TALKING TORAH - WITH HARVARD STUDENTS AND FACULTY
Begins October 12
Creation, Environment, Migration, Family, Love and Relationships, Legacy, Self-Concept, Sacred Struggle, Rivalry, Dreams, Government, Blessing...Each week our Torah gives us concepts and stories that are, on the one hand, ancient and perhaps archaic, but, on the other hand, iconic, emblematic, and still central not only to our religion and to the story of our people but also to the experience and journey of being human. Each week, through our cycle of Torah-readings, we will explore these ideas and narratives, with teachings from our tradition, with Harvard faculty, and with you.
SOVEREIGNTY, SHOFAR, AND SOUL-SEARCHING – THE PRAYER-PRACTICES OF THE HIGH HOLIDAYS
Date and time TBD
What are we praying for at this season, and how does one pray? Is prayer a matter of petitioning in submission, or perhaps of taking charge? Do ancient ideas like monarchy and sacrifice inevitably distance us from the prayer-words we have inherited, or can they be keys to a closer and more active relationship with our sacred inheritance in our own lives and times? Do we just read the words when we pray? What more can we do and experience?
Contact jonah@hillel.harvard.edu
WEEKLY PARSHA WITH RAV DANI
Meeting time TBD
In this class, we discuss the week's Torah portion, drawing from ancient to contemporary commentaries and everyhting in between. Class assumes a general familiarity with the Torah text.
For more info contact dani@hillel.harvard.edu
MODERN RESPONSA WITH RAV DANI
Meeting time TBD
Each week, join your friends for lively learning and engaging discussion on a different responsa addressing a wide variety of topics that pertain to the observance of halakha in the modern world. Working knowledge of halakhic conepts and basic familiarity with modern Hebrew strongly recommended.
For more info contact dani@hillel.harvard.edu
ON ONE FOOT: LEARNING TOGETHER FOR EVERYONE
Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. EST
Starting September 14th (skipping September 28th)
A weekly introduction to Jewish topics taught by an amazing line up of Harvard faculty, rabbis, and scholars. Each week, we gather for an hour to be introduced to a topic, dive deeply into a text or artifact, and then have a period for questions and discussion. Open to all Harvard affiliates regardless of Jewish background or Hebrew experience. Folks are welcome to drop into specific sessions that they are interested in, or tune in regularly to become a part of the learning community.
For more information, contact getzel@hillel.harvard.edu
SCM Sunday Book Club
Alternate Sundays in September
Interested? Fill out this form.
The Student Conservative Minyan (SCM) will be hosting a book club this semester as a means of maintaining togetherness while apart on Shabbat and engaging with Jewish thought remotely. We will send out books to participants to read over Shabbat and then meet to discuss them every other week on Sunday afternoons. The book club is open to everyone at Harvard Hillel, regardless of minyan affiliation, and freshmen are particularly encouraged to join us!
Our first book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, is a detective novel set in an alternate history in which Europe's Jews relocate to Sitka, Alaska in the wake of the Holocaust and the 1948 collapse of the state of Israel. We will read the novel over the course of the month of September. You can find a more detailed description of it here.
THEODICY AND THEOLOGY: G-D, JUSTICE, AND HUMANITY
*For Gap Year Students*
Co-taught and crafted by Alex Bernat ‘25
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Week 1: Creation and dignity (Genesis 1-2, “Sacred Image of Man”, Self-Reliance, Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)
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Week 2: Faith and the unknowable (“Faith”, “Cosmic Theology and Earthly Religion”)
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Week 3: Pursuing G-d individually and communally (Lonely Man of Faith and The Fall)
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Week 4: Suffering and retribution (Job and Hamlet)
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Week 5: Divine ethics (Eicha, Sodom v’Ammorah)
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Weeks 6-7: An absent G-d?: Post-Holocaust Theology
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Week 8: The ethic of non-indifference, Tzedakah, and human interpretations of justice (Ethic of non-indifference, Niebuhr on justice (civil law and natural law), letter from a Birmingham jail)
Contact Alex Bernat or Jaime@hillel.harvard.edu
1:1 LEARNING
Reach out to any Harvard Hillel staff to set up some 1:1 learning on a topic of your choice!
Avital avital@hillel.harvard.edu
Jaime jaime@hillel.harvard.edu
Mikhael mikhael@hillel.harvard.edu
Rabbi Jonah jonah@hillel.harvard.edu
Rabbi Dani dani@hillel.harvard.edu
Rabbi Getzel getzel@hillel.harvard.edu
Rabbi Jenn jenn@hillel.harvard.edu
So many great people! How to choose? Check out the videos on our staff page.