PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
1. Complete application form.
2. Purchase books; pay tuition
3. Complete all 16 Sessions
· Complete all assigned readings
· Watch videos
· Complete memory work
· Email terms with completed definitions for each session
· Study values for each session
· Demonstrate familiarity with all assigned materials
4. After completing all sessions write a final essay as assigned.
5. Return completed answers to “100 Questions.”-there are videos to help
6. Each week during your process, find on the Jewish calendar and try and read the weekly Torah reading (
Parsha) and commentary in the provided
Etz Chayim Chumash. Optional-Return brief reports to 3
Parshaot over the course of your study process. Watch Rabbi Ginsburg's D’var Torah video for the week’s reading, which you can find at:
http://weeklyvideodvartorah.blogspot.com/ (It will be the first one there that week).
7. Have conversations with us as needed.
8. Demonstrate a commitment to Jewish living and religious practice as reflected by Declaration of Faith below.
9. Commit to learn basic Hebrew reading.
10. Appear before a Beit Din (rabbinical tribunal) at which time you will be asked the following questions, among others:
- Do you choose to enter the eternal covenant between God and the people Israel and to become a Jew of your own free will?
- Do you accept Judaism to the exclusion of all other religious faiths and practices?
- Do you pledge your loyalty to Judaism and to the Jewish people under all circumstances?
- Do you promise to establish a Jewish home, and to participate actively in the synagogue and the Jewish community?
- Do you commit yourself to the pursuit of Torah and Jewish knowledge?
- If you should be blessed with children, do you promise to raise them as Jews?
11. Males will require circumcision. If already circumcised, a ritual circumcision is required. Males and females will require immersion in a mikvah (ritual bath).
12. Read and sign the declaration of Faith.
13. Pick out a Hebrew name. For legal/spiritual purposes your parents will be Abraham and Sarah.
Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of the Ezra-Habonim, the Niles Township Jewish Congregation, Skokie il.