Israel – Expanding the Circle of Jewish Responsibility

Course Description: For generations the core curriculum of traditionalist rabbinic studies focused on Shabbat, Kashrut and Niddah (recently referred to as “Family Purity”). This curriculum in part reflected the limited range of Jewish power throughout our millennia in diaspora; while the Jews had minimal political power, we could only control when we rested, what we ate and our intimate relationships. When the Jewish people managed to step back into history, with the rebirth of Jewish political life in Israel, the breadth of areas of Jewish responsibility expanded enormously. Along with the state came a whole raft of new obligations.

In this mini course we will explore this rapid expansion and look at Jewish sources on these new areas of responsibility in the realms of agriculture and the environment, social welfare, shared sacred space, war and conquest, national governance, and the treatment and status of non-Jewish minorities in a Jewish polity. Of course, together with the assumption of new responsibility comes the dark, lurking possibility of practical and moral failure!

Obscure Biblical Figures Elevated by the Rabbis

Course Description: We will explore the midrashic traditions surrounding several minor characters in the Tanakh including: Enoch, Melchizedek, Serah bat Asher, Asenath and Yael. The goal is to understand how a single cryptic phrase in Scripture can give rise to multitudes of post-biblical elaborations. Why are midrashic authors drawn to these obscure characters? What do these midrashim teach us about the worldview of the Rabbis?

 עבדו את ה׳ בשמחה באו לפניו ברננה
 Worship God with Joy, Come Into His presence with Singing

Course Description: Are you pretty experienced at leading tefillah, but are still looking to improve?  Are you a beginner who is hoping to take things to the next level?  Or perhaps you’re someone who doesn’t even know what the word nusach means?  Join us for interesting, informative, and soul-elevating sessions where we not only learn the form and structure of leading weekday shaharit, mincha, and ma’ariv, but also consider the relationship between leader, community, and the divine and what it means to read and respond to the room.

EAJL has been teaching with the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center since 2010. Come and learn with our experienced Chazanim and enhance your everyday tefillah experience!