FEAST is an acronym for Family Education At Sinai Today. That is what we are all about:
Families – bringing the families of our students into the learning process and into the larger Sinai Synagogue family
Education – to be a Jew is to be committed to life-long study of Torah and Judaism
At
Sinai – the future of Sinai is an educated community
Today – as Hillel the Elder taught, “If not now, when?” One should not put off learning until tomorrow when you can start today
The most important principle of our FEAST program is that it is on Shabbat. Bringing our Jewish families with children to the synagogue is essential to developing a Shabbat-centered Jewish community. Our students recognize that Shabbat is the most essential day of the week, when the Jewish community gathers. Our veteran and elder members see our young families and appreciate that a new generation of Jews is connected and committed to the synagogue and our Jewish faith. We supplement our Shabbat studies with occasional Saturday evening havdalah and Sunday family programs.
Our FEAST curriculum includes 3 important overarching curricular goals:
- Students will be comfortable with the equal participation of boys and girls in Jewish learning and observance. Students will observe that both male and female public participation in Jewish ritual life is necessary to create a wholesome and holy community.
- Students will appreciate how the wisdom and profundity of the Torah and its tradition of interpretation offer us guidance and meaning to our daily life. Students will be encouraged to fulfill the highest values of Torah through observance of the mitzvot.
- At the same time, students will be capable of respecting the teachings of modern science, thought and humanities; learning that Torah and modernity can be understood to complement each other without denigrating or denying one to prove the truth of the other.
We achieve these goals by focusing on a few key areas that every Jew should know.
- Jewish Scriptural literature
- Ethics
- Holidays and
- Prayer
The FEAST curriculum is based on a two-year spiral curriculum. Every two years we start the cycle over again and each class reviews the material but at a more age appropriate level. While flexibility is the key to our program, most years we group the students by first and second, third and fourth, and fifth and sixth grades.
If you would like to learn more about our nationally-recognized FEAST program, please contact us.
