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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. Note about pricing: As a nonprofit, we rely on…
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 »Palo Alto 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 »Beyond the Torah | Isaiah: Politics, Prophecy, and Comfort
This Fall, we continue our study of the prophet Isaiah and his book. Israel’s prophets were rarely aloof from participating in the political decisions of their usually tumultuous times. Isaiah had become a key advisor to the King of Judah, and he argued on the basis of realpolitiks as well as his prophetic certainty that Israel’s faithful Deity would always protect Zion. Ultimately, his position was vindicated after a protracted Assyrian invasion and siege, and miraculous Divine intervention. The Book…
Find out more »October 2020
Greatest Hits: Ethics of the Fathers and Mothers – Fall 2020
AVOT ("parents/ancestors," or "fathers") is a book within the Talmud with sayings from the first generations of rabbis. It is the most popular and oft-quoted rabbinic writing. Its practical proverbs in uncomplicated language made it user-friendly to many more people than scholars. Rabbi Cartun's illustrated translation and commentary is called Family Stories: Pirkey Avot v'Immahot. Having used Pirkey Avot in teaching the students and parents of bar/t mitzvah families, for many years, he noticed that available translations were too stilted…
Find out more »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. Note about pricing: As a nonprofit, we rely on tuition to help cover…
Find out more »In Words and Videos, the Essential Teachings of Rav Adin Steinsaltz – Fall 2020
Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz, whose translation and commentary of the Babylonian Talmud made this foundational Jewish text accessible to new generations, died where he was born, in Jerusalem, August 7, 2020, at the age of 83. Rabbi Steinsaltz is known to Jews around the world as a teacher, philosopher, social commentator, and spiritual mentor. He was an iconoclast, an originalist, funny, and mischievous. He was born into a secular Hashomer Ha-Tza'ir household and at 14 began a path to…
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
Heroes with Mishegas (Issues): Biblical Characters and Their Complex – Fall 2020
True heroes are hard to come by in today’s morally complex world. We turn to the ancient texts of our People to find heroes we can emulate, role models we can look up to. As it turns out, when we read our texts closely, many of our most beloved forebearers are complex, flawed -- in other words, they have serious mishegas. How can we understand our Biblical “heroes’” inner worlds in a way that can shed light on our own…
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