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 About Us |
The Conscious Learning Community of Boulder Valley (CLC)
CLC is a center of spiritual development and experiential deep
learning built around a Beit Midrash style of learning. CLC
offers to both secular and religious, men and women, Jewish
and non-Jewish adults learning opportunities such as classes,
special events, retreats and workshops, and a community of conscious
learners. CLC was founded in Boulder, Colorado - in the month
of Kislev, 5763 (December 2003) by Tom Oz DiGennaro and Dorit
Ori Har-DiGennaro and it is a non-profit organization (501c3).
The Learning
"All words of Torah are interdependent: What one phrase locks away,
another opens."
-Bamidbar Rabbah 19
CLC aspires to follow Reb Zalman's vision to revive in Boulder
the Lehrhaus model established by Martin Bubber and Franz Rosenzwieg
in the early years of the 20th century in Frankfurt, Germany.
CLC learners bring their diversity of perspectives and expertise
to their studies. They are encouraged to bring out the personal
significance that each of them finds in the corpus of Jewish
literature. This is based both on modern findings in Adult Education
and the old time Chevruta learning style of the Beit Midrash.
"Both these and those are words of a living G-d."
- Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Eruvin, Page 13b
The learning in CLC is the result of cooperation between teacher and student, between leader and learner. The learners work with their teachers - who serve more as facilitators than as frontal instructors - to create curricula that encompass a breadth of fields. Classic Jewish sources like Scripture, Talmud, and Kabbalah are seasoned with Chassidic literature, in-depth study of prayers, philosophy and art. The mix of disciplines and perspectives creates a synergy that is constantly generating new ideas, creative thinking, radical approaches to well-trodden texts. Our goal is to explore all subjects with the "Four Worlds" model in mind: Assiyah (doing), Briah (creation), Yetzirah (formation), and Atzilut (emanation).
The learning in CLC is progressive: building a foundation and adding higher levels of understanding. This is not recreational education. This is educational re-creation of our minds, our souls, our community.
The Hebrew language is one of the foundations of "The Wisdom of Israel ". We encourage the expansion of this base, without assuming any particular level of proficiency. Biblical, prayer-book, and modern conversational Hebrew are taught using engaging lively methods, leaving the grammar exercises to the learner's own discretion.
"And thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself".
-Vayikra, 19:18.
In addition to weekly classes and monthly gatherings, about once a month, usually in collaboration with other local organizations, there is a special event: an outdoor journey, musical event, participatory dance, art shows.
Every other month, there will be a retreat "shabbaton" involving deeper participation and experience: spirituality understood and exercised.
Once a year there will be an over-night teacher retreat to exchange
knowledge, but mostly to open our hearts, meditate, pray and
grow together.
A major goal of CLC is to offer a place for non-Jews and unaffiliated
Jews to be comfortable without any intimidation or indoctrination.
All spiritual positions are welcome. In a world that is suffering
from ever-greater manifestations of religiously sanctioned divisiveness,
intolerance and injustice, it is crucial that we, as the inheritors
of the Torah's secrets, provide a context for sharing our message
of unity, peace and justice with the other peoples of the world.
"Our Learning Community strives to learn analytically, without compromising intellectual integrity; but also to touch our hearts and souls." - F. Rosenzweig
Copyright ©2009 Conscious Learning Community. All rights reserved.
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