Shavu-aton Brochure

TIKKUN-SESSION ALEF - Saturday 7:45-8:45 pm

A. מתן תורה כתהליך מתמשך לפי המקור הכהני שבתורה             PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SOMMER
The Giving of the Torah as an ongoing process according to the Priestly Source in Torah. Taught in Hebrew (slowly and  clearly!), this session is not only intended for Israelis but for Americans who want to practice their Hebrew.

B. Jewish Sources on Abortion       DR. MICHAL RAUCHER
For the last 50 years, Jewish institutions that have supported greater abortion access have relied upon a canon of biblical and rabbinic sources. These texts ultimately support a justification framework that assumes that abortion is generally prohibited but permitted in certain circumstances. In this session we will look at some of those canonical sources and then move beyond justification to justice. We will examine abortion narratives of Jewish women who have terminated pregnancies and consider how these texts offer an important correction to the canon of Jewish sources on abortion.

TIKKUN-SESSION BET - Saturday 9:30-10:30 p.m.

C. Should Impossible Pork Be Kosher   RABBI JOEL PITKOWSKY
In this era of advanced food science almost anything is possible. But just because something is possible doesn't mean it is a good idea. What happens when food science runs into a cultural taboo that is thousands of years old? Explore these issues by delving into the question of whether or not Impossible Pork should be Kosher.

D.  Alongside Justice There Is Wickedness: The Origins of the Campaign for Holocaust Memory              
      PROFESSOR DENNIS KLEIN
What explains the outpouring of Holocaust survivors' memoirs in the 1960s after a period of near silence? The key is the 1963-65 Frankfurt-Auschwitz proceedings, an under-explored but consequential trial. By examining memoir excerpts, we will also note narratives whose dissonance, like the title of this presentation adopted from Kohelet, suggests a viable alternative to conflict resolution for the prevention of subsequent atrocities.

TIKKUN-SESSION GIMMEL Sunday 1:15-2:15 p.m.

E. Selections from Sefer Shoftim - The Book of Judges as the inflection point for Biblical Israel                                                  RABBI DAVID BOCKMAN 
The period of Judges was a moment in history when we entered the promised land but did not have a specific determined future. How would the Israelite and Judean nations develop from what came before? What about subsequent Jewish life - how do these passages from the Tanach inform who we have become as Jews?

F. Torah from Sinai - or Is It?   RABBI NED SOLTZ
On Shavuot we are commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai with our implicit understanding of Written and Oral Torah. But is Sinai always present on Biblical accounts of revelation? We will look at non-Sinai traditions in the Tanach as well as a curious Rabbinic passage that may offer a different take.

G. Beyond the Shulhan Arukh: Finding a Meaningful Paradigm for Living Halakhicly in a Non-Orthodox Context                  RABBI ELIEZER DIAMOND
For some - most? - of us, halakhah is something "out there" rather than being an integral part of one's Jewish life. What if we were to see halakhah not as a list of obligations but as a spiritual discipline, a behavioral path to a life of holiness, ethical integrity, and commitment to others? I would like to explore this possibility, drawing upon, among other sources, an article I wrote on this subject.

TIKKUN-SESSION DALET - Sunday 2:45-3:45 p.m.

H. Did we really need Moshe?  RABBI ISCAH WALDMAN
We will explore Jewish tradition's view of Moshe Rabeinu in the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Did the Children of Israel really need an intermediary? We will examine the role Moshe plays in both receiving the Torah from God and relaying it to the people, and ask how these texts might change how we view our own relationship with God.

I. Can We Pray Without God?    RABBI ARYEH MEIR
An encounter with The Book of Blessings by Marcia Falk. We will explore Falk's radical approach to blessing and prayer that substitutes new and non-patriarchal images for the divine, such as ain hachayim, wellspring of life, and nishmat kol chay, soul of all life. We will challenge our understanding of what prayer is and, hopefully, discover a way of making our prayers more avodah she balev, a true service of the heart.

J. Voting Is A Mitzvah   FRIEDA HERSHMAN HUBERMAN
In this session we will explore how Jewish texts can inform us about voting, civic
engagement, and the role of government. We will also discuss nonpartisan
initiatives that our shul’s Tzedek Tirdof Voter Registration/ Rights Subcommittee
will be taking to promote voter registration, engagement, turnout, and
protections.

Click here to registration for sessions.