Upcoming Community Lectures and Events

An extraordinary day of learning with Drisha: Yom Iyyun on the topic of the book and the people.
Featuring Drisha faculty and others

Price: $

How did the Pesach Seder become a Family Affair?

This lecture will explore the origins and development of how Pesach was celebrated, starting with biblical sources that describe a Pesach sacrifice, second temple sources, Mishnah Pesahim, later rabbinic sources, and our earliest haggadot. It will also connect reflections and photos from my visit to the Samaritan Passover sacrifice last year; ideas of time and memory as they are incorporated into the Seder ceremony; connections between the Seder / Haggadah and developing Christian festivals in late antiquity; and others.

The idea would be to think about how Pesach was imagined to originate as a family ritual, then how it took a detour as a scholarly men’s endeavor, and then how it circled back in new ways to the family table. There would also be nice ways of tying it to people’s contemporary experiences and also practical ideas about making it a meaningful way for generations to gather together around a table to tell a story of a shared past.

Located at: Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
125 East 85th Street

Free and open to the public
(But please RSVP)

Price: $ 0.00

Location: A private residence on the Upper West Side, details provided upon registration

Thursday, April 4 , 7:00 PM

The Secret Book of Kings, one of celebrated Israeli author, Yochi Brandes’ most successful books to date, tells an untold tale of Israel’s kings, concealed for centuries by King David and his court. The power of Brandes’ story-telling, and the way she weaves her story in relation to the actual Biblical book of Kings, is artful and thought provoking. She asks and answers the oldest Jewish question of all – what lies just beneath the texts of Tanakh.

Click here for more information on the Book Salon & Beit Midrash series.

Price: $ 15.00