Immerse yourself in meaningful Torah learning.

One of our most beloved offerings! Join veteran educator and Drisha alumna Morah Deborah Klapper, in a Talmud class just for middle school girls. This Fall Zman, we’ll be focusing on Perek HaMafkid – Selections from Bava Metzia 33b-44a.

This lecture uncovers the historical and theological context of the well-known “kol yisrael arevim ze ba-ze” statement. Rather than simply a pithy maxim on the importance of solidarity, we will show that this statement is part of a group of texts which employ financial metaphors to think about the repercussions of sin. Not only Jews but also Christians in late antiquity took very seriously the idea that each and every human action bears great weight and can tilt the heavenly scales toward redemption or oblivion. As a result, these texts demonstrate profound anxiety about the implications of every person’s sin, which is often described in financial terms. The solution to this problem is presented through the metaphor of guarantorship, by which one person’s merits, accumulated through good deeds, can balance the sins of another. The collective community, bound together through the performance of mitzvot, is thus a solution to the challenges of facing divine demands as an individual person.

Why is there a mitzvah to pray with a minyan? How does praying in community benefit (or detract) from my prayer experience? Why are so many of the Jewish prayers in plural – for others and not just for ourselves? Why can we say certain prayers only in a minyan? We will take a closer look at the prayers and parts of the prayer service that we can only say in a minyan – such as Kaddish, the repetition of the Amidah, Kedushah, the Priestly blessing, the Torah service, and Haftarah – through the lens of ancient, medieval, and modern thinkers, as a way of exploring the meaning of tefillah in our personal lives and in our communities. All are welcome to join the course, no matter how you practice (or do not practice) prayer in your life.