Global Day 2017 will take place on Sunday November 12, 2017
Listen to the recordings of the 2016 sessions here.
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Hosted by:
Mechon Hadar and Schechter Manhattan
Event Description | Teachers and Sessions | Registration
Event Description
Mechon Hadar, Schechter Manhattan, Shaare Zedek, and LimmudNY will be hosting a Global Day of Jewish Learning on Sunday, November 20, 2016, at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, on 100th and Columbus, from 9:45am-3:00pm.
Join with over 400 communities in 48 countries and 6 continents for a day of Torah study. For a schedule of the day, please see below. In addition to the teaching sessions, there will dedicated space for chevruta learning as well as childrens' programming.
This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be available for purchase between 11:50 am and 2:30 pm. Recordings of sessions will be posted after the Global Day of Jewish Learning.
Registration
Please register here. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
2016 Schedule:
| 9:45am | Welcome and Opening Remarks | ||||||
| 10am |
Some Difficult Mishnahs in Tractate Yevamot Professor Judith Hauptman Jewish Theological Seminary/Ohel Ayalah |
Breeding For Flavor: Sacrifices, Tithes, First Fruits and the Search for Great Taste Rabbi Jonah Geffen Shaare Zedek |
Textual Gardening for Beginners: How to Fashion the Perfect Landscape Rabbi Michael Hattin Pardes |
“Your Eyes will be Open and You Shall Be As Gods” - Human Domination and the Divine Image Joseph Gindi AJWS |
When the World is Not as it Should Be: Elisha ben Abuyah and the Road to Heresy Wendy Amsellem Drisha |
Early Childhood Family Learning-A Seed is Forever: How God created a world that recreates itself again and again 3rd - 5th, STEAM - Water in Gan Eden: Source of Life, with Schechter Manhattan (Elisa Marcus, Allison Levine) K-2nd, The Trees of Gan Eden, with Schechter Manhattan (Rina Goldberg, Benjamin Mann) |
Schechter Manhattan parent and artist Lisa Brunner will be working with everyone who stops by to create thematic art projects
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| 11am |
Three Radical Blessings on Nature Rabbi Elie Kaunfer Mechon Hadar |
Rabbi Eugene Wernick East 55th St Synagogue |
Caring for nature or improving on it? The Garden of Eden story revisited Dr. Aaron Koller Yeshiva University |
Surviving to Thriving: The Indomitable Spirit of Refugees Across the Globe Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer HIAS |
Honi HaMe'agel: Building a Sustainable Society Daniel Atwood Uri L'Tzedek |
Early Childhood, Drop Off, Open Play space: Planting our very own seeds 3rd - 5th, To Eat or Not Eat, That is the Question, with Schechter Manhattan (Rina Goldberg, Benjamin Mann) K-2nd, STEAM - Make your own Gan Eden, with Schechter Manhattan (Elisa Marcus, Allison Levine) |
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| 11:50am | Lunch Break | ||||||
| 12:15pm |
Yoshi Silverstein Hazon |
Spread My Bed With Apples: The Natural World and Jewish Mystical Love Poetry Rabbi Josh Buchin Romemu |
Stone Cold Torah: Can Torah Shape Us and Do We Want It To? Rabbi Avi Killip Mechon Hadar |
Trimming Beards and Cutting Trees: A New Understanding of Bal Tashchit Sarah Krinsky B'nai Jeshurun |
Rabbi Guy Austrian Fort Tryon Jewish Center |
Early Childhood Family Learning, Shabbat in the Garden of Eden, with Esther Azar 3-5th grades - Grow Torah - Yosef Gillers. K-2nd with Laynie Soloman - Fort Tryon Jewish Center |
Schechter Manhattan parent and artist Lisa Brunner will be working with everyone who stops by to create thematic art projects.
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| 1:15pm |
A World Full of Glory: An Introduction to Medieval Jewish (and a little Islamic) Science Rabbi Michael Paley UJA-Federation of New York |
God-Optional: DIY Theology for the Age of Post-Patriarchy Shira Kline Lab/Shul |
Is Veal Kosher? The Rhetoric of Ethics and Halakha Rabbi Dov Linzer Yeshivat Chovevei Torah |
In Defence of "Eye for an Eye:" Approaches to Morality and Law Jeremy Tabick Kehillat Hadar |
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Early Childhood. Open Play space - drop off; And on Day 8... We are tasked with continuing Gods work in the world K-2nd grades - Grow Torah - Yosef Gillers. |
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| 2:15pm |
Discovering God in the Natural World: Insights from Kabbalah and Hasidism Dr. Eitan Fishbane The Jewish Theological Seminary |
Divinity, Equity, and Sustainability: Moral and Theological Implications of the Shmitta Cycle Rabbi Shuli Passow B'nai Jeshurun
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Rabbi Ethan Witkowsky Park Avenue Synagogue |
Lost and Found: Theological Themes in the Laws of Returning Lost Objects Goldie Guy Columbia/Barnard Hillel |
Sarra Alpert Avodah |
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Class Descriptions
Sarra Alpert—The Change You Wish to See
Whether as activists or engaged members of our society, we make choices about how we participate in the processes of social change from the incremental to the radical. In this session, we'll study texts from Jewish tradition and other sources on the connections, differences, potential and challenges between and of these different methods.
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Wendy Amsellem—When the World is Not as it Should Be: Elisha ben Abuyah and the Road to Heresy
As a prominent first century sage, Elisha ben Abuyah had learned a lot about how God's world was supposed to function. What happens when one's experience of the world does not cohere with one's expectations? We will study a series of texts that explore Elisha's path to disillusionment and heresy.
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Daniel Atwood—Honi HaMe'agel: Building a Sustainable Society
In this session, we will be looking at talmudic stories centered around trees, specifically with Choni HaMeagel. What does the tree represent in the Talmud?
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Rabbi Guy Austrian—The Blueprint of the Universe
The very first midrash in the compilation Genesis Rabbah suggests that the Torah is the blueprint of the created universe. If so, what can we learn about the Architect from studying the world around us? We'll do a deep read of this essential midrash with accompanying debates about the relationship of God, Torah, and Creation, focusing on the question: How do we come to know God?
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Rabbi Josh Buchin—Spread My Bed With Apples: The Natural World and Jewish Mystical Love Poetry
In this session we will examine several Jewish love poems - Biblical, Medieval, and Modern - and look at the language that poets have used to describe three interconnected concepts: God, nature, and love.
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Dr. Eitan Fishbane—Discovering God in the Natural World: Insights from Kabbalah and Hasidism
Divine sparks beneath the surface of the mundane. Nature as a window onto the divine mystery. Wilderness as the audible song of revelation. Like their counterparts in other spiritual traditions, Jewish mystics have articulated the wonder and holy power of Nature's Temple, the manner in which the earthly is experienced as an indwelling of God. In this session, we will explore several classic expressions of this phenomenon, studying the words of medieval kabbalists alongside the teachings of Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav and non-Jewish masters such as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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Rabbi Jonah Geffen—Breeding For Flavor: Sacrifices, Tithes, First Fruits and the Search for Great Taste
Jewish law and lore is filled with ritual, law, and custom regarding food. The Torah, Mishnah, Talmud and codes go into intricate detail about what we eat, how we prepare and eat it, and how we share it with the Creator of the World. And yet, it does not matter - religiously - what the food tastes like...Or does it?
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Joseph Gindi—“Your Eyes will be Open and You Shall Be As Gods” - Human Domination and the Divine Image
What is human’s place in the world? Why do we so often engage with nature and with others from a place of domination? And what can we do about that? In this session we will explore the divine mandate for dominion, and how that is connected to the unique position of human beings on the planet. We will place these texts in dialogue with a case study from grantee partners at American Jewish World Service.
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Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer—Surviving to Thriving: The Indomitable Spirit of Refugees Across the Globe
Using the stories of refugees as our primary texts and the words of Psalms as our commentary, this session will uncover the multiple layers of loss that refugees experience – of home, employment, culture, loved ones – and reflect on how these experiences inform, but do not limit, the people they become. This experiential session will empower participants to find a path to action on behalf of the world’s refugees using our personal and communal stories of resilience as inspiration.
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Goldie Guy—Lost and Found: Theological Themes in the Laws of Returning Lost Objects
How does spirituality find its place in civil law? The second chapter of tractate Bava Metzia deals with the laws of returning lost objects, and property ownership. While on the surface these are interpersonal laws, the rabbis connect them in subtle and more explicit ways to broader theological themes. In this class we will explore the place of God in the civil code through rabbinic and chassidic texts. (All texts with translation)
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Rabbi Michael Hattin—Textual Gardening for Beginners: How to Fashion the Perfect Landscape
Upon the summit of the Temple Mount, arguably the most hotly contested site in the world, once stood a glorious building that was destroyed almost two thousand years ago but refuses to be forgotten by our tradition. We will study the ordering principles underlying the Temple's architectonics and then employ a process of "textual excavation" to recover the Temple Ideal from among the shards that remain. We will discover that the Temple constitutes a deliberate attempt to fashion "the perfect landscape."
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Professor Judith Hauptman—Some Difficult Mishnahs in Tractate Yevamot
Some consider Tractate Yevamot to be the most challenging of all tractates of Mishnah. In an attempt to see if this is so, we will study a number of Mishnahs from chapter 11. Subject matter is levirate marriage, as explained in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
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Rabbi Elie Kaunfer—Three Radical Blessings on Nature
Prayer is an opportunity to become aware of nature. The rabbis of the Talmud recognized this in their formulations of three blessings that are familiar but actually quite radical: The blessing for light, for separating light and darkness, and for granting wisdom to the rooster. Together we will explore these blessings and their literary background in an effort to uncover deeper meaning within them, and in our own experience of nature.
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Rabbi Avi Killip—Stone Cold Torah: Can Torah Shape Us and Do We Want It To?
Through the lens of the Talmud we will explore the use of nature as metaphor for how Torah can shape our lives--and whether that's a good thing.
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Shira Kline—God-Optional: DIY Theology for the Age of Post-Patriarchy
“I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” is something we all hear a lot these days. Beyond significant semantics (and beyond the cliche), this distinction actually points to a major shift in how so many of us relate to our inherited religious traditions, and vocabularies. Lab/Shul's Shira Kline gives a backstage tour of our radical approach to creating original poetic God-optional liturgical translations for sincere believers, questioners, agnostics, atheists, and the rest of us.
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Dr. Aaron Koller—Caring for nature or improving on it? The Garden of Eden story revisited
We will read the story of the Garden of Eden carefully for what it has to say about the role of humanity in the world - in the garden and then, more importantly, in the post-garden world. Other biblical texts will also inform our thinking, so that a picture of how the Bible views the relationship between humanity, nature, and God, will emerge.
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Sarah Krinsky—Trimming Beards and Cutting Trees: A New Understanding of Bal Tashchit
The mitzvah of bal tashchit often serves as the underpinning of Jewish environmentalism. Yet in the Torah, the language of "tashchit" refers not just to trees, but also to trimming one's beard. We will explore this alternate conception of bal tashchit, and think together about connections between the two paradigms and their implications on our environmental practices.
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Rabbi Dov Linzer—Is Veal Kosher?: The Rhetoric of Ethics and Halakha
Does halakha permit us to inflict suffering on animals? Is veal kosher if it violates ethical principles? In general, what is the relationship between formal halakhic requirements and the values that are inherent in the system? In this class we will explore these issues, and see the role that rhetoric plays when halakhic decisors bring ethical considerations into their halakhic rulings.
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Rabbi Michael Paley—A World Full of Glory: An Introduction to Medieval Jewish (and a little Islamic) Science
In the Medieval period, the Jews were among the great philosopher-scientists. In their comments on Genesis, they explored the natural world and how it came to be. This included explanations of creation, the rainbow and laws of physics. Almost all of the great commentators, including Maimonides, were engaged in these pursuits. In our session we will open up these texts and introduce a framework for their ideas.
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Rabbi Shuli Passow—Divinity, Equity, and Sustainability: Moral and Theological Implications of the Shmitta Cycle
What impact does the Shmitta year have on the way society functions? What is the connection between the various elements of Shmitta observance--God, the land, and other human beings? Through a close reading and analysis of biblical texts, we'll examine the spiritual, environmental, and ethical underpinnings of this mitzvah to discover the unique theology of the Seventh Year.
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Jeremy Tabick—In Defence of "Eye for an Eye:" Approaches to Morality and Law
The principle of talion, or "eye for an eye," is usually invoked to describe the brutality of biblical law (and ancient law in general). However, something astonishing happens in the Rabbinic laws of personal injury: the punishment has transformed into money instead of retaliation. How are we supposed to understand this transformation? We will look at the explanations in the Talmud Bavli on interpreting this biblical law metaphorically, and in the process reevaluate our original assumptions about the biblical texts.
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Yoshi Silverstein—Landscape Linguistics and Hebrew Metaforms: Creating a Language of Landscape Design for Jewish Meaning and Identity
So you're building a Jewish garden, farm, gathering place, courtyard, or campus. Jewish architectural design has a small but established vocabulary of forms and modalities (e.g. synagogues, museums, sculpture), but no such parallel exists for Jewish landscape architecture. So how do you reflect the values and ideals your Jewish community strives to embody in the landscape? How do we tell Jewish stories, express Jewish ideas, values, symbols, language, meaning, and identity through physical cues and expressions ... and what does Kabbalah have to do with stormwater management?
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Rabbi Eugene Wernick—Rabbinic Revolution
In this session, we will explore how the Rabbis created modern Judaism from a religion of caste and sacrifice to a religion of prayer and study.
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Lisa Brunner—Art Space
Schechter Manhattan parent and artist Lisa Brunner will be working with everyone who stops by to create thematic art projects - adults without children are welcome! There will be art with nature and items to build to add to the Schechter Manhattan garden. 2 year olds - 2nd graders should be accompanied by an adult in the art space. 3rd - 5th graders may join the art space unaccompanied.
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Chesed Family Project. (1:10 - 3 PM)
Build birthday boxes for children underprivileged youth. Here's a chance to put together items, decorate and write a card to someone in our community who might not have a special present on their birthday. Children welcome with their parents to participate in this activity.
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STEAM—Water in Gan Eden: Source of Life
Participants will learn about the water of Gan Eden and will design and build a structure that allows one water source to divide into four streams.
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STEAM—Make your own Gan Eden
Participants will read a description of Gan Eden in the Torah, imagine what it might have looked like, design and create stamps to make their own artistic representation of Gan Eden.
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Grow Torah
Learn about the ways that Judaism connects us with the earth. Do some gardening, building and designing in Schechter Manhattan's garden. Build birthday boxes for children underprivileged youth. Here's a chance to put together items, decorate and write a card to someone in our community who might not have a special present on their birthday. Children welcome with their parents to participate in this activity.
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3rd-5th grades (10:55 - 11:55 AM)-To Eat or Not Eat, That is the Question.
Participants will study the text of Genesis 2 and debate whether Adam should eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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K-2nd Grades (12:10 - 1:10 PM)-Laynie Soloman from Fort Tryon Jewish Center
Participants will learn the rabbinic story of Honi the Circlemaker and create their own prayers and blessings for our planet through art and song.
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Early Childhood, 9:55 AM: A Seed is Forever: How God created a world that recreates itself again and again
Participants will learn about the trees planted in the garden of Eden as described in Genesis 2 through games, songs, and text learning.
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Early Childhood, 10:55 AM: Planting Our Very Own Seed; Open Play Space Drop Off with Shaare Zedek
An opportunity for each child to decorate a plant pot and plant their own seeds to bring home.
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Early Childhood Learning, 12:15 PM: Shabbat in the Garden of Eden: God created for 6 days and on the seventh God rested, with Shaare Zedek
Using song, yoga, and play we will explore God’s creations from day 1-6 and then like God we will rest within our creations and renew for the week ahead.
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Early Childhood Learning, 1:15 PM: And on Day 8... We are tasked with continuing Gods work in the world, with Shaare Zedek
Using art materials children will have an opportunity to create their own creations. Bringing to life their own stories of creation empowering them to continue Gods work in the world.