Jewniversity

This week we take a semi-serious and semi-comprehensive approach to Shabbat observance through the lens of Halakhah and rabbinic innovation, exploring the 39 Melakhot (categories of labour), and the rabbinic concepts of Shevut (rest), Muktseh (weekday/Shabbat objects), and Oneg Shabbat (restful pleasure).

A fresh look at the Jewish notions of time on every scale of being – considering the basis of Shabbat not just as a function of recalling an ongoing and ever-dynamic Creation, but also as a representation of cosmological cycles and calendrical values. Shabbat, it turns out, is an awful lot more than just the 'day of rest.'

In this follow-up to last week's survey of Genesis, we look at the Book of Exodus and the significance of the model of covenant found therein.

Our third session of Jewniversity takes us into the Torah itself as we attempt (in an hour) to sum up the key characters and plots of the book of Genesis (Beréshit) and the idea of Berit (Covenant) found therein.

Click here for a PDF of the theodicy rubric we discussed  Click here an image of the TheolOmega model we drew on the board

In our first lecture we try and define what 'Judaism' even is. Is there such a thing as Judaism? What makes someone Jewish? Are we a people, a race, a culture, a religion, an ethnicity? Before we can do much else we've got to start by looking at what Judaism(s) is.