with Rabbi Leon A. Morris
What Does it Mean to Embody Torah?
What does it mean to “embody” the Torah? How can the human being steeped in knowledge or observance be a kind of living Torah? From a first-century midrash about Joseph’s bones, to strange rituals surrounding the death of Torah scholars, we will explore the ways the Rabbis imagine and conceptualize the relationship between Torah, our bodies and the larger purpose of our lives.
Nothing But the Truth?! Balancing Autonomy and Commandedness
How do we balance our own personal “truths” with the inherited claims of Jewish tradition to which we are drawn? What is the place of “personal integrity” in religious life? What do we do when our own experience of the world seems so different from those who shaped Jewish law and tradition? We will anchor our discussion in a surprisingly radical text from the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Yoma 69b) that reveals how the early Rabbis themselves struggled with these same questions. We will explore how we might creatively reclaim ancient texts, laws, and rituals and allow them to speak to us in new ways.
Longing to Hear Again: Post-Modern Judaism and Second Naivete
Just as our childhood beliefs are challenged by what we experience later in life, similarly, many of the Jewish people’s core beliefs were challenged by the Enlightenment, biblical criticism and science. With many central ideas of classic Judaism shattered, how can contemporary Jews shape a life of religious faith while not giving up on the critical tools that modernity has given us? How might we creatively reclaim ancient texts, laws, and rituals and allow them to speak to us in new ways? How might the notion of “second naivete” help heal the divide between the denominations?
In Search of Ten Good Members: The Minyan, Me and My Community (text study with video clips)
Reform Judaism, while never explicitly rejecting the notion of a minyan, has been ambivalent about it over the course of the last century. The minyan points to critical areas of tension in American Jewish life: the centrality of community within a Jewish framework that is increasingly about the self; the meaning of requirements and standards for a Jewish community that sees personal autonomy as its defining feature; and hard distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. Consider that aspects of minyan may be more urgently needed than ever before.
Faith, Blood or Something Else? The Past, Present and Future Meaning of Jewish Identity
The nature of Jewish identity is complex and confounding. Are we primarily a community of faith, defined by a relationship to Torah and mitzvot (commandments), or are we primarily a nation or people with a shared origin, language and land? Two strands of Jewish identity are woven together, and yet never entirely form a single piece of cloth. In the modern period, and particularly with the establishment of the State of Israel, new questions emerge which have given greater urgency to the classic question of who is a Jew. Explore the meaning of Jewish identity in Biblical, Rabbinic and modern times, and analyze what these sources can offer us today as identity increasingly becomes an issue of choice and self-definition. Ultimately, this Sunday Seminar spans from the past to the future, asking what the meaning of Jewish identity is today and tomorrow.
The End of Liturgical Reform as We Know It
More than a century ago, Reform Jews changed the classic prayer book, inspired by their commitment to reason and universalism. In the 21st century, many of the underlying assumptions that guided Reform liturgy have radically changed. Must we literally believe the words we pray? Are we prepared to say with certainty what we do and don’t believe? What does this mean for the future of Reform prayer books?
Breaking the Tablets: Uncovering the Meaning of Jewish Life (text study)
Moses’s breaking of the Tablets is usually understood to be a result of his uncontrollable anger toward the people for building a golden calf. In the rabbinic imagination it is far more. It is at the very heart of the Jewish narrative and central to the way the ancient rabbis understood the meaning of Torah. The story becomes a warning to avoid even the idolatry within religious life, and a reminder of how essential human initiative is for shaping an expansive and interpretative tradition.
The Calves of Our Lips: What the Ancient Sacrifices Can Teach Post-Modern Jews (text study)
The notion of sacrificial offerings was an anathema in the shaping of a modern Jewish life. These most ancient forms of divine service were understood as primitive and outmoded. Although the classic, traditional liturgy continued to reference the ancient sacrificial service that predated it, the very first nineteenth-century liturgical reforms removed most of the references to the Temple, and to the sacrifices that had been offered there, and discouraged those rituals most directly connected to the memory of the Temple service. To the sensibilities of modern Jews attempting to shape a modern Judaism, the primitive nature of animal and grain sacrifices seemed to offer little by way of inspiration or critical ideas. The burning of animals in service to God seemed cruel. The idea that God was to be found in one central place, and most closely served by one select group of people, was highly objectionable. Our age opens us up to new possibilities of meaning that such connections can provide for us. Texts and prayers about sacrifices present us with opportunities to explore the notions of relationship, closeness and distance, gift giving, the sublimation of violence and mystery.
Surrender as a Source of Strength and Faith
In contemporary Jewish life, we place enormous value on our ability to choose. Yet, choice erodes a sense of commitment and obligation. In what ways might the mitzvot be understood as a “middle ground” between our own autonomy and the commanding voice of the Divine. Explore how the use of a classic psychoanalytic paper provides us with terms that can help liberal Jews experience a sense of duty and commandedness.
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