The Role of Kehillat Shabbat
What’s Going on in Kehillat Shabbat
1. 5th Grade Kehillat Shabbat
Students learn Torah and Haftarah trope and study the Haftarah parasha of the week and its connections to the Torah portion. In T’fillah, students daven Shabbat Shacharit and are introduced to the Torah services.  The Beth Jacob Congregation Shabbat Service and trope CD is given to 5th grade students.
2. 6th Grade Kehillat Shabbat
Students continue to review and polish Haftarah trope, Torah trope, Shacharit, Torah Services. The Musaf Service is introduced at this time. Students practice their skills using their own Bar/Bat Mitzvah Parshiot. In T’fillah, they take turns leading parts of the service.
3. 7th Grade Kehillat Shabbat
Students join Beth Jacob’s Shabbat T’fillot through the Torah reading and then meet as a class to discuss current events and ethics from a Jewish perspective. On weeks when there is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah at Beth Jacob, students sit as a class during services.
4. Beyond Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Beth Jacob Congregation will ask post Bar/Bat Mitzvah students to daven services or read Torah in the synagogue on an ongoing basis. In addition, students are encouraged to read Torah at a friend’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah that takes place after their own. Eighth graders are encouraged to participate in “Shalshelet,” our ongoing educational enrichment and skill enhancement program. The Shalshelet curriculum engages students in discussion of Jewish life after Bar/Bat Mitzvah; a major thematic idea and goal is to keep students comfortable coming to and being in the synagogue. Students use the weekly parasha and various tefillot as springboards for discussion of life issues. Shalshelet also includes a teacher-training component, helping our 8th-grade students prepare to become teaching assistants in the Shabbat Enrichment program. Students practice their skills in active listening, quick response, and service leading.
Shalshelet meets every other week on Shabbat mornings; students spend part of the morning in services with their families and then meet as a group for the other half of the morning to learn together.