See courses in catalog view
View Cart/Checkout >>
September 2020
Zohar in Aramaic – Fall 2020
In this course, we will read and discuss the Zohar’s commentary on the Torah portion Yitro, which features the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. We will study the Zohar in the original Aramaic alongside a Hebrew translation and Daniel Matt’s annotated English translation (The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume 4). The Aramaic and Hebrew text will be provided; students are expected to obtain a copy of the English translation.
Find out more »Marin Talmud Circle – Fall 2020
We began our study of Ta’anit in a time of drought and have continued through our current pandemic. This tractate begins with the practices and themes of fast days, covering both communal fasts and private and individual fasts. The fasts were often responses to drought and pestilence. It has been an astonishingly relevant study. This narrative section of the Talmud, in the words of Julia Watts Belser, “overturns expected hierarchies of gender, piety, and social status to challenge the theological…
Find out more »Berkeley Talmud Circle – Fall 2020
We began our study of Ta’anit in a time of drought and have continued through our current pandemic. This tractate begins with the practices and themes of fast days, covering both communal fasts and private and individual fasts. The fasts were often responses to drought and pestilence. It has been an astonishingly relevant study. This narrative section of the Talmud, in the words of Julia Watts Belser, “overturns expected hierarchies of gender, piety, and social status to challenge the theological…
Find out more »San Francisco / Santa Rosa Talmud Circle – Fall 2020
We began our study of Ta’anit in a time of drought and have continued through our current pandemic. This tractate begins with the practices and themes of fast days, covering both communal fasts and private and individual fasts. The fasts were often responses to drought and pestilence. It has been an astonishingly relevant study. This narrative section of the Talmud, in the words of Julia Watts Belser, “overturns expected hierarchies of gender, piety, and social status to challenge the theological…
Find out more »Lunchtime Talmud – Fall 2020
We began our study of Ta’anit in a time of drought and have continued through our current pandemic. This tractate begins with the practices and themes of fast days, covering both communal fasts and private and individual fasts. The fasts were often responses to drought and pestilence. It has been an astonishingly relevant study. This narrative section of the Talmud, in the words of Julia Watts Belser, “overturns expected hierarchies of gender, piety, and social status to challenge the theological…
Find out more »Zohar Circle – Berkeley – Fall 2020
Fantasies of Companionship and Connection: Zohar Leviticus, Pritzker Vol. VII During these months of isolation, the Zohar’s legends of devotional community and friendship offer us a poignant model of what we miss. The Zohar’s spirituality is thoroughly social; to connect to the divine begins by connecting to one’s friends and teachers. Together on-line, we will try to live this world-view and create a circle of learning and community. This year we will study the Zohar on Leviticus (Pritzker Edition, Vol.…
Find out more »October 2020
Introduction to the Jewish Experience – Fall 2020
We will explore the history of the Jewish People and their relationship to the Land of Israel through Jewish sacred texts. From Biblical history through rabbinic texts and modern responsa, we will explore the past and look at how that past shapes the present and carries us into the future. We will also explore the ways in which Jews do text study. No Hebrew is required.
Find out more »Zohar Circle – Peninsula – Fall 2020
The Zohar is the great compendium of Jewish mysticism, myth and esoteric teaching, and is considered one of the most important religious texts of all time. The Zohar is a challenge to the normal workings of consciousness that dares us to examine our assumptions about tradition, God, and self. To experience the Zohar’s spiritual mysteries, you must engage the text and follow the words to what lies beyond and within. To receive its meaning, open the gates of imagination. This…
Find out more »November 2020
Sephardic Sages Bringing Peace to the World – Fall 2020
Sephardic sages and the Jews of Islamic lands had an open and fruitful encounter with the challenges of modernity. This course will explore this moderate, inclusive perspective through Sephardic sources, old and new. We will explore ideas of justice, morality, and peace and will ask the question that these sages ask themselves: How do we bring peace to the world?
Find out more »
