Torah Study

Every Shabbat morning from 9:00-10:15, congregants meet to study the weekly Torah Parasha together in one of four Torah study hevrot:

The S’fat Emet — The Language of Truth. : Rabbi David Thomas

Our Torah Hevra comes to the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger as our teacher and guide.  The S’fat Emet was one of the last great masters of Polish Hasidism.  After his death in 1905, he left a rich legacy of human insights and mystic theology, gleaned from his weekly teachings at the Shabbat table. The rebbe’s perspective is deeply rooted in the Hasidic tradition, yet has an almost contemporary feel.  His attitude is open and embracing of non-traditionalist Jews.  We study his work using a sparklingly clear translation by Rabbi Arthur Green.

Torah and Our Teachers: Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler

Each week we gather in the foyer of Beth El to study the weekly Torah portion.  We begin with an English reading of a section of the portion, to give us an overview and a general way into the text.  Next, we choose 2 verses to translate from Hebrew to English, learning more about our sacred language and even throwing in a little musical Cantillation study as well!

This year, we are focusing our study on the teachings of Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky, known as the Slonimer Rebbe.  The Slonimer was born in 1911, and died in Israel in 2000, making him one of the most contemporary of our Chasidic masters.  His teachings are offered to us by Rabbi Jonathan Slater, who sends out a weekly explanation of the Slonimer text with wonderful questions and challenges we discuss as a group.  Our goal, each and every week, is to bring ourselves fully to the ancient teachings of our tradition, making them come alive as we try to answer powerful questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives and the underpinnings of community to carry us forward.  Open and heartfelt conversations bring us together week after week.

Chasidic Conversations: David Krieger

In this Torah Hevra, we explore Chasidic commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, in which the rebbes of the 18th and 19th centuries wrestled with issues that are as timely as they are timeless. Though we read the commentaries in the original Hebrew, English translations are at hand, and no knowledge of Hebrew is necessary to be a full participant in these conversations in the presence of the Chasidic masters.

Congregant-led Torah Study:Moving Beyond The Torah – Michael Murphy

This group engages in a wide-ranging discussion of the many books that Jews consider to be Scripture, even those not found in the Tanakh. We analyze the motives and assumptions, both political and theological, of the authors of these books and the characters described therein. For anyone who has wondered what else is in the Bible, this is the group for you.