Revised schedule for final sessions of Rabbi David's adult ed classes (April - May 2013)

4/17/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Abraham Geiger – The Shaping of Reform Judaism) Class cancelled on 4/17 due to inclement weather.

4/24/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Abraham Geiger - The Shaping of Reform Judaism AND The Neo-Orthodoxy of Samson Raphael Hirsch)

5/1/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Zecharias Frankel and Conservative Judaism)

5/8/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Zionism's Answer to the Jewish Problem) (Last Jewish Intellectual History class for this program year. God willing, we'll cover most if not all of  the remaining sessions of this course during the 2013-2014 program year including the following topics: Three Zionist Visions; The Jewish Adventure with Socialism; Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason; Leo Baeck's Mystery and Commandment; Martin Buber's Religious Existentialism; Martin Buber vs. Franz Rosenzweig; Mordecai Kaplan and American Judaism; Abraham Heschel - Mystic and Social Activist; Theological Responses to the Nazi Holocaust; Feminist Jewish Theology; Current Trends in Jewish Thought)

DECEMBER-MAY ADULT EDUCATION DATES

Here are the meeting dates for Rabbi David's adult education courses for the remainder of the current program year.  For details about each of these classes, please scroll down to the preceding entry in this Adult Education blog.  All classes meet from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. on the following dates (which are all Wednesday evenings).  If you have questions, please contact Rabbi David Steinberg at 218-724-8857 or by e-mail at rabbidavid@jewishduluth.org:

12/12/12 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Cultural Transformation in the Italian Ghetto)

12/19/12 -- Talmud  (We are currently in the middle of page 56b in Masechet Berachot)

12/26/12 - NO CLASS

1/2/13 -- NO CLASS

1/9/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (17th Century Marranism and Messianism)

1/16/13 -- Talmud

1/23/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (The Challenge of Baruch Spinoza)

1/30/13 -- Talmud

2/6/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Moses Mendelssohn and his Generation)

2/13/13 -- Talmud

2/20/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (The Science of Judaism)

2/27/13 -- Talmud

3/6/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Heinrich Graetz -- Jewish Historian)

3/13/13 -- NO CLASS

3/20/13 -- NO CLASS

3/27/13 -- Talmud

4/3/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Abraham Geiger -- The Shaping of Reform Judaism)

4/10/13 -- Talmud

4/17/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (The Neo-Orthodoxy of Samson Raphael Hirsch)

4/24/13 -- Talmud

5/1/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Zecharias Frankel and Conservative Judaism)

5/8/13 -- Talmud

5/15/13 -- NO CLASS

5/22/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Samuel David Luzzatto -- Judaism and Atticism)

5/29/13 -- Talmud  (Last Talmud class for this program year). 

6/5/13 -- Jewish Intellectual History (Zionism's Answer to the Jewish Problem) (Last Jewish Intellectual History class for this program year.  God willing, we'll cover the remaining sessions of this course during the 2013-2014 program year including the following topics:  Three Zionist Visions; The Jewish Adventure with Socialism; Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason; Leo Baeck's Mystery and Commandment; Martin Buber's Religious Existentialism; Martin Buber vs. Franz Rosenzweig; Mordecai Kaplan and American Judaism; Abraham Heschel - Mystic and Social Activist; Theological Responses to the Nazi Holocaust; Feminist Jewish Theology; Current Trends in Jewish Thought)

Adult Ed Classes for 2012-13

Beginning Modern Hebrew (Wed. 5:15 to 6:15 p.m., starting date October 10, 2012)

Chris King is teaching beginning modern Hebrew (using the textbook "Aleph Isn't Tough") on Wednesday afternoons from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. For more information please contact Chris King at 218-724-4718.  It's not too late to join the class.

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Jewish Intellectual History:  16th through 20th Centuries (alternate Wednesdays  7:00 to 8:15 p.m. starting 11/7/12)  

Beginning on 11/7/12, Rabbi David Steinberg will be leading a study group that will meet alternate Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m (alternating with the Talmud study group described below).   In this Jewish Intellectual History study group, we will view together and discuss selected episodes from The Great Courses company's series of lectures on Modern Jewish Intellectual History: 16th through 20th Centuries narrated by Rabbi David Ruderman, PhD.  Dr.  Ruderman is a Professor of Jewish History at the University of Pennsylvania, who received his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and his PhD in History from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Our plan is to spend 15 minutes or so discussing the background of the particular video episode that we will be viewing, then view the half-hour long episode together, and then spend up to 30 minutes or so afterwards processing it together.  The following link gives information about the video series that we will be viewing together:  http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=4647 

You are welcome to contact Rabbi David Steinberg rabbidavid@jewishduluth.org 218-724-8857 if you have any questions.  Advance registration is not required and interested students are welcome to commit to the entire course or simply to drop in on individual classes.  Specific topics to be discussed on particular dates will be announced in advance for each class.

Talmud Study Group on Masechet Berachot, Chapter 9 (alternate Wednesdays 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. starting 11/14/12)  

This will be a continuation of the Talmud Study Group that met last year.  However, no previous participation is required.  We will be working with the Schottenstein edition English translation of the text while consulting the Hebrew, but you don't need to know any Hebrew to take part in the class.  For more information please contact Rabbi David.  Here is a link for purchasing the text:  http://play.artscroll.com/Details.aspx?itemNo=TBR2 

Dates for remaining classes

The remaining dates for this year's adult education classes are tonight (Thursday, April 26th), May 17 and May 31.  The May 3rd sessions have been cancelled.  As has been the case throughout the past year, beginner aleph-bet meets from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and the Talmud study group on Masechet Berachot meets from 7:10 to 8:10 p.m.

Schedule of Rabbi David's adult education classes for 5772/2011-12

As I mentioned in my previous adult education blog post, I plan this year to lead two year-long courses:  A basic Hebrew course for those with no prior background, and a Talmud study group focusing on chapter nine (the concluding chapter) of Masechet Berachot (Tractate on Blessings) from the Babylonian Talmud.  That chapter discusses various special blessings that can be made, such as upon coming across a place where a miracle was performed, or upon seeing thunder or lightning or a rainbow.  But we'll quickly see that Talmud study is an end in itself with many twists and turns, not just a search for specific answers to specific questions.

For each of the following dates, the beginning Hebrew class is scheduled for 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and the Talmud study group would meet from 7:10 to 8:10 p.m.  Here are the class dates (Please note that classes in November and December include some Tuesday sessions and some Thursday sessions but that, come 2012, all remaining class sessions fall on Thursdays): 

1. Tues. 11/8 (Election Day – Please vote before coming to class!)
2. Thurs. 11/17
3. Tues. 11/22
4. Thurs. 12/1
5. Tues. 12/6
6. Tues. 12/13 
7. Thurs. 1/5
8. Thurs. 1/19
9. Thurs. 2/2
10. Thurs. 2/16
11. Thurs. 3/1
12. Thurs. 3/15
13. Thurs. 3/29
14. Thurs. 4/26
15. Thurs. 5/3
16. Thurs. 5/17
17. Thurs. 5/31

For the Hebrew class, we will be using the textbook "Aleph Isn't Tough" by Linda Motzkin, published by URJ Press.  Copies can be purchased through the Temple office or directly from the publisher at the following link:  http://www.urjbooksandmusic.com/product.php?productid=100&cat=18&page=1 .  I'll also add a link to this book in the "Shop" section of the Temple Israel website.  While the Hebrew class will focus on "decoding" (i.e., simply being able to sound out the Hebrew words without the assistance of transliteration), we will also cover some basics of translation and grammar.

For the Talmud study group, we will use the so-called "Schottenstein Edition" published by ArtScroll, which enables us to study it in English, but with easy access to the Hebrew/Aramaic original text for those who have some Hebrew background.  Please purchase Tractate Berachos, Part II.  NOTE:  YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ANY HEBREW OR ARAMAIC TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS STUDY GROUP.  However, if you DO have some background in Hebrew, you may also (or alternatively) wish to purchase the Steinsaltz Hebrew edition of Tractate Berachot.  I have placed a link for purchasing the Steinsaltz Hebrew edition of Tractate Berachot in the "Shop" section of the Temple Israel website.  (No English-language version of the Steinsaltz edition of Tractate Berachot has yet been published.).  For technical reasons, I'm not able to include the Scottenstein Edition Tractate Berachos, Part II on the Shop page of the website.  However, you can purchase it directly from ArtScroll using this link:  http://www.artscroll.com/cgi-bin/getitem?TBR2 

While pre-registration is not required, it would still be great if you could contact me (Rabbi David) or the Temple office if you do plan to come so that we might have an idea of whom to expect.  Of course, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions at all.

The main things to keep in mind are that neither of these classes require any previous background in the subject matter and, with respect to the Talmud class, that you'll be entering into the middle of a centuries-old conversation so that the idea is to just "jump in" and don't worry about being "at sea."  We'll be learning to swim together.

L'shalom,
Rabbi David

rabbidavid@jewishduluth.org