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We provide best in class intensive programs, where you can focus on and grow in your learning alongside a cohort of dedicated individuals.
Courses
If you are in middle school or high school, come learn with us this summer. If you are a college student and beyond, check out our summer Kollel in New York City, our vibrant Beit Midrash programming in Israel, and, of course, for year-round study, Yeshivat Drisha.
Becoming a Bat Mitzvah marks the transition to the status of adult within Jewish Law and gaining the responsibilities that follow from being obligated in mitzvot. Taught by Dr. Shana Strauch Shick, this five-week* course is an opportunity to think through this life transition under the guidance of an expert in Jewish law.
This course focuses on specific mitzvot that are performed regularly (Tefilla, Zimmun, etc), as well as those that come up throughout the year (Fasting, Megillah, Matzah). Each class begins with an introduction of the topic followed by roughly thirty minutes of time to study the sources with a chavruta and then further discussion. Background in gemara texts is not required.
Nobody is turned away for financial reasons. Email bernstein@drisha.org for information on reduced tuition for this class.
* Class meets 10:30AM Eastern, Sundays
January 31 – February 28
How can a blessing help us stop, notice, and thank God for the uniqueness of what we are seeing (for good or for bad)? In this series, we will look closely at different blessings for seeing something unusual, from the Talmud to medieval and modern sources, to explore where they come from and what their meaning can be in our lives. Should we say a blessing on seeing someone particularly beautiful or particularly strange looking? Or a particularly wise person? Or a loved one we have not seen in a long time? Why? And if so, how do we decide who falls under these categories? What attitudes are these blessings intended to inculcate in us?
In this course, we explore the (im)possibility for female conversion to Judaism in biblical literature and the ambiguity around this topic in Second Temple writings. In the first class, we will look at the idea of circumcision in Gen. 17, the story of Ruth, and other biblical examples of women as/not at “converts.” In the second class, we will look at Second Temple discussions of female “converts” in Josephus and in the story of Joseph and Aseneth. In the third class, we will examine the main rabbinic conversion text in BT Yevamot and the procedure for female conversion to Judaism. In so doing, we will trace the development of a practice we might take for granted, and we will emphasize the way in which Judaism’s conception of women itself transforms in the process.
A new class with Drisha Founder Rabbi David Silber.
King Solomon establishes the Davidic line and is the builder of the Temple. He is also described as the wisest of all people. On the other hand, there is a deeply problematic side to the Solomon of the Book of Kings. Through a close reading we will attempt to get a sense of Solomon as described in this book.
No class November 1st.
The establishment of the State of Israel created a host of halakhic questions that previous generations had rarely, if ever, confronted: How should halakha address a Jewish army, a modern economy, national institutions, public policy, and the responsibilities of a Jewish state?
But beneath these new questions lies a more fundamental question about the nature of halakhic decision-making itself. When reality changes dramatically, should new questions simply be treated as old questions in unfamiliar circumstances? Or does the scale and structure of the new reality require poskim to rethink some of the categories through which halakhic questions are understood?