Mechon Hadar Online Learning

Our practice of cycling through the Torah over and over again, year after year, creates a unique  reading experience.  After we have been through enough times, we begin to hear echoes not only from what has come before, but from what will come after.  Here in this first chapter of Abraham’s story those echoes are particularly loud.  We hear them not only in recurring images and themes, but also in familiar words and phrases that seem to be laid out here and there like little clues, prompting us to follow along.

Taking a vow is a serious halakhic undertaking, and Rabbinic law warns us against taking them hastily. But even if a voew is ultimately annulled, it's possible that for the vow - the words we saw when we feel the most desperate - to be part of a broader process of growth and change. The Ma'or Va'Shemesh explains."Ki Anu Amecha," "Ah Shtarker Bistu," and "Nigun Hisva'adus" from RAZA Kapelya (2023) by Chana Raskin. Produced by Joey Weisenberg and Chana Raskin for Hadar’s Rising Song Records.

God wants us to serve Him with excitement and joy, which is reflected in the lighting of the the Menorah. The Ma’or VaShemesh reads the lighting of this lamp on the part of Kohen Gadol as analogous to the igniting of religious fervor that can often happen when people are in the presence of great religious teachers and inspirational spiritual leaders. Like the flame which achieves independence from the spark that ignites it and then draws from its own fuel to keep the light burning, so too, people need to draw from their own internal resources to maintain excitement and to be internally motivated to keep on growing."Ki Anu Amecha," "Klimovitcher Nigun," and "Nigun Hisva'adus" from RAZA Kapelya (2023) by Chana Raskin. Produced by Joey Weisenberg and Chana Raskin for Hadar’s Rising Song Records.

Noah is a notoriously difficult character to pin down.  Is he being presented as one of our heroes, to be emulated for his exceptional virtue, or as a tragic foil for the real heroes to come?

At Sinai, people hear God’s voice. But a Midrash records that what they were most impressed by a glimpse of the entire community of the angels in heaven, and the way that the angels were arranged. What could possibly have been so moving about the angels' formations?“Mitteler Rebbe,” "Ki Anu Amecha," and “Nigun Hisva'adus” from RAZA Kapelya (2023) by Chana Raskin. Produced by Joey Weisenberg and Chana Raskin for Hadar’s Rising Song Records.

The Torah signals to us from the start that words have great power.  A book that opens with an account of a world created through divine speech acts reveals its own interest in the creative possibilities of language.  So we can expect this text to choose its words carefully, deliberately. We might not, however, have expected the extent to which the Torah is willing to manipulate the other features and forms of language in order to communicate ideas.

At the end of the day, or perhaps at the end of the Jewish calendar year, am I actually a better person as a result of the many hours given over each year to Torah study? Or, am I the same person I was before, just another year older?

In our prayers, we often call God “ברוך - blessed.”  What images might this word evoke, and how might it deepen our connection to God, the source of blessings?

For much of our lives we are unable to receive or offer the holding and embracing that we need. Sukkot is yhe holiday that invites us to pause—to hold and to be held.

The search for God will span a lifetime. But once a year the dynamic is different. If Judaism offers up life as a giant game of hide and seek with the Holy One, Yom Kippur is the one day when God doesn't hide. The game is paused, and God emerges in search of us.

The idea that God can revive the dead became central to our prayers and Jewish theology in general.  But what does this “resurrection” entail?  Do we have to take it literally, or can we understand it in a more metaphorical way?  And what do we lose without the literal meaning?

There is a halakhic obligation to eat on the day before Yom Kippur. What is the nature of this obligation? Where does it come from? What can it teach us about the meaning of Yom Kippur itself and the process of Teshuvah? Recorded for Hadar's onliene yom iyyun on Erev Yom Kippur 5789.

Akeidat Yitzhak, the Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah, is usually seen as the ultimate Jewish model of personal sacrifice. But is willingness to die for God really the epitome of sacrifice? In this session, R. Tali Adler  explores a midrash that questions Akeidat Yitzhak's role as the central model of personal sacrifice, and offers a story about Rachel our Matriarch as an alternative.

How are we meant to begin the process of teshuvah, returning to God?  Is this something we initiate, or does God help us to begin?  Or perhaps it is some combination?  How is this process understood in the Torah and in our Amidah?

In a newly released video and audio series (originally recorded in 2020), Rabbi Elie Kaunfer introduces aspects of the High Holiday Mahzor as we prepare for the upcoming Hagim. This is the first of these introducing the Malkhuyot (or Kingship) section of Rosh Hashanah Musaf. You can go to hadar.org and sign up for the WhatsApp group to receive this video and audio series every day.

In Parahsat Ki Tavo, the word “amen” appears 12 times in 12 consecutive verses (Deuteronomy 27:15-26).  It is also a word that features prominently in our prayer experience, usually in response to the prayer leader’s prompt.  But what does this word mean?  What is happening ritually when we say “amen”?

In what way is the Talmud like a recipe book? In this panel event that brought together an incredible slice of the New York Jewish community, Hadar’s Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish leads a discussion about a revolutionary new cookbook, "Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves," collected by Kenden Alfond. Learn not only about this book but also about the women of the Talmud and mustard seeds! 

Jewish identity is irreducibly made up of both religious and ethnic components.  One of the situations where this complexity comes to the fore is for converts (or in Hebrew: gerim), people who become Jewish but do not necessarily have ethnic Jewish ancestors.  And yet, our liturgy is full of references to the “God of our ancestors” and similar formulations assuming an ethnically Jewish background.  How should Jews by choice interact with a liturgy that assumes, at least sometimes, that those who recite it are Jews by birth?

Putting together a lot of her teaching over the years, Rabbi Avital Hochstein explores the verb “to see” in the Torah. How can seeing someone else create connection and mutual understanding? How can seeing help us evaluate what is good and right?

At the end of the Amidah, we ask for God to “שים שלום - grant peace.”  But the word “שלום - peace” has multiple meanings, and it is not clear exactly what we are asking for in this moment.  Is this a request for broad political stability, or something more personal?  How might we understand this request for peace and how it relates to our prayer life?