Today was jam-packed with learning, and it was pretty stellar. I slept through the night this time which was LOVELY, then woke up at 6:30 to daven. I had to rush a little to get ready and get out the door, but it was worth it. Madison and I found a shortcut that cuts off one of the corners, so it made things a little easier when walking to Pardes this morning.
The first class I had was Avraham and Sarah. We spent most of the time going through the end of Noach and the beginning of Lech Lecha in chevruta pairs, looking at Avram's ancestors (this was before he became Avraham) and examining how his genaology parallels the genealogy from Adam to Noach. There are 10 generations in each genealogical set, and 10 is one of those numbers that seems to show up frequently in the Torah... plagues, commandments, righteous people necessary to save Sodom, etc.... so we looked into the significance of that, and then discussed Avram's immediate family (his dad, Terach, and his two brothers) and their journey to Charan and then to Canaan. We'll be going all the way through the Akedah (binding of Isaac) over the next few weeks, so the saga of the first Jewish family is only beginning....
Next was kashrut class, where we began by looking at the biblical basis for kashrut - mostly the animals that are considered clean vs. unclean, and looking at various rationales for why this system might have been established in the first place. While the Torah does present some sort of system for some of the categories of animals that are clean (sea creatures w/ fins and scales, land animals that chew their cud and have a cloven hoof, etc), this doesn't really explain WHY this system is necessary. The only sort of justification that it gives is that G-d says "You shall be holy, for I am holy," and kashrut makes us holy. That's not enough for some of the rabbis, especially Maimonides, who tries to attach a rational explanation to all of the mitzvot. He writes in the Guide to the Perplexed that all of the laws of kashrut are there for health reasons, and we don't eat pork because pigs are dirty. Anyway, this sparks a huge debate in the Jewish tradition - do we need rationales for the mitzvot, or do we do them purely because G-d says so?
More stories to come, but for now we're heading out to dinner. L'hitraot!
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Good morning/afternoon! I have a few minutes before I head off to work. Jake has his first morning to sleep in. I heard both he and Drew drank so much of the sweet tea last night there is no telling what time they went to bed. The summer humidity is starting to sneak in which made for a pretty moist morning run but Molly and I didn't mind. I think Dad and I will need that little Hebrew dictionary we saw at B&N to help will your blog. The classes sound pretty amazing. I hope it is what you were expecting. We really enjoy following your adventure through the blog. I am interested to know how dinner went. Are most people outside of school speaking Hebrew? When do you start you sessions with the tutor? How did you travel in the city?<3MOM
ReplyDeleteGot your email and am responding here.
ReplyDelete"A Clean, Well-lighted Place" is indeed a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
This nancyhend character populating your comments section asks good questions, so I'll wait for your response.
Love Dad
Hey lovely! Israel sounds phenomenal, I'm so exciting you're having fun. I'm sure your roommates are nice, but they can't be as awesome as me, duh.
ReplyDeleteI miss our great talks, but when I get back, we'll catch up. I have some interesting thoughts about the effects of Diaspora on Jewish identity...