Bet David Progressive Jewish Congregation

Bet David Progressive Jewish Congregation Bet David is a Progressive Jewish congregation serving the Jewish community in Sandton. We are commit

THE PROGRESSIVE CONGREGATION IN SANDTON WITH HEART AND SOUL

Bet David represents Progressive Judaism with progressive ideas and innovative approaches to South African Jewish life. Situated for more than 40 years in a picturesque garden, with sanctuary windows encompassing the bounty of nature, the quest is to be a centre of excellence, welcoming and inclusive to all seeking a Jewish life. Led by

the cooperative efforts of dedicated Management Committee, productive Kehillah and a Rabbi trained in the Progressive Movement, all are prepared to assist members of the congregation, seekers of Jewish identity and Jewish youth with desired and necessary life cycle celebrations, programmes of study and engaging projects to round out a Jewish life. Religious services, Religion School, and delicious traditional Jewish foods are balanced by the prophetic vision of helping the most vulnerable by providing for there needs through Kehillah’s long-term support of crèches, schools and feeding schemes in Alexander, and the campus based grade 12 Mitzvah School training deserving, able youth and guiding them to success in each year’s Matriculation exams that serve as gate-keepers for tertiary education. Bet David offers a strengthening hand in the person of its rabbi available to other regional congregations in Gauteng. Join us in prayer and celebration, Shabbat eve at 18.00, Shabbat morning at 10.00am and on Jewish occasions throughout the year.

23 Elul • TEKIAH G’DOLAHAs we enter the final week of Elul, the question changes. After listening for what needs to chan...
04/09/2026

23 Elul • TEKIAH G’DOLAH

As we enter the final week of Elul, the question changes. After listening for what needs to change, we begin to ask: what do I want to carry with me into the new year?

Sometimes that means first deciding what we are ready to put down.

For this first Tekiah G’dolah reflection, we turn to Tashlich and ask what we have been carrying through 5786 that we no longer want to carry into 5787, and why letting it go may be so difficult.

Shabbat Shalom!

22 Elul • T’RUAHIt is relatively easy to believe that something in the world needs to change. It is harder to ask what p...
03/09/2026

22 Elul • T’RUAH

It is relatively easy to believe that something in the world needs to change. It is harder to ask what part of that change requires something from us.

Seventeen years ago, a volunteer project in Mexico taught me something about the difference between caring about a cause and actually giving yourself to the work. Tikkun olam can sound like a beautiful idea. In practice, repairing the world may mean tired bodies, stained clothes, and dirt under our fingernails.

As 5786 draws towards its close, today’s reflection asks: Where did you get your hands dirty for something that mattered this year? And where did you believe something needed to change, but kept your own hands clean?

21 Elul • T’RUAHWe live surrounded by noise. Sometimes it is literal; sometimes it comes from everything competing for o...
02/09/2026

21 Elul • T’RUAH

We live surrounded by noise. Sometimes it is literal; sometimes it comes from everything competing for our attention.

Silence can do something unexpected. When some of that noise disappears, we may begin to notice what had been there all along, but we could no longer hear.

For today’s reflection, we ask what creates the most noise in our lives, and what that noise may be keeping us from hearing.

20 Elul • T’RUAHOur screens open windows onto an extraordinary amount of the world. But they can also draw our attention...
01/09/2026

20 Elul • T’RUAH

Our screens open windows onto an extraordinary amount of the world. But they can also draw our attention away from what is happening right beside us.

For today’s reflection, we think about our relationship with technology. What have our screens added to our lives, and what do we give up when we get pulled into them?

19 Elul • T’RUAHWe often speak about our values as the things that keep us grounded. But being grounded does not necessa...
31/08/2026

19 Elul • T’RUAH

We often speak about our values as the things that keep us grounded. But being grounded does not necessarily mean remaining fixed in the same position.

The Talmud compares the reed and the cedar. The reed bends in the wind and remains rooted; the seemingly stronger cedar can eventually be uprooted.

For today’s reflection, we ask ourselves about the times we changed our minds and the times we refused to. When was holding firm an expression of our values, and when might it have been stubbornness or pride?

Swipe through for today’s reflection.

18 Elul • T’RUAHThe words we use do more than express what we think. Over time, they can also shape how we think, what w...
30/08/2026

18 Elul • T’RUAH

The words we use do more than express what we think. Over time, they can also shape how we think, what we consider acceptable, and even how we see other people.

Sometimes this is obvious, as in language that explicitly denies another group’s humanity. More often, it happens through words and expressions that have become so familiar that we barely notice the assumptions they carry.

For today’s T’ruah reflection, we ask ourselves to pay attention not only to language that offends us, but also to what happens when someone asks us to change the way we speak.

17 Elul • T’RUAHSometimes the alarm goes off before we are ready to hear what it is telling us.During Elul, the shofar c...
29/08/2026

17 Elul • T’RUAH

Sometimes the alarm goes off before we are ready to hear what it is telling us.

During Elul, the shofar calls us to wake up. But some of the alarms we need to hear come from elsewhere: an experience, a conversation, a loss, a realisation, something that suddenly opens our eyes to what was already there.

And sometimes we hear the alarm perfectly well. We simply hit snooze.

For today’s reflection, we ask ourselves: what alarm has already gone off in my life? And what is keeping me from responding to it?

Swipe through for today’s reflection.

16 Elul • T’RUAHSometimes we get a glimpse of a reality that is better than the one we have learnt to expect.It may happ...
28/08/2026

16 Elul • T’RUAH

Sometimes we get a glimpse of a reality that is better than the one we have learnt to expect.

It may happen in a relationship, a community, our work, or even in an encounter with someone whose views are very different from our own. For a moment, something makes us think: “It could be like this.”

As we begin the week of T’ruah, the alarm of the shofar, today’s reflection asks us not only to notice those glimpses, but to consider what we can do to make them a little less exceptional.

Swipe through for today’s reflection.

15 Elul • SH’VARIMOn Yom Kippur, we confess in the plural: Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu... We have been guilty. We have bet...
27/08/2026

15 Elul • SH’VARIM

On Yom Kippur, we confess in the plural: Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu... We have been guilty. We have betrayed. We have stolen.

There are beautiful reasons for this collective language. We stand before God as a community, responsible for one another, and nobody has to stand alone and announce their failures publicly.

But the “we” can also give us somewhere to hide.

For today’s Sh’varim reflection, we look for the “I” inside the “we”: which of the transgressions we confess collectively were actually ours this year? Can we simply name and own what we did?

Swipe through for today’s reflection.

14 Elul • SH’VARIMWhat happens when we take seriously the idea that every human being is created in the Divine image?It ...
26/08/2026

14 Elul • SH’VARIM

What happens when we take seriously the idea that every human being is created in the Divine image?

It is easy enough to recognise the dignity of the people we love and respect. The challenge of b’tzelem Elohim is that it applies to everyone, including people whose actions we despise and people we have simply learnt not to see.

For today’s reflection, we ask where human dignity became difficult to recognise this year: our own, and that of others.

Swipe through for today’s reflection.

Address

3 Middle Road
Sandton
2146

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 16:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 16:00
Thursday 09:00 - 16:00
Friday 09:00 - 16:00
18:00 - 19:00
Saturday 10:00 - 13:00

Telephone

+27117837117

Website

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