Mechon Hadar Online Learning

פרק א בשמות מלמד אותנו כחברה לקח חשוב: רשעות קלה יותר לביצוע בקהילה. הפרק עומד כתמרור אזהרה- רשעותו של צו נתון איננה מונעת מציבור ללכת בעקבותיו. להפך, היתר רע-לב גורף הוא נח יותר ליישום מאשר היתר נקודתי מרושע. יתר על כן, היתר גורף לרשע הוא בלתי נשלט מטבעו, וסופו שיופנה חזרה גם כלפי הקהילה הפושעת עצמה.

Avital Hochstein. The first chapter of Shemot contains an important lesson for society: evil can be perpetrated more easily by a group than by an individual. The chapter sounds this warning: the evil of a decree doesn’t keep people from obeying it. To the contrary, a blanket permission to be evil is a lot easier to implement than one single point of evil. Moreover, an all-encompassing license is, by its very nature, difficult to control once it is released. On top of that: it often returns to visit itself on the people themselves who unleashed it.

Sharon Cohen-Anisfeld. Rabbi Sharon Cohen-Anisfeld gave this lecture, recorded live, on November 17, 2016, as the third of four lectures in Mechon Hadar's 2016 Fall Series, "Faith and Doubt in the Modern World." The series was presented in partnership with the Samuel Bronfman Foundation in memory of Edgar Bronfman. It has long been considered a truism that Israeli society is deeply divided between "hilonim" and "dati'im" -- between secular and religious Jews. Unlike the North American Jewish community, where there are countless options for communal affiliation and personal practice and belief, the religious landscape in Israel has been seen as largely black-and-white, with little room for "shades of gray". While the secular-religious divide persists -- often with a good deal of mutual hostility -- in many aspects of Israeli social and political life, a more nuanced picture can be seen in the writing of contemporary Israeli poets over the last several decades. Many self-identified "secular" writers wrestle deeply in their poetry with their relationship to Jewishness, to the legacy of the Bible and rabbinic texts, and to the personal search for God. Through a close reading of selected poems, we will explore the religious struggles of these secular writers and consider how they might speak to our own experiences of faith and doubt in the post-modern era. Rabbi Sharon Cohen-Anisfeld is Dean of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College. A beloved teacher and mentor to young adults, Rabbi Cohen-Anisfeld spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts, Yale and Harvard universities; she has been a summer faculty member for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel since 1993.

Ethan Tucker. Throughout history, Jews have had to make difficult decisions about blending in with their surroundings as opposed to letting their distinctive behaviors and commitments distance them from the broader culture. We will explore sources around Jews and politics, particularly ones focused on leniencies meant to allow certain Jews to participate more fully in the mechanisms of government. As we prepare to inaugurate a new president and enter a new phase of American politics, we will ask how these timeless questions apply to us today. Recorded live at the annual Dr. Eddie Scharfman Memorial Lecture on January 10, 2017. Dr. Scharfman was committed to learning and Torah, and we are honored to be able to hold this lecture in his memory. Thank you to the Scharfman Family for their support in making this lecture possible.

פרשת ויחי מסמנת את סיומו של ספר בראשית. ספר שניתן לדבר עליו בצורות שונות ומזוויות ראייה מגוונות: ספר בראשית הוא מסע מארץ של תוהו ובריאה של אדם, באשר הוא או היא, אל שבט משפחתי ענף; מסע מ"נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו" אל עבר קבוצה שאביה נקרא בצו "לך לך", והיא מכונה בשם "בני ישראל "כי שרית עם אנשים ועם אלוהים ותוכל"; מסע מבריאת שמים וארץ אל סוף ספר בראשית שם בני ישראל אינם נמצאים בארצם אך יש עליהם צו: "וַיַּשְׁבַּע יוֹסֵף אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹהִים אֶתְכֶם וְהַעֲלִתֶם אֶת עַצְמֹתַי מִזֶּה" (בראשית נ, כ"ה); ומסע מבריאה אלוהית של שמים וארץ אל פריון אנושי: "וַיַּ֤רְא יוֹסֵף֙ לְאֶפְרַ֔יִם בְּנֵ֖י שִׁלֵּשִׁ֑ים" (בראשית, נ, כ"ג).

Avital Hochstein. One prominent action that is repeated again and again in the book of Genesis, an action which accompanies much of the doings in the book, marks significant points of transition, and is used as a tool for clarification, is seeing. Thus the book of Genesis, among its many possible nicknames, might be called the “Book of Seeing,” a book in which seeing plays a significant role.

Dena Weiss, Jason Rubenstein. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017 and a National Shabbaton March 3-5, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

This conversation between Rabbi Shai Held and Professor Thomas Oord, moderated by Rabbi Avi Killip, is the second of four lectures in our Fall 2016 Series, "Faith and Doubt in the Modern World." This discussion was recorded live on November 10, 2016. Prof. Thomas Oord is widely regarded as the leading "theologian of love" at work today. A prolific author, he has written extensively on the nature of love and its place in theology; on "open theism," an approach to theology that places great emphasis on the capacity of human freedom to shape the world; and on the relationship between theology and science. A professor at Northwest Nazarene University, he is the author of many books, including Defining Love: A Philosophical, Scientific, and Theological Engagement, The Nature of Love: A Theology, and The Uncontrolling Love of God: an Open and Relational Account of Providence.

תקופה ממושכת שומר יוסף על זהותו חסויה מפני אחיו ונדמה שלשם כך נדרשות לו לעתים תעצומות נפש וכוחות התגברות. אלו באים לידי ביטוי בפסוקים בשני פעלים: בכי והתאפקות. עיון בפסוקים מלמד שישנה תנועה מתמשכת והולכת מבכי לבכי והתאפקות ומשם לחוסר התאפקות הבאה לידי ביטוי גם היא בבכי. מדוע חושף יוסף את זהותו בפרשתנו ומפסיק להתאפק?

Avital Hochstein. Yosef kept his identity hidden from his brothers for a long time, requiring a lot of resilience and fortitude on his part. These emotions are expressed in two ways in the text: crying and self-restraint (va-yitapak). A close reading of the text teaches that there is an ongoing process moving from crying to crying and restraint, and finally onto a forging of restraint that is expressed through crying. Why does Yosef expose his identity in our parashah and stop restraining himself?

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017 and a National Shabbaton March 3-5, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.

Shai Held and Michael Ruse. At Hadar we aim to ignite a much-needed Jewish conversation about God. Towards that end, we proudly present a provocative new series of public lectures and dialogues-- about faith and doubt in light of science; about whether and how the idea of a God who loves can still make sense in the modern world; about Israelis and their (often understated) quest for God; and about what it means to believe in God (tentatively, sometimes tenuously) in a broken world. This lecture, recorded live on November 3, 2016, was the first of four parts in our Fall 2016 series, Faith and Doubt in the Modern World. The series was presented in partnership with the Samuel Bronfman Foundation in memory of Edgar Bronfman, who struggled with questions of faith and doubt for much of his life, and whose love of and commitment to Torah were an inspiration to many.

Avital Hochstein. One of the givens of Jewish tradition is that matters of holiness require ten people, as we see in the context of the minyan of prayer. Many sources in the Rabbinic tradition of Eretz Yisrael connect the ten people needed for a minyan to the original, literal Sons of Israel, the ten of Ya’akov’s sons who went down to Egypt to get food. What does this connection tell us about the nature and danger of groups, of a minyan?

מן המקובלות היא, שעניינים של קודש וקדושה בתרבות היהודית נזקקים פעמים רבות לעשרה אנשים על מנת לקיימם – כפי שאנו רואים לא פעם בהקשרים של תפילה וברכות. מקורות תלמודיים שונים מבקשים לאתר את הבסיס המקראי לדרישה זו, ובאופן מפתיע חלק ניכר מן המקורות הארצישראליים העוסקים בנושא מייחסים את המקור לדרישה בקיבוצם של עשרת בני יעקב, בני ישראל, ברדתם למצרים לשבור בר בעת הרעב. מה מלמד אותנו חיבור זה על אודות כוחם וחולשתם של קיבוצים?

Dena Weiss. In celebration of 10 Years of Mechon Hadar, the extended Hadar community will be learning all of Pirkei Avot together at a pace of 3-5 mishnayot a week, concluding with a Siyyum Celebration on March 2, 2017. Each podcast includes the full text, a translation with explanations, and a short Dvar Torah inspired by that week's mishnayot.