Around the Calendar with Drisha

This series with Rabbi David Silber delves into the core motifs and themes in the liturgy of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Two sessions are devoted to the core texts of Rosh Hashana - Malchiyot, Zichronot and Shofarot - and two sessions will focus on the Kol Nidre service and the confessions of Yom Kippur.

Handout: https://drisha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Handout_Bronstein_Emotions-of-Teshuva_Part2.pdf In addition to delineating the technical process of repentance, Jewish literature has also explored the emotions that are supposed to accompany this process. In this class we will trace The Emotions of Repentance from the medieval authorities (Rambam and Rabbeinu Yonah) through the great twentiet...

This 4-part series with Rabbi David Silber delves into the core motifs and themes in the liturgy of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Two sessions are devoted to the core texts of Rosh Hashana - Malchiyot, Zichronot and Shofarot - and two sessions will focus on the Kol Nidre service and the confessions of Yom Kippur.

Handout: https://drisha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Drisha-Elul-5780-The-Emotions-of-Teshuva-1.pdf In addition to delineating the technical process of repentance, Jewish literature has also explored the emotions that are supposed to accompany this process. In this class we will trace The Emotions of Repentance from the medieval authorities (Rambam and Rabbeinu Yonah) through the great twentieth...

The book of Eichah is saturated with metaphors that serve to capture a range of emotions in the wake of the destruction. The rabbis of the Midrash also draw on metaphor to grapple with the impact of loss, drastic change, guilt and anger. In this class, we will immerse ourselves in these metaphors, and consider the power and failings of using metaphor to navigate suffering. 

“From the day the Temple was destroyed…” – with this phrase, Jewish tradition repeatedly insists that the Temple’s destruction irreparably damaged the cosmos, even the divine itself. We commemorate Tisha B’Av with many of the customs of mourning in our personal lives. Why can we not ever complete this mourning? Do we ever complete mourning in our personal lives? We will study some texts from the k...

Jewish tradition has often mourned the destruction of the Temple by tying loss to collective transgression, evoked most poignantly through the liturgy’s lament mipnei hatatenu, “on account of our sins.”  But the Babylonian Talmud’s longest and most reflection on the destruction puts little emphasis on communal wrongdoing, and indict instead the brutality of state violence and Roman conquest.  In t...

A discussion of selected kinot (dirges) from the Tisha B'Av liturgy.  Led by Rabbi Daniel Reifman and Rabbanit Aliza Sperling, this will be a chance to look closely at the themes of mourning and destruction central to Tisha B'Av and to connect them to our contemporary lives

A key tenet of Jewish faith, and the main theme of Shavuot (the festival of weeks), is the belief that there was a Divine revelation at Sinai. This 2-part course explores various interpretations of that event, and various theories of Jewish revelation in general. In part 1, we'll explore a much neglected puzzle regarding the revelation of the Torah. Our texts will span the ages from Philo through...

A key tenet of Jewish faith, and the main theme of Shavuot (the festival of weeks), is the belief that there was a Divine revelation at Sinai. This 2 part class explores various interpretations of that event, and various theories of Jewish revelation in general.   In part 1, we explore a much neglected puzzle regarding the revelation of the Torah. Our texts will span the ages from Philo through th...

Part 3 of this 3 part series will focus on Boaz, one of the main characters of the book and will involve a close reading of the megillah and several of its intertexts.

Part 2 of this 3 part series will focus on Naomi, one of the main characters of the book and will involve a close reading of the megillah and several of its intertexts.

Part 1 of this 3 part series will focus on Ruth, one of the main characters of the book and will involve a close reading of the megilla and several of its intertexts.

The period of Sefirat ha-omer between Pesach and Shavuot is associated in rabbinic lore with Rabbi Akiva, and specifically the death of his students in a plague.  We will study aggadot about the the master teacher Rabbi Akiva himself - his humble beginnings, his family, his intellectual and emotional power, and his tragic end.