Recent News
R. Shai Held: Remembering R. David Ellenson z"l
David was large, and no institution or movement could contain him. On the one hand, he was a committed Reform Jew, as he told me countless times. Yet on the other hand, if you cared about Torah and the Jewish people, you were part of his community, one of his people.
R. Elie Kaunfer: Showing We Care
I spent four days last week in Israel. It was the shortest trip to Israel I have ever taken, but it was also perhaps the most important trip I have taken here, for one simple reason: I was able to be with people I care about in a time of crisis
Showing Up in Crisis
I am so grateful that I was able to be in Israel for three days, Thursday, Nov 9 - Saturday night, Nov 11. Throughout the trip it became clear to me how much Israelis feel this is a moment of intense crisis, where so much is on the line - not only Israel’s secure existence, but also its moral character.
“You and I Will Change the World”
There is a tension about whether we should be focused on preparing students for the world that is, or whether we should be preparing students for the world that ought to be. Yet, I believe that Jewish learning gives us tools and the imagination to travel along that distance.
Thirty Days In: Reflections on Shloshim for October 7
When it first happened, we couldn’t help but be completely immersed in the emotions of those first days. We cried, we were silent, we were stunned. Thirty days later, somehow an acceptance of this new reality in which so many are suffering has become a part of our lives. Now I am wrestling with the question: how do we not become numb?
Order Hadar's 5784 Hanukkah Reader
"Emunah: Faith & Courage" presents eight sets of texts and guiding questions that explore faith and faithfulness. By studying these texts through the eight nights of this holiday of faith, we hope that you can bottle up some of that pure Hasmonean faith and have just enough to illuminate the darkness.
"All of Israel, Mired in Sorrow"
We emerge from Yom Tov to the horrific news from Israel: estimates of over 800 Israelis dead, thousands more wounded, and at least 100 hostages, both soldiers and civilians, kidnapped from their posts and their homes. A day of Simhat Torah turned upside down into a day of devastation, the festival turned to mourning, its songs into elegies. Hadar’s community extends broadly in Israel—our staff
R. David Kasher and R. Avi Strausberg will headline Hadar's Weekly D'var Torah in 5784
Hadar is excited to announce that Rabbi David Kasher, Director of Hadar West Coast, will write our 5784 weekly D'var Torah! Subscribe now to receive weekly emails beginning with Parashat Bereishit.
Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law is Now Available in Hebrew
Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law, the 2017 book by Rabbi Ethan Tucker and Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg, has been translated into Hebrew and published by Yediot Aharonot Press. This book is the first comprehensive, book-length halakhic inquiry into egalitarian prayer to be published in Hebrew. It not only expands the discourse on gender in the Israeli Jewish community, but it provides a firm
Order Hadar's 5784 High Holiday Reader
Hadar's 5784 High Holiday Reader is now available to order! Place your order by Friday, August 4 to receive a print copy of “Lifnai Ve-Lifnim - The Innermost Sanctum.” On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol enters the Kodesh ha-Kodashim, "the Holy of Holies," a space which is poetically named lifnai ve-lifnim, "inward and inside." There is a beautiful double meaning in this wordplay: panim means “face,”