Together we will investigate our moral, spiritual, and communal choices as modern Jews and challenge ourselves to reflect on classical categories of Jewish meaning, belonging, and obligation with new eyes. Join us for our pluralistic, intellectually rigorous, and spiritually renewing year of study as we explore Jewish classical texts and their relevance to our lives.Today, people are certain about so many things. Impressions are formed and often affirmed, in an instant. What can we learn from the rabbis about the value of uncertainty and how to negotiate it thoughtfully? How does rabbinic thought manage uncertainty when it arises from competing claims from people themselves? We will explore rabbinic sources dealing with conflicting claims and possible solutions.

“The Hazan snatches the song from the place where prophets (dwell).” Rav Nachman explains that a sacred musician is called a Hazan, a Hebrew word which uses the same root as the word hazon, meaning “vision”. The potential for a cantor to reach souls through music and bring them into a new world is visionary. How did this vocation come to be, and how does a cantor serve as a vessel in this way? Let’s discover the beautiful Torah of Music and prayer together!

Music has always been a part of Jewish worship. Since biblical and then Temple times, music has served as a vehicle for transcendence and closer connection to those things we consider greater than ourselves. What is so unique about Jewish music? Why does it evoke deep memory and emotion when we hear a certain synagogue tune? Explore all this and more as we trace the journey of Jewish music, its evolution and role in every day life. 

“If you want to understand a culture, study it’s music,” Confucius, 459 BCE. Through our study of melody and text written during pivotal moments of the modern age, we will learn the histories, stories, and cultures of our two homelands, Israel and America.