Jewish Ideas to Change the World

ABOUT THE EVENT: How does the Talmud understand the phrase “Tikkun Olam” and how that informs our own social justice work. In essence, it tries to move us from using that term as a “catch-all” to having a sophisticated understanding of it that helps guide us ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Devin Maimon Villarreal has worked in Jewish education for over ten years as a classroom teacher in both orthodox an...

ABOUT THE EVENT: Professor Ross will discuss the virtues and limitations of employing allegory as a method of reconciling religious truth claims with science, as evidenced in Maimonides’ defense of creation ex nihilo in his Guide to the Perplexed. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Professor Tamar Ross is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Jewish philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She continues to teach at M...

ABOUT THE EVENT: A class on the relevance of Shmita (meaning, letting go periodically of a GOOD practice) to Jewish morals (as distinguished from teshuva which is letting go of sinful practice. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Jerusalem-born rabbi Leah Shakdiel is a proud iconoclast. More than 30 years ago, the Orthodox feminist appealed, successfully, to the Supreme Court of Israel for the right to sit on the...

Enjoy the sixteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: A Purpose to Life vs. No Meaning to Life? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 m...

This episode is sponsored by the Hammerman Family. ABOUT THE EVENT: Building Beloved Community For generations, we have carried the Torah’s audacious dream of a society redeemed, a world imbued with justice and shared responsibility. To manifest that dream, we must start with the realization that every person is created in God’s own image, deserving of love and dignity.  ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi S...

Enjoy the fifteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Is Judaism Situated in the Past or Future? In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30...

ABOUT THE EVENT: Join Rabbi Avi Orlow for a zoom class about the Messianic Idea. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Avi Orlow is the Vice President at the Foundation for Jewish Camp. He has a deep love of irreverent, relevant, revealing Torah. Before joining Foundation for Jewish Camp in 2008, Avi was the Campus Rabbi and Assistant Director of the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University and has held numer...

ABOUT THE EVENT: How is body liberation as Jewish issue? In this session, we will learn about the Jewish roots, as well as the Jewish future, of the body liberation movement. We will explore both the history and the current state of fat activism and body positivity, and look at how Jewish communities and Jewish values have an important role to play in this. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Founder and president...

Enjoy the fourteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Divine Torah vs. Biblical Criticism In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minute...

Enjoy the thirteenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Local vs. Global In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the rema...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Liturgy is a kind of sacred poetry, using metaphors and imagery that spoke to our ancestors. What happens when we pair our liturgy with more contemporary poetry? How does poetry help us better understand the yearnings, pain, joy, and questions expressed in our liturgy? And how does it offer us new insights and ways to grapple with the big questions, with doubt, and with our aspir...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: The Jews’ Indian investigates the history of American Jewish relationships with Native Americans, both in the realm of cultural imagination and in face-to-face encounters. These two groups’ exchanges were numerous and diverse, proving at times harmonious when Jews’ and Natives people’s economic and social interests aligned, but discordant and fraught at other times. American Jews...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Through classic Jewish sources and contemporary issues we will delve into the essential practice of social justice in Jewish life. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Rabbi Rick Jacobs is president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the most powerful force in North American Jewish life. The URJ leads the largest and most diverse Jewish movement in North America, reaching more than 1.5 million peopl...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: The meaning of our words is under assault. Can we trust one another, and the language that connects and divides us, to direct us toward truth? Together, we will look at an achingly beautiful passage from Rabbi Isaac Hutner, one of the 20th century’s most creative and inspirational thinkers, who inscribes these questions which are at the heart of today’s political and civil turmoi...

Enjoy the twelfth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: The Grah vs The Besht In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the re...

Enjoy the eleventh session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Truth vs. Compromise In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the re...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Let’s forget everything we’ve been told about what it means to be Jewish and delve into the four books which forever made, and changed Jewish history; The Bible – where our story begins; The Talmud – when we are told to question everything; The Guide for the Perplexed – the book which told to be rational, & The Zohar – the book which revealed God’s secret. In this class we wi...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: The summer months typically supply a significant portion of Arizona’s annual rainfall, but in recent years have been bone dry. As Monsoon season arrives, it’s tempting to pray for rain. But can we do so as Jews? And if we did, what would it look like? Join Dr. Daniel Stein Kokin as he presents his “Tefillat ha-Monsoon,” and explores the halakhic, literary, and identity issues rai...

Enjoy the tenth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: The Angels vs. God In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the remaini...

ABOUT THIS EVENT: A deep dive into the book and the man: Kohelet. Learn how this poet’s chapbook serves as a vehicle for a life review of the author and provides direction for our own lives–and how this perspective, wow consistent with the internal workings of the book challenges scholarly and traditional notions of authorship and intent. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Kerry Olitzky is the former long time ex...

ABOUT THIS CLASS: Mitzvot are oftentimes understood as outward-facing actions, but doing the internal work to develop one’s middot, or character traits, is equally a mitzvah we are called to fulfill. The Torah, both in law and narrative, has much to teach us about cultivating a healthy personality of Humility, Patience, Gratitude, Order, and more. In this series – inspired by the works of Rabbi Da...

Enjoy the ninth session of Valley Beit Midrash's "The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!" series. (1 per week for 40 weeks). Topic: Ayn Rand vs. Karl Marx In this class, we will explore the 40 greatest debates in Jewish history. We will study texts, reflect on the historical contexts, and discuss the values involved. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz will present for about 20-30 minutes and then the rem...

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Natan Sharansky was born in Donetsk, Ukraine. He was a spokesman for the human rights movement, a Prisoner of Zion and leader in the struggle for the right of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. Subsequent to his request to make aliya, Mr. Sharansky was arrested on trumped up charges of treason and espionage. He was convicted in a Soviet court and served nine years in the Gulag...

ABOUT THIS CLASS: During this pandemic, our sense of time and our daily routines have changed significantly. Have you ever wondered what God has been doing all day? In this class, we’ll explore a number of rabbinic stories that imagine God’s daily schedule and nightlife. These narratives are playful and quirky but beneath the whimsical surface they address profound theological questions about how...

ABOUT THIS CLASS: Mitzvot are oftentimes understood as outward-facing actions, but doing the internal work to develop one’s middot, or character traits, is equally a mitzvah we are called to fulfill. The Torah, both in law and narrative, has much to teach us about cultivating a healthy personality of Humility, Patience, Gratitude, Order, and more. In this series – inspired by the works of Rabbi Da...