Tashlich: A Rosh Hashanah Tradition myjewishlearning 2026-09-23 | Tashlich: A Rosh Hashanah Tradition
Sounds of the Shofar with Rabbi Menachem Creditor myjewishlearning 2023-09-07 | Join My Jewish Learning and Rabbi Menachem Creditor to explore texts and thoughts about the shofar, the most primal sound in Jewish tradition. What is it about the shofar that touches so deep? And how do the sounds compel us to pay attention?
Virtual Tour of Jewish Barbados myjewishlearning 2023-09-06 | Join My Jewish Learning and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to take a virtual trip to the Caribbean nation of Barbados and discover the small but mighty Jewish community on the island. Your tour guide, Neal Rechtman, will walk you through the Nidhe Israel Synagogue, a UNESCO Heritage Site, which dates from 1654 and is believed to be the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere. You'll hear the story of the original Jews of Barbados, who fled the Spanish Inquisition and established a new community on the island, and learn how the community disappeared, how over time it reestablished itself and the synagogue, and how the community perseveres today.
Reinventing Selichot with Persian Jewish Music myjewishlearning 2023-09-06 | Join musician, composer, and anthropologist Galeet Dardashti for a pre-High Holiday Persian musical program. Galeet will share, sing, and discuss some of the music from her new album, Monajat (a Persian word referring to intimate prayer), which reimagines some of the sacred music of Selichot—poetry chanted nightly preceding the Jewish New Year as spiritual preparation. Monajat (which will release on September 9th) is inspired by old and haunting recordings of the prayers of Selichot chanted by Galeet's late grandfather, Younes Dardashti, a famous master singer of Persian classical music in 1950s/60s Iran. Riffing off these old tapes, Galeet sings with remixed samples of her grandfather and composes a soundscape of original music performed by an acclaimed ensemble of musicians. Galeet will also provide more background on Judeo Persian music traditions and her journey in connecting with them.
Whats So Jewish About Barbie? myjewishlearning 2023-08-21 | Join us to speak to a panel of experts on things Barbie and Jewish, including: Susan Shapiro, author of Barbie: 60 Years of Inspiration, and Jodi Eichler-Levine, author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community, and Tiffany Shlain, director of The Tribe, an exploration of American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie doll.What is Jewish (or not so Jewish) about Barbie? What does renewed interest around Barbie due to the new film mean for Jews, women, and Jewish women? And what Jewish imagery, themes, and touchstones are woven throughout the film? Bring questions of your own for this timely conversation.
Parshat Shoftim myjewishlearning 2023-08-18 | You can view the source sheet here: sefaria.org/sheets/505416?editor=1
Jewish Mysticism in Islamic Persia myjewishlearning 2023-08-16 | Jewish mysticism has often been defined as limited to Spanish Kabbalah and Eastern European Hasidic dynasties, while mysticism in Asia has usually been associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islamic Sufism. This class will look at sources from Persian Jewish history to answer the questions: How did Jews in Persia participate in Sufism before and after the appearance of Kabbalah? Is Sufism a fundamentally Islamic form of mysticism? And what Sufi influences are still tangible in the practices of Persian Jews today? Join Alan Niku and My Jewish Learning to find out.
Torah Study Parshat Reeh myjewishlearning 2023-08-11 | Today's Torah Study was led by Rabbi Daniel Levitt. You can find the source sheet here: docs.google.com/document/d/17Oij38_U15Mci240_Xar7yQm1jqJo1HI7b92sHwR_vI/edit?usp=sharing
Interview with David Adjmi, Author of Lot Six myjewishlearning 2023-08-11 | Author and playwright David Adjmi is renowned for his theatrical projects focusing on peculiar worlds and characters. His 2020 memoir Lot Six is a cadenced account of his own origin story as a young boy in Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish community. Join My Jewish Learning for an author interview discussing Jewish identity, displacement, and wrestling with oneself - with David Adjmi.
Gods Names Session 2 myjewishlearning 2023-08-10 | Many of us who have studied the Torah recognize that there are a variety of names used for God: the tetragrammaton (the four-letter name traditionally not pronounced), Elohim, El, El Shaddai, and more. As we enter into the pre-high holiday season, we will consider the meanings of these names from various perspectives, asking ourselves - what are the contexts in which these names are used? What characteristics of God do they express? Which expressions of God are most meaningful to us, 21st century learners grappling with the Torah’s ancient texts.
Gods Names Session 1 myjewishlearning 2023-08-03 | Many of us who have studied the Torah recognize that there are a variety of names used for God: the tetragrammaton (the four-letter name traditionally not pronounced), Elohim, El, El Shaddai, and more. As we enter into the pre-high holiday season, we will consider the meanings of these names from various perspectives, asking ourselves - what are the contexts in which these names are used? What characteristics of God do they express? Which expressions of God are most meaningful to us, 21st century learners grappling with the Torah’s ancient texts.
Studying Sacred Time: The Jewish Side of Paleontology myjewishlearning 2023-08-02 | Discover the intertwined histories of Judaism and paleontology. Learn about how from the Talmudic period to the modern, Jews around the world have been shaping and contributing to the field of paleontology as we know it today. Discover their stories - and a different kind of Tree of Life - with Jewish paleontologist Meig Dickson and My Jewish Learning.
Parshat Vaetchanan myjewishlearning 2023-07-28 | Torah study from July 28, 2023. You can view the source sheet here: sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.1.4?lang=bi&aliyot=1
Mi Sheberach Moment with Rabbi Shai Held myjewishlearning 2023-07-24 | Mi Sheberach, while traditionally said when a Torah is read, is often known as the Jewish prayer for healing. Today, this comforting prayer is used in moments of challenge, illness and strife.This is a space for anyone looking to dive into Jewish wisdom and pray for healing for yourself, your loved one, your community or our world. Led by a rotation of rabbis and Jewish educators, Mi Sheberach Moment includes a short Jewish teaching, followed by a communal recitation of Mi Sheberach. This session was led by Rabbi Shai Held on July 24, 2023.You can sign up to receive reminders for Mi Sheberach Moment from My Jewish Learning here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-y7h2Ninrgz0uyRdp-yLtHYWRqqAWg6bSCrf2GbW7RYa74g/viewform
Mourning Practices in the Month of Av myjewishlearning 2023-07-19 | Judaism has a wealth of customs and commandments for when a relative or community member passes away, but there are also particular practices that are associated with mourning the destruction of the Temple, like restricting meat consumption, listening to music and more for the first nine days in the Month of Av.Join Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter to learn more about these customs and their origins, and gain insights on what the rabbis were hoping to have us feel during this part of the Jewish calendar.
Celebrate Completing the Fourth Book of the Torah myjewishlearning 2023-07-19 | Join My Jewish Learning to celebrate the end of Bamidbar (Numbers), the fourth book in our Torah Cycle.My Jewish Learning's editor Rachel Scheinerman and our group of expert panelists will take a look back at the major events and characters in Bamidbar. Together, we will explore the themes of this book of Torah and how it sets us up for what is to come. Panelists: Rabbi Elliot Goldberg is an executive coach and consultant, working with educational institutions to develop leadership, refine curriculum and improve instruction. He has more than two decades of experience in Jewish Day schools and Ramah Camps. He is a regular contributor to My Jewish Learning’s A Daily Dose of Talmud.Dr. Ethan Schwartz is an assistant professor of Hebrew Bible at Villanova University. He studies the Hebrew Bible in both the ancient Near Eastern setting in which it emerged and the Second Temple setting in which it became Jewish and Christian scripture. His research focuses on the prophetic literature, with interests in the representation of prophetic authority and social critique, the comparative study of biblical and ancient Near Eastern prophecy, the redaction of the prophetic corpus, and the reception of the prophetic literature in Judaism and Christianity. Other areas of research include the Pentateuch, the literature of Qumran, the ancient Jewish context of the New Testament, and the intellectual history of academic biblical studies.
Maimonides: History, Philosophy, Legacy myjewishlearning 2023-06-22 | Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed is a treasure of Jewish and world philosophy. Written in Arabic in the late 12th century, the work tackles questions very much alive today: How are we to understand the ideas of creation and revelation, the suffering of innocents, the nature of providence? How can we know God, and how can a transcendent God know us, care about us, and care for us? These are among the issues Lenn Goodman will address. Himself an active contributor to Jewish philosophy, Goodman has spent decades studying the Guide and finds that he continues to learn from its insights every day. The new translation and philosophical commentary prepared collaboratively by Goodman and his colleague Phillip Lieberman, will appear from Stanford University Press early in 2024, along with Goodman’s companion volume, A Guide to Maimonides’ Guide.
Judaism for a Changing World with Rabbi Andy Kahn myjewishlearning 2023-06-21 | Join Rabbi Andrue Kahn and My Jewish Learning to explore the wisdom in his new book, The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on Our Planet. As climate anxieties mount for individuals around the world, how can Jewish spirituality teach us about both the ethics of land stewardship and strategies we can use to stay level headed in a rapidly shifting world?
Maimonides: History, Philosophy, Legacy Part 2/3 myjewishlearning 2023-06-16 | Moses Maimonides is known not only for having been a great jurist and communal leader, but also as a philosopher of the first order. His philosophical magnum opus, The Guide to the Perplexed, captured the imagination of his medieval successors throughout the Mediterranean as well as in Christian Europe, and it continues to excite audiences today. In this talk, Phillip L. Lieberman will explain Maimonides' goal of connecting the Bible to a number of key philosophical premises. Lieberman will make particular reference to how Maimonides' interests lay in explaining the Bible, even where the late antique and medieval rabbis develop Judaism in ways that might not seem anticipated by the Bible itself.
Encountering Gender at Creation myjewishlearning 2023-06-13 | Join My Jewish Learning and Lexi Kohanski for a text study examining the ways we encounter gender in the creation story. This session will offer framing about how to approach parts of the Torah that seem to contradict our own understanding of gender. We will look at several solutions, offered from Maimonides to modern thinkers, to these apparent contradictions. Lexi Kohanski is the Director of Online Learning at the Torah Studio. She has studied Torah at the Conservative Yeshiva, Pardes, and Yeshivat Hadar. Her essay Be Whole: A Halakhic Approach to Gender and Transition has been published as part of SVARA’s Trans Halakha Project. In her work as a queer, white Ashkenazi, trans female Jewish educator, Lexi focuses on empowering those of us who have not felt at home in Judaism to own our texts and traditional lifeways.
Parshat Behaalotcha myjewishlearning 2023-06-09 | You can view the source sheet here: sefaria.org/sheets/494032?lang=bi
Maimonides: History, Philosophy, Legacy myjewishlearning 2023-06-08 | Part 1/3 of our interview-style series on the life of Jewish philosopher Maimonides.
