A famous story is told of the man who came to the study house of Rabbi Shammai, and asked to be taught Torah while he stood on one foot. Rabbi Shammai reacted to the implication that the visitor felt that Torah was trivial and easily mastered.  Indignantly, he sent the man away in a storm of angry words. 

  The man took the same request to Rabbi Hillel.  Rabbi Hillel looked up at the visitor standing before him, wavering on one foot.  He responded calmly, "My friend, do not do to others that which is hateful to you.  That is the entire Torah.  All the rest is commentary.  Now go and study."  Tradition has it that the man did just that, and eventually became a learned Jew.

At Temple Beth-El, it is our mission to provide lifelong opportunities to study Jewish tradition, values, ritual and customs. 

For the youngest, we welcome children of all ages at all services.  We also offer special Children's Services at the High Holidays and Tot Shabbat services throughout the school year.

Our Religious School provides Judaic Studies and Hebrew instruction for grades K-7, including a varied family education curriculum.

Special programs for adults, including Torah study, are offered during the year.  During the 2007-08 school year, these special programs included a weekly adult ed class, taught by Cantor Marx, and the first of a two-part workshop on "Social Networking on the Internet and Jewish Values," led by Cantor Marx and Rabbi Brickman.

And last but not least, Rabbi Brickman's sermons on Shabbat, the festivals and the High Holidays are instructive, insightful and truly enable the mitzvah of study.  As we read in our Shacharit Service, the study of Torah is a great mitzvah when it leads to action and the doing of other mitzvot.