Ta Shma

Wendy Amsellem (Drisha Institute). Encountering Satan in the Talmud. What are we supposed to make of encountering Satan in the Talmud? What can it teach us today? Recorded live at the Community Beit Midrash Kickoff Event, 2015.

Avi Killip. The Power of Crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a "popular web 2.0 buzzword" following the principle that if two heads are better than one, then surely a million heads are better than two. A close reading of two versions of the same story about Hillel the Elder arrives at two very different models of leadership with applications to the Jewish world of today: do we want leaders that we can trust to make the right decision, or do we want to appoint leaders that trust us? Recorded live at the Community Beit Midrash Kickoff Event, 2015.

Ethan Tucker. The first paragraph of the Amidah includes all three Patriarchs, then ends with an allusion to parashat Lekh Lekha: magein Avraham, shield of Abraham. Today, as has been true many times in the past, our liturgy is under tremendous pressure to change in a variety of areas, and a lot of thought is given to the place of the Matriarchs in this blessing. Is this an acceptable addition according to our sources? What sort of concerns animate the question of liturgical change?

Ethics, Submission, and Serving God. The Binding of Isaac raises many core religious questions: is true service to God achieved through submission? What is God trying to communicate in asking Abraham to sacrifice his son? What is achieved when God cancels that command? Hear this spirited conversation as our three panelists (Erin Leib Smokler, Dov Linzer and Ethan Tucker—from Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and Mechon Hadar respectively) engage in a live collaborative reading of Genesis chapter 22 that aims to probe the depths of this text while grappling with its ongoing relevance for contemporary religious life. Recorded live at the launch of the Community Beit Midrash program in 2013.

Jason Rubenstein. What are traditional ways of talking about Israel? What does the Torah have to say about our possession of the land? Most people imagine only one answer to this question, exemplified by Rashi's first comment on the Torah. But there are other ways, equally rooted in the tradition of the Torah, which we will explore through Rashi's midrashic source and Ramban's response.

Ethan Tucker. As a result of the Tower of Babel, humanity moves from a unified speech to broad linguistic diversity. As Jews adapting to our local environments, we have usually taken on the linguistic forms that surround us in daily speech and writing, but at the same time have also often kept a strong tie to our holy language of Hebrew. Thus the question of what language to use in prayer—the time where sacredness of language seems most pertinent—is not a new question, nor is it a trivial one. Standing behind this question of language are underlying tensions as to what prayer is all about.

Shai Held. What makes God God and not a human being? This class explores the theology of the prophet Hosea through a close-reading of Hosea 11. Recorded live at the Executive Seminar, 2015.

Ethan Tucker. The early chapters of Bereishit are devoted to categorization, etiology and even, perhaps, stereotyping. These divisions create order; they also potentially foster rigidity. Just how fixed are these categories meant to be? Are the male and female types in these early chapters of Bereishit meant to be normative extensions of biological differences between men and women? This is a key narrative question, but it is a much broader legal question. How can (and should) categories in halakhah change over time and place? And in particular, what relevance does this have to the way we think about gender in Jewish law?

Dena Weiss. Sukkot truly earns its status as Chag Simchateinu, the holiday of our joy. The mitzvot associated with it are designed to be attractive, pleasant, and comfortable. These mitzvot should provide us with a template of how to maximize our positive associations with the Torah, and to acknowledge the mutually supportive relationship between aesthetic and moral beauty.

Shai Held. God and the Limits of Language. Deuteronomy 32, “the Song of Moses,” abounds with metaphors for God. In the span of just forty-three verses, God is referred to as a rock, a warrior, an eagle, a father, a mother, a provider, an executioner, and a healer. In subtle but powerful ways, these metaphors point both to God’s uniqueness and to God’s unknowability.