the
acquisition of responsibility.
• Or: Shiva responds to grief and teaches us how to
deal with it.
3. The teaching of lifecycle must deal with diversity and
inclusion.
• Examples: children with special needs, conversion,
adoption, gay marriage/commitment.
4. Jewish lifecycle events help us to understand what it
means to live Jewishly.
5. The teaching of specific nomenclature allows
individuals to be empowered members of community.
6. By studying and exploring lifecycle texts, we can
unpack the meaning of the rituals they address.
• For example: Texts on brit milah help us to
understand that Judaism makes meaning out of
the birth experience by relating it to the concept of
covenant. Studying the texts helps us to discover that Judaism
places more emphasis on welcoming the child to the community
than it does on the birth itself.
7. Ritual objects (and their artistic/design elements) teach us about the rituals in which they reside.
They also teach us about the individuals and communities from which they came.
• For example: wimples, huppot, ketubot.
8. Lifecycle events are interwoven with each other.
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