Interested in immersing yourself in Jewish text study with adults of all ages and backgrounds from around the country?
Looking to integrate with the dynamic, cutting-edge community at Yeshivat Hadar?
Join us for:
Yeshivat Hadar's Executive Seminar
Sunday July 11th (evening) -- Friday, July 16th (morning)
Optional Shabbaton: July 16-17
Location: Yeshivat Hadar, 190 Amsterdam Avenue (@69th Street), New York City
Tuition: $750 for the week includes 5 breakfasts and lunches, and opening dinner;
Optional Shabbat: $118 includes Shabbat dinner and Hadar community lunch and learn
Registration Deadline: May 7, 2010
Register
here Join us for an intense week-long study program at
Yeshivat Hadar, the only egalitarian immersion learning program in North America. You will study with a small group of men and women from around the country, and participate in sessions along with the dozens of young adults studying for the summer at Yeshivat Hadar.
This program will give you a unique opportunity to:
- Get a taste of the intense Jewish learning at Yeshivat Hadar and be part of its energetic community
- Interact with other serious students for Torah Lishmah ("Learning for its own sake")
- Engage in discussions about key issues in Jewish thought and Halakhah (Jewish Law)
- Study with exciting and engaging teachers in classes appropriate to various levels of knowledge and background
- Learn from outstanding guest speakers
- Optional: Spend a meaningful, engaging Shabbat with the Hadar community, rated by Newsweek as one of the "Top 25 Prayer communities in the US"
A Typical Day at Yeshivat Hadar Includes:
Morning
7:30 am - Davening with Yeshiva community (optional for Seminar participants)
8:00 am - Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 am -- Text Classes offered for participants with varied levels of Jewish text experience, including Yeshivat Hadar's Talmud Class for participants with Jewish text backgrounds and the following offerings for those new to Hebrew-text study:
Afternoon (all classes are with the Yeshivat Hadar fellows) 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm -- Lunch with the Yeshivat Hadar community
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm -- Break and Minhah (optional for Seminar participants)
4:00 pm - 6:30 pm -- Jewish Thought Seminar with Rabbi Shai Held (and Yeshivat Hadar students)
Evenings:
Dinner
Special Speakers
Nights out in NYC
Detailed course descriptions and faculty biographies can be found below.
Housing: Each participant must arrange housing for the week. A list of suggested hotels and housing options will be provided.
Register: Complete the application here.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to study, interact and become energized!
Questions? Looking for more information? Email Alyssa Frank, Director of Community Engagement at
frank@mechonhadar.org.
Course Descriptions
Talmud
Talmud: Four Stellar Sugyot (Sections of Talmud)
Rabbi Alvan Kaunfer
For students without Hebrew text backgrounds
In these four sessions we will learn four key sugyot dealing with aspects of the process of Jewish Law and the theory of mitzvot. The first two sugyot will engage us in a discussion of the limits of rabbinic authority in changing and interpreting Jewish Law. Is the law in human hands or is it an immutable Divine directive? The second set of sugyot will confront us with the issue of the interaction of mitzvot: Is there a hierarchy of mitzvot-are some mitzvot more important than others? And, can a mitzvah be accomplished by means of a transgression? All texts will be available in English translation.
Talmud: Structure of the Sugya
Avital Hochstein and Rabbi Elie Kaunfer
For those with text backgrounds, integrated with Yeshivat Hadar's Talmud Seder
Each unit will begin with a close reading of the Mishnah, as we carefully analyze its structure and meaning. We will then turn to decoding the logical steps of Talmudic sugyot (literary units), empowering the student to follow the flow of Talmudic argument and discussion. The focus of the class will be on the skills involved in reading a page of Talmud so that the student will be able to walk into a beit midrash and feel sufficient ownership to study independently.
Talmud with Rishonim (Advanced)
Rabbi Ethan Tucker
For those with advanced text backgrounds, integrated with Yeshivat Hadar's Talmud Seder
We will learn the Mishnah and its Talmudic sugyot in depth, with special focus on the rishonim (medieval commentators) and their insights into the difficulties and complexities present in the text. Our ultimate goal will be a synthetic analysis of the sugyot such that we can appreciate their historical development and the meaning that emerges from their final form. We will invest significant time in sharpening skills for reading and understanding rishonim, with a strong emphasis on Tosafot.
Bible
Bible: Rebellion in the Wilderness: Narratives of the Book of Bemidbar
Marcia Lapidus Kaunfer
For students without Hebrew text backgrounds
The Book of Bemidbar begins with the orderly set up of the Israelite camp but soon devolves into disorder, discord, dissension and rebellion as quarrels about food, leadership and faith arise. We will do a careful text study of several key moments in this process, and focus on the complicated relationships among God, Moshe and the Israelites. All texts will be available in English translation.
Halakhah
Halakhah Seminar
Rabbi Ethan Tucker
With Yeshivat Hadar fellows
Each meeting will focus on a different topic in Jewish law and practice, as we take an in-depth tour of the various sources and personalities that have weighed in on our question throughout Jewish history. Beginning with Tanakh, continuing with classical rabbinic literature and following through with the periods of the rishonim and aharonim, we will span the various genres of halakhic literature in a quest for a bird's eye view of the topic under discussion. Detailed source sheets and bibliographies will empower students to explore these various topics further after the summer. Topics may include: Keeping Kosher in a non-Kosher world; the halakhic bases for egalitarian tefillah; limits on and guidelines for liturgical flexibility; relations between Jews and non-Jews; negotiating potential conflicts between Jews of differing levels of observance; various issues relating to the observance of Shabbat; proper standards for conversion into Judaism.
Jewish Thought
Wonder, Prophecy, and Creativity: The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis
Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joseph Soloveitchik (Tentative topic)
with Rabbi Shai Held
With Yeshivat Hadar fellows
In this class, we will explore the theological worldviews of Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joseph Soloveitchik. We'll begin with Heschel, and discuss:
a) the meaning of wonder and radical amazement, and their connection to a sense of commandedness;
b) Heschel's belief in a personal God and his idea that God is "in search of man";
c) the meaning of prophecy, and how prophets can serve as role models for our own religious lives;
d) the problem of evil and how it affected Heschel's relationship with God; and
e) the life of prayer, and our attempt to overcome self-centeredness.
Then we'll turn to Soloveitchik and focus especially on the idea of the human being as creator, and on how that plays out in a variety of Soloveitchik's writings. The class aims both to introduce Heschel and Soloveitchik on their own terms, and to provide students with a vocabulary for thinking about their own religious commitments and obligations.
Faculty Biographies
Avital Campbell Hochstein is rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and teaches Talmud at Yeshivat Hadar. She is the former rosh kollel at the Pardes Institute. A research fellow at Mechon Shalom Hartman, she has taught Talmud for several years at both institutions and was rosh beit midrash at the new Hartman High School for Girls. She is the co-author of The Place of Women in Midrash (Yedioth Ahronoth 2008). Avital is also a founder of Kehilat Shirah Hadashah in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Shai Held is co-founder and rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and chair in Jewish Thought. He served as scholar-in-residence at Kehilat Hadar, taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and is a Jacob Javits fellow in religion at Harvard University. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Shai was director of education and conservative rabbinic advisor at Harvard Hillel. A graduate of Harvard, he has taught for institutions such as the Drisha Institute, Hebrew College, Meah, UJACJP, and the Rabbinic Training Institute.
Marcia Lapidus Kaunfer has served variously as Tanakh teacher, Assistant Director, and Head of Judaic Studies at the Schechter / JCDS School in Providence, Rhode Island for the past 25 years. She holds degrees from Hebrew Teachers College, Brandeis University and Harvard Graduate School of Education, and has been a Bible curriculum designer for the Melton Center of the Jewish Theological Seminary. A 1992 Covenant winner, Marcia currently serves as a consultant for the Standards and Benchmarks Tanakh Project. She is married to Rabbi Alvan Kaunfer, and she has two sons, Elie and Oren and three grandchildren.
Rabbi Alvan H. Kaunfer is Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Emanu-El, Providence, where he served for twenty five years, and where he oversaw educational programming. Rabbi Kaunfer was also the founding Director of the Alperin Schechter Day School in Providence. He is a graduate of Brandeis University, Teachers' College of Columbia University, and he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, from which institution he also holds a Doctoral degree in Education. Rabbi Kaunfer has taught courses in Jewish Education at the Davidson School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and at Hebrew College in Boston. He has published articles on education and on midrash in several professional journals and books. Rabbi Kaunfer is married to Marcia Lapidus Kaunfer and he has two sons, Elie and Oren and three grandchildren.
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is co-founder, rosh yeshiva and executive director of Mechon Hadar and on the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Hadar. A graduate of Harvard College, he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he also completed an MA and is pursuing a doctorate in liturgy. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Elie is a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and in 2009 Newsweek named him one of the top 50 rabbis in America. He was selected as an inaugural AVI CHAI Fellow, and is the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities (Jewish Lights, 2010).
Rabbi Ethan Tucker is co-founder and rosh yeshiva at Mechon Hadar and chair in Jewish Law. Ethan was a faculty member at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, where he taught Talmud and Halakhah in the Scholars Circle. Ethan was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and earned a PhD in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. from Harvard College. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and a winner of the first Grinspoon Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fellowship.
