In the Kadima years the students advance as they prepare for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah and leading services at their simcha.  Each week students will participate in a student-led tefillah experience to include a minute of Torah as we experience Hebrew in the context of prayer.  Students will have both dedicated Judaics and Hebrew time in small groups. 

The class will learn about the teachings of the early prophets focusing on justice as part of the overall classroom experience. Seeing how the concept of justice is woven into many aspects of Jewish practice will be part of lessons on prayer and holidays. In Hebrew, students will be given the tools to begin or continue to understand how to read and write Hebrew letters and will practice reading and learning a variety of blessings especially for holiday rituals.

This class focuses on middot (values) of our tradition and how they connect to our contemporary lives. We explore such questions as: Why pray? To whom do we pray? What happens when our prayers aren’t answered? In Hebrew, the focus will be on mastering the prayers of the Friday evening Shabbat service and home rituals and continuing to use and learn important Modern Hebrew language of the synagogue, the classroom and personal interactions.

Students will get a taste of Rabbinic Judaism and the post-Temple era. They will discover how the holy days we observe today have evolved over time. The Jewish life cycle will be studied in depth in class. Students will participate in a mock Jewish wedding and have the opportunity to visit the Jewish mortuary to learn about traditional mourning practices. Building on previous years, students will focus on the Shabbat morning service as well as the Hebrew of holidays and lifecycle events they will study in class. Modern Hebrew will continue to be practiced as part of class.