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Mentoring

Need a mentor? If you would like to learn a specific ritual or skill, or just need resources for self-instruction, we can match you with a congregant who can help!

Please call the Beth David office, 408-257-3333, or send us an email with your request.

Learning opportunities include:

Shabbat

  • Conduct Shabbat Table Service
    • Light the candles
    • Chant Friday evening Kiddush
    • Wash hands with blessing
    • Bless children
    • Bless spouse/partner
    • Sing Shabbat songs (zemirot)
    • Chant birkat hamazon
    • Enjoy a Friday Shabbat dinner service with a host family
    • Chant the Havdallah service
  • Home Rituals
    • Affix a mezuzah to a doorpost with the blessing
    • Make my home kosher

Holiday (Yom Tov) Rituals

  • Chant the Kiddush for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot
  • Blow the shofar
  • Perform Tashlich
  • Build a sukkah
  • Shake the lulav and estrog
  • Light Hanukkah candles and chant blessings
  • Prepare home for Passover
  • Conduct a Passover seder

Create a Shabbat or Holiday Environment in your Home

  • Holiday activities for children
  • Special holiday recipes and meals

Synagogue Skills

  • Take an aliyah
  • Put on tallit and tefilin, with appropriate blessings
  • Recite the mourner’s Kaddish
  • Choreography of the Shabbat morning service
    (types of prayers and their significance, when to stand, sit, chant out loud, read silently)
  • Overview of Shabbat evening service (types of prayers and their significance, songs)
  • Participate in morning or evening minyan
  • Chant from Torah (tutors available for fee, mentors available for final check-up)
  • Chant a Haftorah (tutors available for fee, mentors available for final check-up)

Life Cycle

  • Baby naming
  • Brit Milah (circumcision)
  • Bar/Bat Mitzvah
  • Wedding
  • Mourning rituals—Chevra Kadisha, funeral, shiva

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