90@190: Open Beit Midrash at Mechon Hadar (Fall 2011)
90 Minutes of Torah at 190 Amsterdam Ave
Come to Hadar's Open Beit Midrash on Monday nights to engage first-hand with texts in havruta or in one of several learning groups. Food and energetic atmosphere provided.
When: Monday nights, October 31-December 12, 2011 Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm; (Arvit will take place at 7:10pm) Cost: Free Where: Mechon Hadar, 190 Amsterdam Avenue (at 69th St.)
Choose from the following sessions:
Traditional Innovations: Prayer in the Thought of the Rambam Rabbi Elie Kaunfer What was the Rambam’s unique approach to Tefilah? How did he innovate regarding issues of kavannah (focus), music, body movement, and authority? Together we will explore the Rambam’s more controversial opinions, drawing from the Mishneh Torah and responsa.
Wily Wives, Magic Men and More: Using Literary Tools to Explore Rabbinic Stories Miriam-Simma Walfish In this class we will examine a different rabbinic story each week and will use literary tools to uncover their richness. Texts will be explored in the original with translation available as a reference.
Literature and Community in the Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav Yitzhak Lewis This is a text-based class about the power of literature and the fabric of community. The habura will conduct a critical reading of the stories and teachings of R. Nachman of Braslav and explore the themes of literature and community, both in his thought about storytelling and in the stories he told. Several of the texts are only available in Hebrew, so (at least) a strong reading knowledge of Hebrew is required. [Note: This will be a literary limmud. For the most part, we will not deal with issues of mysticism or Kabbalah in R. Nachman's writings.]
Yitzhak graduated from the Hebrew University with a B.A. in Psychology, Comparative Literature and Creative Writing. He is currently a PhD student at Columbia University. His interests include: Early Modern Hebrew Literature and Thought; Literature, Politics and Religion; Borges studies; Braslav studies; Literary Theory and Legal Theory.
Writing New Jewish Poetry: A Workshop/Think Tank
Jake Marmer
Poetry is rooted in myth and the goal of this workshop is to find a new mythic lifeline for the contemporary Jewish poetry. To examine forms of thought, conversation, interaction, and feeling as they exist in the traditional Jewish lore - Torah, Talmud, Midrash, as well as in the contemporary Jewish discourse - and create poetry, experimenting with these forms. No hardcore experience with poetry or traditional Judaism necessary, but participants will be encouraged to bring their own big ideas.
Jake Marmer is a New York based poet and performer. His first poetry collection, "Jazz Talmud" is being published by SheepMeadow Press this fall. In 2008-2009 he was a Dorot Fellow in Jerusalem. He writes poetry and music reviews for the Forward, and lives in Manhattan's Washington Heights with his wife Shoshana and son Lev.
Can't make it in person? Watch live on UStream. Video and audio recordings will also be made available on our website shortly afterward.
Session I: Meaning (September 19, 2011)
Taught by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer
Is prayer meant to be read as prose or interpreted as poetry? This session will look at the many layers beneath the text of the siddur and the mahzor and see how words and phrases have the potential to unlock deeper meanings beneath the text. Take home a methodology that will open up new pathways to make meaning from the text of prayer. Download sources
The words are only the beginnning. How loudly we say them, how we move, where we stand and the nature of our prayer space significantly impacts the prayer experience. We will explore all of these issues by examining traditional sources, with the goal of emerging with a greater consciousness of how aesthetics are critical to prayer.
Watch Session II (Not fully audible. See audio file above to listen without video.)
Session III: Music (October 3, 2011)
Taught by Joey Weisenberg
The printed page only has a hope of penetrating to the soul through music. In this session, we will explore the ways in which music can not only enhance prayer, but build communities who truly know how to pray together.
From Scholarship to Paideia: Rabbi Gerson D. Cohen's Torah 20 Years Later
Join us for a special public lecture by Rabbi Gordon Tucker on July 10, 7:15-8:45 pm at Mechon Hadar (190 Amsterdam Avenue) in honor of the 20th year since Rabbi Gerson D. Cohen's passing.
Rabbi Gordon Tucker is Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY. He is the author of numerous articles on a wide range of subjects in Jewish thought, and most recently published a translation with commentary (entitled Heavenly Torah) on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's major three-volume Hebrew work on rabbinic theology. Rabbi Tucker is Honorary Chairman (and former Chairman) of the Board of the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel, and served on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standard of the Rabbinical Assembly from 1982 to 2007. From 1984 to 1992, Rabbi Tucker was Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary, in which capacity he directed the training of over 200 rabbis.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?: Revisiting Mehitza
"Until I read The Unmaking of Israel, I didn't think it could be possible to feel more despairing, and then more terribly hopeful, about Israel, a place that I began at last, under the spell of Gershom Gorenberg's lucid and dispassionate yet intensely personal writing, to understand."
--Michael Chabon, author of The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Israeli historian and journalist Gershom Gorenberg will discuss the policies that threaten Israel's democracy, the little known history behind them, and the new direction that Israel needs to take to remain a democratic and Jewish state. In conversation with Rabbi Shai Held, he will also talk about the role that American Jews can take in building a new Israel-Diaspora relation.
Week 1: Why? Why do we keep kosher in the first place? What is the intended function of various dietary restrictions? What is their effect as practiced? Before we jump into the details, we will endeavor to begin with a broad picture of motivations and frameworks for eating differently than we might otherwise without the Torah and Hazal's guidance. Download sources for Session 1
Week 2: What? The Torah presents a list of items that are forbidden to eat and rabbinic literature supplements this even further. Avoiding these problematic foods lies at the heart of any kashrut practice. What is in our food and how do we know? What kinds of information and evidence are sufficient for ensuring that we don't transgress these requirements? We will look in depth at questions regarding verifying the ingredients present in food and when we can trust that food is permitted to eat. Download sources for Session 2 Download audio recording Watch Session 2
Week 3: How? How food is prepared is almost as important in Jewish law as the contents of the food itself. We will look in depth at the question of the utensils used to prepare food and how pots and pans play an integral role in the question of whether something is kosher. We will also see, however, that questions of procedure and preparation are complex, and some of the tradition's most striking flexibility can be found in this fascinating area of practice. Download sources for Session 3
Week 4: Who? An often overlooked dimension of the kashrut of food is: "Who prepared it?" The identity of the preparer plays a prominent role in rabbinic thinking about kashrut. Recognizing that food is a key element in creating fellowship, many rabbinic sources forbid consuming food prepared by those with whom fellowship is dangerous or undesirable. We will wade into the complex issue of Jewish-Gentile boundaries around food and try to think about the role of food in creating fellowship in our contemporary environment.
Week 5: Where? Can you eat a glatt-kosher, double-wrapped meal while dining with a genocidal dictator? Even if the ingredients are kosher, the pots are kosher and the identity of the preparer is innocuous, some venues are simply too problematic for eating. We will explore a small but fascinating set of texts on the notion of mesibot, celebratory events that abhorred rabbinic sensibilities and think about the application of this category to contemporary social situations.
Week 6: Now This last session will be devoted to putting everything we have learned together with an eye to thoughtful application to the contemporary world. The effects of modern standards of cleanliness and the materials revolution will be explored. A significant period of time will be set aside during this final session for practical questions and broader reflections on what we have learned.
Was the flood a Jewish event? This week's haftorah raises important questions as to the centrality of Judaism in the Torah's worldview and how it influences our reading of Biblical events.
The Binding of Isaac is a tough story for anybody to deal with, but Saadia Gaon's concerns are not the most intuitive. This week, we'll explore Saadia's commentary through the Islamic context in which it was written.
What counts as "Torah commentary?" What is the line between commentary and scholarship? A half-destroyed page from the Cairo Genizah can help answer this question.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg is the President Emeritus of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. JLN’s mission is to create new institutions and initiatives to enrich the inner life (religious, cultural, institutional) of American Jewry. Alongside Michael Steinhardt and his son, JJ Greenberg, zichrono livracha, he played a founders role in the JLN initiated partnerships which include such major projects as birthright israel which gives the gift of a ten day educational first trip to Israel to Jews, 18-26 years old, worldwide, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) which offers seed money and expertise to create new day schools, and MAKOR (now Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y) which reaches out to Jews in their 20's and 30's through cutting edge music, arts and Jewish educational programs. Greenberg also served as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 2000-2002. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of pluralism and on the theology of Jewish-Christian relations.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi, a Harvard Ph.D. and scholar, Rabbi Greenberg has been a seminal thinker in confronting the Holocaust as an historical transforming event and Israel as the Jewish assumption of power and the beginning of a third era in Jewish history. In the book, Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century, Professor Steven T. Katz wrote, “No Jewish thinker has had a greater impact on the American Jewish community in the last two decades than Irving (Yitz) Greenberg.” Rabbi Greenberg has published numerous articles and monographs on Jewish thought and religion, including The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays (1988), a philosophy of Judaism based on an analysis of the Sabbath and holidays, Living in the Image of God: Jewish Teachings to Perfect the World, (1998) and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (2004).
From 1974 through 1997, he served as founding President of CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a pioneering institution in the development of adult and leadership education in the Jewish community and the leading organization in intra-Jewish dialogue and the work of Jewish unity. Before CLAL was founded, he served as Rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, as Associate Professor of History at Yeshiva University, and as founder, chairman and Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York.
The Heart of Judaism: Seven Jewish Ideas to Change Your Life
Rabbi Shai Held
In this series of classes, we will explore seven of the most fundamental Jewish ideas, ideas that have the potential to challenge, deepen, and enrich the ways we live our lives--both as individuals and as a community. Some of the ideas we will be considering include: 1) gratitude for the gift of life and creation as the foundation of the spiritual life; 2) the notion that every human beign is created in the image of God and is therefore infinitely valuable; 3) the mandate to "walk in God's ways" by caring for the vulnerable through acts of hesed (love and kindness); 4) the aspiration to turn our suffering into love by recalling that we were strangers in the Land of Egypt; and 5) the notion of tzimtzum (making space for others) as core to what it means to live in the image of God.
