Wendy Amsellem is Director of the Dr. Beth Samuels High School Program and an alumna of the Drisha Scholars Circle. She is pursuing a PhD in Judaic Studies at New York University and has a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University.
Bittulah Zehu Kiyumah - How the Neglect of Torah Can Lead to its Deepest Fulfillment
Rabbi Ethan Tucker.
Torah and everyday life are often assumed to be locked in constant tension. Rabbinic texts speak of the interruption of learning to appreciate the broader world as a capital crime. We will explore an essay by R. Yitzhak Hutner, one of the 20th century's richest rabbinic thinkers, as he envisions what it means to embody Talmud Torah so thoroughly such that one's entire life is a unified unfolding process of learning.
How should we think about the economic, religious, and political implications of the Biblical agricultural cycle for contemporary Israeli life? This class will use Biblical, Talmudic, and medieval sources to develop the diversity of opinions formulated in canonical Jewish sources and their potential contemporary relevance.
Rabbi Josh Gutoff has taught and written about Jewish prayer for over twenty years. He is currently a doctoral student at the William Davidson School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
It is commonly assumed that value of human life trumps all other concerns in Jewish life. After a brief introduction, we will explore a sugya from the 8th chapter of Yoma that suggests a more subtle picture. Working in the original, we will look carefully at the different layers of the Talmudic sugya in an effort to uncover the range of warring values at work in this ancient conversation, a conversation that remains relevant until today.
Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg is one of the leading Jewish thinkers and activists of our time. He is the President Emeritus of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. He served as founder and president of CLAL from 1974-1997. Author of The Jewish Way, Living in the Image of God, and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity, he has written extensively on the theory and practice of pluralism among other topics.
Seeing is Believing - Reflections on Mitzvat Tzitzit
Ayelet Libson is pursuing a PhD in Talmud at New York University. She holds a BA in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a graduate of the Advanced Talmud Institute at MaTaN. Ms. Libson has taught at MaTaN, Yakar, Pelech High School and Emunah College in Jerusalem.
