Bayit builders Rabbi David Evan Markus and Rabbi Rachel Barenblat offer this eight-week series based on Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s On Repentance and Repair. The class is designed to run from Tisha B’Av to Rosh Hashanah, with a final session that can be taught in the lead-up to Yom Kippur or on Yom Kippur itself. The sequence of classes follows the tradition of the “reverse Omer,” linking each of the weeks between Tisha b’Av and Rosh Hashanah with a spiritual quality to cultivate, though the classes can be taught without the kabbalistic frame if you prefer.  For each class we offer a guide to make teaching easier alongside slide decks featuring sources, discussion questions, and other resources. Meant for Zoom-based or in-person teaching.

The eight sessions are:

Ch 1 – Repentance Overview – Malkhut: Showing Up Amidst the Brokenness
Ch 2 – Repentance in Personal Relationships – Yesod: Our Foundations
Ch 3 – Harm in the Public Square – Hod: Collective Identity
Ch 4 – Institutional Obligations – Netzah: Collective Momentum and Redirection
Ch 5 – On National Repentance – Tiferet: Shared Heart
Ch 6 – Justice Systems – Gevurah: On Judgment and Strength (Weakness)
Ch 7 – Forgiveness – Hesed: Loving Kindness (Self and Other)
Ch 8 – Atonement – Yom Kippur

This link will prompt you to make a copy of materials for classes 1-8.

Please encourage your participants to buy a copy of Danya’s book at whichever bookstore they support, and please consider making a freewill donation to Bayit in support of the curriculum.