Around the Calendar with Drisha

David Silber shares his thoughts on the Passover haggadah.

Through an examination of the Yom Kippur prayer service, we will uncover major themes of the holiday.

To what extent is it possible to become a new person? Is that what teshuva demands? What does the concept of repentance have to teach us about what and who we really are?

Do we believe that God is in time, or does He somehow stand outside of time? How is this question relevant to Rosh Hashana? Together we will think through some of these philosophical issues, and use them to interpret a puzzling Talmudic debate as to what we have to repent for each year.

Through an examination of the Rosh Hashana prayer service, we will uncover major themes of the holiday.

The banishment of Ishmael and the Binding of Isaac - read on the first and second days of Rosh Hashana respectively - are often seen as companion stories of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own children for God. But what of the mothers in these stories, Sarah and Hagar?  We will examine the two characters, their differences as well as uncanny similarities, in order to understand the root of...

A Rosh Hashana paradox: The longer we live the more we understand our lives as a story and a journey. We all have our developing life narratives. But our stories and journeys are complex and complicated. Ironically, the best of who we are today sometimes derives in part from some of the most serious faults and misdeeds of our yesterday. Making mistakes, both moral and religious, seems necessary fo...

Through an examination of the Rosh Hashana prayer service, we will uncover major themes of the holiday.

An evening of Learning and Song facilitated by Rabbi Rolando Matalon and Drisha Faculty. Instrumentals by Dan Nadel and Tali Rubinstein.

David Silber shares his insights on Passover.

We will will review the four mitzvot of Purim - megillah, mishloach manot, matanot le-evyonim (gifts to the poor), and the festive meal, as well as various folk practices that accrued to the holiday overtime (including dressing up, "Purim Torah," and many others). In addition to outlining the basics of the laws, we will attempt to understand what basic themes and values run through the various law...

We will will review the four mitzvot of Purim - megillah, mishloach manot, matanot le-evyonim (gifts to the poor), and the festive meal, as well as various folk practices that accrued to the holiday overtime (including dressing up, "Purim Torah," and many others). In addition to outlining the basics of the laws, we will attempt to understand what basic themes and values run through the various law...

We will will review the four mitzvot of Purim - megillah, mishloach manot, matanot le-evyonim (gifts to the poor), and the festive meal, as well as various folk practices that accrued to the holiday overtime (including dressing up, "Purim Torah," and many others). In addition to outlining the basics of the laws, we will attempt to understand what basic themes and values run through the various law...

As Channukah is a rabbinic holiday, it becomes in Chassidut a metaphor for the power and potential of oral law. By lighting Channukah candles, we become exposed not only to the unrevealed part of Torah but to unrevealed realms of our own lives and surroundings. How can Channukah be understood as a celebration of potential not yet actualized and dreams not yet made real?

Channukah is the only holiday that must be observed at home. What makes a space into a home? We will explore how the halakhic definitions of home (is it where you sleep? where you pay rent?) open into a discussion in Chassidut of what it means to be at home. We will learn, based on kabbalistic and Chassidic sources, how these definitions shed a light into the essence of Channukah.

High holiday services often seem dominated by intricate, often difficult to understand, liturgical poetry (piyyutim). We explore various piyyutim, uncovering layers of biblical and midrashic allusions.

What is the connection between the restrictions of Yom Kippur and repentance? How do they help us achieve atonement?

We will look at a variety of biblical and rabbinic texts relating to the act of confession and the role of repentance.

We often relate to our religious life on a technical level: Do / Don’t; Develop / Don’t develop particular feelings. In turn our perception of teshuva is grounded in this kind of understanding. Some Hassidic texts suggest that the challenge of religious life should be conceived on a different scale.