Mechon Hadar Online Learning

For most of the week, and most of our lives, we devote ourselves to the hard work of slowly getting closer to what we most hope for and long for, in terms of who we can become, the relationships we have, and what our world can be. We are always aware of the work that remains to be done. We take a break from this work on Shabbat, not just because we are tired and need time off, but to bring a sense of our true selves into clear focus, and to know that what feels like the unattainable vision towards which we strive can actually be real.

“God said, 'let us make human beings in our image'” (Genesis 1:26). Who is God speaking to and what does it mean to be made in God’s image? Rabbi Shai Held dives into the midrash on this text, offering rabbinic explanations to these questions and unearthing the theological and ethical questions that come up along the way. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar’s Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Terumah and Tetzaveh offer a visual landscape of the mishkan, its structure, its furnishings and the dress of those who served in it. One thing that is lacking from this picture is a soundscape. The Torah doesn’t indicate that any words were recited in the mishkan, in prayer or in song. In fact, if we picture the mishkan based on this week’s parashah, the only sound was from the jingling bells on the bottom of the robe worn by the Kohen Gadol. The resonant sound of these bells evokes the steady rhythm of the high priest in worship, but also carries painful overtones of what is most haunting and unresolved as we try to approach the Divine.

For centuries, midrash has helped reconcile problematic, troubling, and hurtful texts by understanding them in a new light. In this lecture, Rabbi Avi Killip studies modern women’s midrash from the book “Dirshuni” that offers one approach to hearing, and maybe even healing from our most difficult texts. That is the power of midrash. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar’s Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Parashat Terumah brings us to what is a sort of epilogue—though also, in some ways, a prologue—of the love story in three scenes we saw between Israel and God in earlier parshiyyot of Shemot. Beyond Sinai (articulating commitment and marriage), we come to the moment of “moving in” as we build a home in the form of the mishkan. Through intertwined acts of human and divine hospitality, Parashat Terumah teaches us to cultivate a readiness to give of ourselves to shelter and care for another, even when we cannot always clearly envision the recipient—or even the utility of what we have to give.

The very first law of the extended laws of Parashat Mishpatim starts with a horrifying phrase: “When you acquire a Hebrew slave.” We were just, two weeks ago, freed from being Hebrew slaves. How could the Torah possibly articulate the words “Hebrew slave”? This first law in Parashat Mishpatim forces us to confront the fact that oppressive structures become entrenched, and won’t disappear overnight. The dramatic liberation story is over. Now starts the much harder work of finding redemption within unideal and often harsh realities.

The Rabbis lived in a very different world from the biblical “great, mighty, and awesome” God. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg explains how the Rabbis interpreted this depiction of God in a time of human free will and limited divine power. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar’s Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

In Parashat Yitro we come to Sinai, the final formative scene in reading the Exodus as a story of how Israel and God "fell in love." Strands of our tradition depict Sinai as a kind of wedding between us and God. In some depictions, Israel blindly agreed to enter this relationship even without knowing all the commitments involved. In other traditions, each person was fully informed of the details beforehand. Exploring these different versions of Sinai we see the importance of informed, affirmative consent as the bedrock of any relationship of intimacy. At the same time, it reminds us that in the deepest relationships of our lives, we can never fully know what might be required of us.

In recent decades, Tu Bishvat has become a holiday for trees and to raise awareness and concern for our natural environment. This year, as we celebrate Tu Bishvat in the midst of a Shemittah year, it is a powerful opportunity to notice the ways Jewish laws on produce and agriculture come at the intersection of the natural environment and social equity. Particularly on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this intersection is especially poignant. As we celebrate Tu Bishvat of Shemittah this year, let’s remember that we must build a world where blessings are not only shared, but shared in effective ways with those whose access may be riddled with obstacles and hazards.

Last week, we began an exploration of the different stories of how Israel “fell in love” with God. Far from a naive picture of the beloved who swoops in to make everything better, digging deeper into these texts we find a more rugged texture of how redemptive relationship interfaces with complex realities. This week, we will explore the relationship between parents and children, their respective relationships with God, and how these webs of relationship shape each other.

Our tradition invites us to explore the nature of redemptive relationship. Instead of reading the Exodus as primarily historical or mythic, a prominent strand among our sages interprets the Exodus intimately and poetically, through the lens of the Song of Songs. The narrative becomes the origin story of our covenantal relationship with God — or, one might say, the story of how we fell in love.

Some people see Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, as an allegory for the love between God and Israel. Some see it simply as a love poem. But what if it’s both?! R. Shai Held takes us through intertextual references in Shir HaShirim and the history of ancient perfume to try to convince us that maybe Shir HaShirim can be both an allegory and literal text at the same time. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar’s Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Sometimes we need a new name for God. The ways we’ve known God so far may feel limited, inadequate, or even disappointing. Moshe is lucky enough to have God disclose a new name, one that will usher in redemption. Learning new names for God that represent a different kind of relationship, or new ways for God to show up in the world, is not generally so straightforward. Sometimes we have to be proactive, whether out of gratitude or desperation, and call God into being in new ways.

Where does our story of slavery begin? These are times when our own ancestors mistreated or enslaved others, perhaps laying the groundwork for the kind of oppression that would end up enslaving us. Noticing these moments is about becoming aware of how our choices about how to exercise power shape the communities and world our descendants will inhabit.

Get to the roots of gender in the Torah by turning to the opening narratives of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. What might these two different accounts of the creation of the first man and first woman imply about the Torah's understandings of gender and gender roles in relationships? Moving beyond the Torah, we meet Lilith, the woman who breaks the mold and challenges stereotypical notions of gender. Through a close encounter with Torah, traditional midrash, and contemporary interpretations, we'll examine and reexamine notions of gender and relationships in hopes of better articulating our understandings of gender and gender roles in relationships. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Yosef and his family are reunited, and we might hope to find meaningful resolution and reconciliation between brothers. Instead, we discover communication gaps, accompanying persistent guilt and fear. When we embrace the mess of Sefer Bereishit that has so much unresolved conflict, we can be inspired to expand our views of reconciliation and forgiveness.

In the Bible, where characters are generally multifaceted, the first murderer in the Bible, is a notable exception -- until we consider the world of midrash. R. Tali Adler teaches about Kayin through the lens of midrash and discusses how this character might serve as a surprising religious role model. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

What is the tone of Yehudah’s approach to Yosef? Surprisingly, early traditions emphasize the aggressiveness of the encounter, suggesting that Yehudah approached “for war.” Even more surprisingly, we learn that we are meant to adopt this very stance in our own daily prayer. We too must cultivate the capacity to fight for what conviction and compassion demand, day in and day out.

In Parashat VaYeishev, Yosef repeatedly resists the advances of Potifar’s wife. In the wake of modern and contemporary sexual revolutions, there has been pushback on a sexual ethics based on boundaries and “purity” in favor of a sexual ethics that focuses primarily on consent. Consent is critical, but sometimes too narrow a lens to understand the significance of sexuality in our lives. Upon closer look at Yosef’s encounter with Potifar’s wife, we find an approach to sexual ethics that intersects with fundamental questions of identity and purpose.

The most devastating part of the story of Dinah is that the Torah does not share Dinah’s perspective. We have no idea if this was “the rape of Dinah” or an encounter she desired. This gap is not surprising, but as inheritors of Torah we must ask ourselves how we inherit this part of our Torah responsibly.