Join Us for "A Conscious Journey of Eldering":
A SIX-SESSION JOURNEY CULMINATING WITH
A SHABBAT CELEBRATION OF KHL ELDERS

At Kol HaLev, we value the opportunity to learn, grow and celebrate together at every stage and phase of life. Sometimes our learning or celebration is acknowledged in the form of Jewish ritual, as in a baby naming, a bar or bat mitzvah, and other life cycle occasions we are all familiar with. KHL's strategic plan sets a communal goal to "develop and share thoughtful rituals," and to "explore and create rituals around life cycle events and transitions." Sadly, elders in our society have little ritual to mark or frame their experiences, and the major transitions of adulthood beyond marriage and having children go largely unmarked. Towards this end, we are embarking on "A Conscious Journey of Eldering", a six-session program in which we will learn about Jewish views on aging, and reflect upon our own relationship to growing older. This learning and reflection process will culminate in KHL's first "Elders Shabbat," a Shabbat service and ritual that will honor and celebrate the eldering stage of life and the elders of our community.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are at the beginning of a "revolution in longevity." As an increasingly large proportion of the Jewish population reaches their elder years, Jewish communities across the country are developing creative and meaningful ways to ensure that elders are given every opportunity to both give and receive from involvement in congregational life. These efforts seek to fulfill Torah's mandate: "lifnei sayvah takum” (rise up before the elders). This verse can be interpreted to mean that we need to "rise to the process of eldering," making this stage of life rich with meaning, cultivating the wisdom of our years, honoring both where we have come from and what elders have yet to bring forward.

Our Conscious Eldering program will be held every two to three weeks between February and May, concluding with a Shabbat morning service on May 22. Together we will explore Jewish texts on aging, the rewards and challenges of this stage of life, spirituality and personal transformation, and tools for harvesting the wisdom of life experience during elder years. Aside from the six-session series, there will be an opportunity for participants in the program to work with Hagigah, our Shabbat morning educational program, sharing some of their wisdom with our children. In addition, participants in the program will help to create structures to further integrate elders in the generational mix of our congregation's life in an ongoing way. Examples of such structures include having our elders as mentors for b'nai mitzvah students, becoming "adoptive grandparents" for families with young children, and becoming resources for other elders to design their own eldering rituals in the future.

If you are interested in deepening your own relationship to what it means to be growing older, from both a Jewish and a personal perspective, this program is for you. Whether you have just started to see yourself as "getting older," are facing retirement or other later life transitions, or have considered yourself an elder for many years already, you are invited to join us.

The program will be facilitated by Simcha Zevit, our rabbinic intern. The six sessions will be scheduled on Tuesdays, beginning February 2, either from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. OR from 7:00-9:00 p.m., depending on which of these times meets the needs of the majority of interested participants. Please be in touch with Simcha at sgsl18@aol.com, or call the Kol HaLev office at 216-320-1498 to let us know of your interest, and whether you can make mornings only, evenings only, or whether either time can work for you. Your e-mail or phone call indicating your interest and preferred meeting time needs to be received no later than January 15. We will get back to all who showed an interest with a final decision as to meeting times by January 20. Feel free to call Simcha at 216-292-1137 of you would like further information.