Program
- Education Series
- Streaming
Terms of Service: An Exploration of Covenant and Jewish Collectivity
Join the ACJ and Shel Maala for a three work journey through the creation and development of the concept of brit, covenant, throughout Jewish history. We will explore its roots in the ancient Near East, its usage throughout Biblical and Rabbinic texts, and its usages, for good and for ill, in today's world.
All classes via Zoom, December 22nd, 29th, and January 5th from 6:30-8pm Eastern
If Jews had to describe our relationship to God back in the Facebook era, we would've chosen: "It's complicated." Are we meant to be unquestioningly subservient? Or is it in our nature to be bratty and rebellious? In this class, we'll explore an alternative understanding that lies between these two poles: 'The Covenant.' As a way to understand our sense of obligation to the Holy One and our expectations from Her, our 'covenant' has been a unique, powerful and fraught lens for millenia. Touching on themes from chosenness, to peoplehood, to the very place of Jews and humans writ-large in the universe, we'll explore what 'covenant' has meant from the Torah to now, and what it can offer us (beyond nationalism or superiority) as we chart our future in these desolate times.
Related Programming
- 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.
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- Education Series
The Past, Present, and Future of Queer Torah: Between Sunlight and Shade With Rabbi Avigayil Halpern
This class takes its name from the Rabbinic sage Rabbi Yochanan, who is often read as queer – his beauty is described as that of a silver goblet filled with pomegranate seeds and crowned with roses, set between sun and shade. It is in the beauty of that middle space that queer Torah emerges. In this series, we will examine texts and narratives from ancient to modern to ask: Is there such a thing as a canon of queer Torah? What qualifies Torah as “queer?” And what are the stakes of these questions for us as we approach an uncertain future?
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- Education Series
- Streaming
Tanakh Beyond Nationalism
The Hebrew Bible is one of the most argued-over texts in human history, and today is used to propagate some of the most pernicious agendas in the world. Rather than reading the Tanakh as a single voice delivering a settled message, this class will treat it as an ongoing conversation in which the terms of the covenant are renegotiated in every generation. Each session centers a pivotal moment where that relationship is updated, and notices that these stories always come with competing accounts of the moment, what the covenant was before, and competing visions of what it should become.
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