Erev Yom Tov Shavuot Service, Cheesecake Reception, and Tikun Leil Shavuot at Holy Blossom Temple
Saturday, June 4, 7:00 pm
Optional cheesecake reception will be hosted in the courtyard between the service and the study.
“The Evolution of Reform Jewish Law”
Tikun Leil Shavuot with Rabbi Professor Joan Friedman, Chair of the Reform Responsa Committee.
Coming to our service in person? Please be sure to fill out our Self-Assessment (pre-screening) Form before entering the building. Click here to fill out the form!
In-person attendees must be double vaccinated and Covid-19 protocols will be in place, including wearing masks, and physical distancing.
For those joining us in prayer and study online, register in advance for the service by clicking below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqfuGvqTwpGNMi10ZiBrqHLhZI_N0H_6Up
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the service.
In celebration of Shavuot, Z’man Matan Torateinu, the Time of the Giving of our Torah, we are honoured to welcome back Rabbi Friedman to teach about Reform Responsa, a fascinating collection of questions and answers about Jewish law and practice. With his legal background, our own Rabbi Plaut z”l brilliantly chaired the Reform Responsa Committee. Today, Rabbi Professor Friedman is its Chair. She’ll draw colourful examples from the past century to show how Reform Judaism continuously holds tradition and modernity in dynamic tension.
Rabbi Joan S. Friedman was ordained at HUC-JIR’s New York campus in 1980. As the first woman rabbi to serve a Canadian congregation, she was Holy Blossom’s Assistant Rabbi from 1980-81. She is a founding member of the Women’s Rabbinic Network. After serving as a congregational rabbi and a college chaplain, Rabbi Friedman received her doctorate in Jewish history at Columbia University. Her dissertation was published as “Guidance, Not Governance”: Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa and was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in 2013. She is currently Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, where she lives with her wife Nancy and two small parrots. She was first appointed to the CCAR Responsa Committee in 1994 and was named its chair in 2019.
