Class description

Fear Can Be Good (including Inside Out and The New Batman Adventures)

But It’s Usually Bad

Pachad vs. Yirah

Don’t Make Yourself Afraid

The Appeal of Horror (including Stephen King)

Overcoming Fear with Laughter (including Boggarts)

Face Your Fears! (including Divergent, Dune, and Defending Your Life)

Fictional Fantasies (including High School Musical)

Class description

A Time for Everything: “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

We’re Like Dust: “Dust in the Wind”

The Sun Stays the Same: “Time”

Have Fun, But There’s a Price to Pay: “Somewhere Along the Line”

The Bottom Line is to Fear God: “Meaningless”

Everything is Fleeting: “Leaves That Are Green”

Appreciate the Time You Have With Your Loved Ones: “Do You Realize??”

Class description

What’s Worse Than Being in Galut? Getting Used to It

Antisemitism and Bambi the Book

Intermarriage and Fiddler on the Roof

Assimilation is Like Being a Fish Out of Water

Assimilation and The Little Mermaid Giving Up Her Voice

The Four Children and Four Generations in America

Class description

The Yetzer is Necessary: A Star Trek Episode

A Special Drug Can Amplify the Yetzer: Dr. Jekyll and Captain America

The Yetzer Hara is on the Side of Good: Willy Wonka and the Zohar

The Psychology of the Yetzer Hara: The Screwtape Letters

Appendix:

Class description

What If Mashiach Were Right Here?

God’s Multiple Images

A Voice Customized to You

Anthropomorphism is Necessary

Visual Representation of God, Though, Is Never Allowed

We Can Still Learn Much From Portrayals of God:

Grappling With How to Portray God

A Form Customized to You

Bruce Almighty

Oh, God!

Class description

Darth Vader: The Greatest Villain Ever to Do Teshuvah

Nineveh = The Empire

Ebenezer Scrooge: The Most Famous Jerk-to-Nice-Guy

Phil Connors: Stuck in Groundhog Day Until He Changes

Class description

The Middah of Sticking to It

Schulz’s Monumental Achievement

The Football Joke and the Middah of Naivete

Unrequited Love

It’s Dark and Bleak

Survival: Jewish Strategies

Survival: Peanuts Strategies

Charlie Brown

Snoopy

The Cartoonist and the Rabbi

Class description

A Torah Approach to Female Beauty

Barbie’s Materialism

The Body Image Problem

Is Barbie Part of The Problem? Yes

Why Does Barbie Look Like That, Anyway?

Is Barbie Part of The Problem? No

This Doll Was Innovative: A Woman, Not a Baby

A Woman’s Independence According to Halakhah

A Woman’s Independence According to Handler

Class description

Some Good Middot and Lessons in the Series