Kickstart your day by learning with Hadar! In this 15 minute slot, Rabbi Elie Kaunfer will offer brief text learning related to the blessings of the Amidah. Classes will begin with singing led by Rabbi Aviva Richman and then move into learning.
During this class, we will explore a variety of insights on the weekly parashah (Torah portion). Our main focus will be on midrash, but we will occasionally bring in other types of interpretations to add new vantage points to familiar stories.
If any prayer is core to the Jewish tradition, it is the Amidah. Recited in every prayer service, the ostensibly straightforward Amidah is a collage of images, intentions, allusions, and intertexts. Yet, whether we pray it regularly or rarely, much of Amidah's language and themes remain closed to us. In this series we will explore the beauty and complexity of this important prayer and ask: How can I interpret the siddur in a grounded and traditional yet creative manner? Are traditional prayer formulas able to express my own values/ideas of prayer? What do you do when you "disagree" with the prayer's content? We will focus on the final 4 blessings of the Amidah, along with some larger themes and focus areas.
Tuesday Night Talmud continues! In this class, we will complete the sixth chapter of Sanhedrin as we explore issues around capital punishment and burial in rabbinic law. We will focus on the original text and Rashi, with occasional reference to a Tosafot and outside commentaries, both medieval and modern. This is a perfect class both for people with a background in Talmud as well as adventurous learners ready to jump in to the original text with a guide. We recommend you bring your own text if you are able to.
We live in a world where existential questions -- who lives and who dies, whose prayers seem to be answered and whose ignored, and where God is in the midst of so much chaos -- seem uniquely unanswerable. In truth, the rabbis of the talmud grappled with similar questions. In this class, we will study narratives of the third chapter of Massekhet Ta’anit in an attempt to understand how they framed those questions, the places they searched for answers, and how we might apply their search for wisdom to our own seemingly unanswerable questions about a chaotic world.
The pandemic has forced many of us to abandon our conventional holy spaces and pray, learn, and build community in makeshift spaces. In this course, we'll dive into the fourth chapter of Massekhet Megillah, which focuses on the holiness of spaces and objects. Together, we will break down various sugyot, understanding their key terms and unlocking their logic. This course is intended for students who have some prior experience studying Talmud.
Registration fee: $56
According to the Me'or Einayim, Rav Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, God is everywhere and in everything: the physical and spiritual, the easy and the difficult. Even when we feel that the opposite is true, nevertheless, the world is saturated with God's goodness. In this class, we'll explore some of the most compelling passages of this foundational work of Hassidic thought.
Registration fee: $56
In this 3-part series, we will let Torah be our companion as we think and feel our way through the complexities of reopening and reemerging into our social worlds. How can stories of reunion in the Torah and Talmud help us navigate the intense emotions of reentering relationships? How do we rebuild our communal spaces of gathering and prayer after a period of absence? Sessions will draw from a rich range of Jewish texts and traditions - ritual, halakhah, narrative, midrash - as we do our best to ready ourselves for the highs, lows, and unknowns of the next phase of this journey.
The 49 days of the Omer are filled with anticipation and spiritual significance. As we count toward the gift of Torah on Shavuot, join Hadar to learn new melodies and explore the Midrash on the many metaphors for Torah. Every week, we will gather online for learning with Hadar’s faculty and Advanced Kollel and a melody from Hadar’s Rising Song Institute.
Can one person save an entire community from disaster? The Talmud is filled with stories of drought, pestilence, war, and the righteous individuals who helped their communities through difficult times. In three sessions, we will turn to these stories from the third chapter of Ta'anit -- all of which revolve around the image of a crumbling wall -- and consider what they can teach us about crisis, fate, miracles, and resilience. All texts will be provided in translation and people with any or no previous experience with Talmud are welcome.
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Become familiar with the content and sound of the parashah each week and get psyched about Torah as a lens to engage real life questions! Explore each week's parashah through leyning, mixed media story-telling, polls and discussion, and more.
In this next installment of Kid’s Mishnah Club, we will turn to sections of Massekhet Avodah Zarah, which deals with idols and statues, and consider a number of questions. When are statues just art and when are they foreign gods? If you smash an idol, does it become okay to use the pieces? There will be polls, breakout rooms, lessons in Hebrew, and other fun interactive pieces. Now is a great time for new people to jump in!
Please register below for the club for your child’s age.
Grades 3-5: Kids' Mishnah Club with Miriam Lichtenberg, Avanced Kollel Member
Grades 6+: Middle School Mishnah Club with Rabbi Ethan and Yoav Tucker
Can one person save an entire community from disaster? The Talmud is filled with stories of drought, pestilence, war, and the righteous individuals who helped their communities through difficult times. In three sessions, we will turn to these stories from the third chapter of Ta'anit -- all of which revolve around the image of a crumbling wall -- and consider what they can teach us about crisis, fate, miracles, and resilience. All texts will be provided in translation and people with any or no previous experience with Talmud are welcome.
Hadar’s Jewish Wisdom Fellowship will empower thoughtful, passionate, and engaged Jewish professionals to embark on 5-weeks of virtual learning dedicated to wrestling with the questions currently confronting the Jewish community and the world. Through a combination of guided learning, havruta, and group work, the Jewish Wisdom Fellowship will enable 40 Jewish professionals to probe our tradition for wisdom that will help them and the communities they serve to navigate contemporary social, moral, and spiritual challenges. The program will conclude with a final project, determined by each fellow, aimed at sharing learnings with the broader Jewish professional field.
Powered by Hadar and supported by Maimonides Fund, MMCC is the premier program for students to grapple with contemporary ethics using Jewish legal wisdom. This year’s case study explores “Ban the Box” campaigns and whether or not universities should require prospective students to disclose information about their criminal backgrounds on their applications. Teams of students will compete by responding to an ethical issue before a panel of expert judges.
Students can sign up with a group of teammates, or let us place you on a team. This program is open to all college students, and no Jewish text study or public speaking experience is required.