Community Lectures and Events

November 11, 2018, 9:45 AM – 5:00 PM, Bnai Jeshrun, 257 W. 88th St.

Price: $

Join us for another round of our FREE Community Beit Midrash!

Dates: 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20

Dinner: 6:15 PM, Learning: 6:45 PM – 8:00 PM

190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York

Facebook Event Page

Schedule

6:15 pm – 6:45 pm	Dinner
6:45 pm – 8:00 pm	Chavruta and Chaburah learning
8:00 pm	Ma’ariv

Overview

This program is open to the public. Come with a chavruta to learn in the beit midrash or join a chaburah to learn in a small group!

Chaburot Descriptions

Pammy Brenner – “Reading Aggadeta: The Case of the Carpenter’s Apprentice … and more”

We will be exploring the narrative portion of the Talmud, focusing each session on a different story. Our discussion will rely on textual and literary analysis, with an emphasis on situating the Aggadot within their broader Talmudic frameworks.

Pamela Brenner is a 2017-2018 alumna of the Drisha Summer Kollel. She studied at the Migdal Oz Beit Midrash for Women for two years. A Manhattan native, Pamela is a Yiddish Studies major at Barnard College.

Shani Gross – “The Sexual & The Sacred”

By examining Biblical and Talmudic texts, we will explore the degree to which our tradition enables us to tap into the spiritual through the sexual. Can human sexuality be a tool to access the divine? We will investigate this question as we study the relationship between ritual, sacred objects, and sexuality – how are these categories kept distinct, when tradition blurs the lines, and possible implications for our own lives.

Shani Gross is the Assistant Director of Education, N.A., Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

Jessica Belasco – Dirshuni: Pushing Boundaries with Feminist Midrash

In this chaburah, we’ll explore texts from the second volume of Dirshuni, an incredible collection of midrashim by contemporary Israeli women that are written in the classical midrashic style. We’ll analyze and respond to these texts, asking what questions and insights they bring up for us, as well as what possibilities they open for expanding the boundaries of the traditional Jewish conversation.

Price: $

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

Thursday, December 13 , 7:00 PM – As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

First published in 1939, Milton Steinberg’s As a Driven Leaf is a modern Jewish classic that explores the story of the renegade Talmudic sage, Elisha ben Abuyah’s struggle to reconcile his faith with the allure of Hellenistic culture. Recently re-released, the story remains remarkably fresh, inviting thinking about faith and doubt, and what it means to be a Jew in the world today.

Click here for the flyer.

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

Price: $ 15.00

The Drama of Torah: A Day of Learning Featuring Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, celebrating the English launch of 929

Sunday December 2, 9:30 AM
New York University Kimmel Center for Jewish Life, 60 Washington Square South

Price: $ 25.00

Co-sponsored by Drisha, The Jewish Publication Society and Sixth Street Community Synagogue
November 29th, 7:00 PM
Sixth Street Community Synagogue
325 East Sixth Street

$10/students free of charge.

Please join us for an evening to celebrate the publication of Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich’s new book, Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2018).

Talks will be given by Dr. Lawrence Schiffman (Judge Abraham Lieberman Professorship in Hebrew & Judaic Studies at New York University) and Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich (Drisha Faculty member and Crown-Ryan Chair of Judies Studies at Catholic Theological Union.) 

We will explore the Jewish literature and communities of Alexandria and the Dead Sea Scrolls in Greek and Roman times, as Jews navigated as a minority through worlds dominated by powerful cultures.

Light refreshments will be served. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Click here for the event flyer.

Click here for the Facebook event.

Price: $ 10.00

Sponsored by their grandchildren, Elissa Shay Ordan and Daniel J. Ordan

Rabbi Menachem Leibtag on
Holidays and Theology in the Biblical Calendar: From a ‘Holy Land’ to a ‘Holy People’
Co-sponsored by Lincoln Square Synagogue
180 Amsterdam Avenue
Free and open to the public

Many of the practices of the festivals seem odd or out of place. The imagery of being “judged” in Tishrei, the practice of saying ya’ale ve-yavo on holidays and Rosh Hodesh, our counting both days and weeks in the omer – all of these take on new significance in light of the agricultural roots of the Jewish festivals and the biblical calendar. We will explore those, in order to better appreciate the way the calendar has evolved together with the world, and yet preserves its eternal sanctity.

Price: $ 0.00

Sunday, November 18, 6:00 PM
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun

Free of charge.

Dedicated in memory of Terry Satinover Fagen.

Join Ilana Blumberg and Devora Steinmetz as they discuss the ethical challenges and moral potential of education. Dr. Blumberg will share insights from her experience teaching in settings as varied as an early childhood classroom in a New York City day school, an inner-city public school in Detroit, and universities in the United States and Israel. Dr. Blumberg will also read excerpts from her new book, Open Your Hand: Teaching as Jew, Teaching as an American (Rutgers University Press, 2018).

Dr. Ilana M. Blumberg currently teaches at the Department of English, Bar Ilan University where she directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is the author of Victorian Sacrifice and Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books.

Dr. Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculty of Drisha in the United States and Israel as well as one the faculty of the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership. She is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of scholarly books and articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible.

Click here for the event flyer.

 

Price: $ 0.00

Thursday, November 22, 9:30 am

Join Drisha, Congregations Shearith Israel, the West End Collegiate Church, The Jewish Center and The Church of Latter-day Saints in this community-wide service event.

For more information and to register, click here.

Price: $

“Why Should Modern Jews Care About Ancient Mysticism?”
Celebrating the publication of Dr. Berman’s new book, Divine and Demonic in the Poetic Mythology of the Zohar: The “Other Side” of Kabbalah (Leiden: Brill, 2018)
Tuesday, January 15, 7:30 PM
The Culture Center ( 410 Columbus Ave , at W 80th St)

Price: $

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

Price: $

Dr. Sarit Kattan-Gribetz
March 28, Details forthcoming
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
125 East 85th Street
Free and open to the public

Price: $ 0.00