Program
- Education Series
Parshanut: An Intro to Jewish Commentary
Parshanut: An Intro to Jewish Commentary
Wednesdays at 6:00-7:30 PM EST October 21st - November 25th
This six session class will introduce students to the world of Jewish Torah commentary, known as parshanut. We'll study the weekly Torah portion with some of the most foundational commentators, exploring the approaches of these medieval and early modern rabbis to interpreting Tanakh.
This class will introduce students to the world of Jewish Torah commentary, known as parshanut. We'll study the weekly Torah portion with some of the most foundational commentators, exploring the approaches of these medieval and early modern rabbis to interpreting Tanakh. The course will explore questions such as: What do we mean when we say "pshat"? Do we assume omnisignificance--total intentionality--in the Torah text? What are our goals when elucidating Torah? And what's bothering Rashi? By learning the approaches and assumptions these traditional exegetes bring to Jewish text, students will have the opportunity to compare and explore their own processes of meaning-making, and deepen their familiarity with our tradition's rich multivocality.
Rabbi Lexie Botzum is a Torah teacher and organizer based in Washington Heights. She spent five years doing solidarity work in Israel/Palestine, and devotes her time to teaching Talmud, Halakha, and Parshanut; she's passionate about exploring how halakha functions as a world-building tool, and how the multivocality of our texts can combat totalizing narratives of Jewish identity and meaning.
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