eFestival May 3, 2020

Presentations &  Resources from the May 2020 eFestival

Naomi Gurt Lind - Blessing Hard Times: What Mishnah Berachot Teaches About Patience, Endurance and Gratitude

Reviewing a number of challenging texts from the Mishnah, students were able to engage with Hebrew College first-year rabbinical student Naomi Gurt Lind and each other in high-level dialogue to see how the wisdom contained in these verses might apply to our present situation. Important takeaways from the conversation include: how the rabbis lived at the time of the Mishnah can inform how we live today, and can change us. And, sometimes we can only see what God reveals in retrospect.

Naomi Gurt Lind has been an opera singer, a synagogue executive, and a stay-at-home mother. In September she started school at Hebrew College in pursuit of her long-held dream of becoming a rabbi. In her free time, she hangs out with her husband and their two genius boys, solves crossword puzzles (in pencil), and bakes a legendary challah.

PRESENTATION RESOURCES [Slides]

For questions or further info, feel free to contact Naomi at: naomi.gurt.lind@hebrewcollege.edu

Marcia Plumb - Finding Order in a Pick-Up-Sticks World with Mussar

Marcia Plumb is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Brookline. She has studied and taught Mussar for over 25 years, and is working to embed Mussar into all aspects of her synagogue. She teaches several classes at Mishkan Tefila and throughout Boston, as well as online internationally. Marcia lives in Needham with her husband and two children.

PRESENTATION RESOURCES [Slides]

For questions or further info, feel free to contact Marcia at: RabbiPlumb@MishkanTefila.org

Julie Wolkoff - Jewish End-of-Life Decision Making

Learning from Julie Wolkoff, a rabbi and hospice chaplain at BI Lahey Health@Home in Watertown, we considered how Jewish texts and traditions guide us as we face dilemmas of end-of-life decision making. In addition to exploring this question, information was provided about documents everyone should have, along with ways to have conversations about our wishes for medical treatment at the end of life or in the face of a terminal condition. Considering what a loved one who is dying might want, especially in the era of Covid-19, is particularly poignant and important. The silver lining nowadays is that people are discussing these issues more than ever before.

Julie Wolkoff is a hospice chaplain with BI Lahey Health @ Home - Watertown and has been a hospice chaplain for over 12 years. She received her rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR in 1982 and her Doctor of Ministry degree in 1996 and Certification in Thanatology (the study of death, dying, and Bereavement) from the Association for Death Education and Counseling in 2010. She previously served as the Director of Chaplaincy Services for the United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York.