The Hand in the Hiddenness
Rabbanit Leah Sarna
Rabbanit Leah Sarna is the Associate Director of Education and Director of High School Programs at Drisha. She previously served as Director of Religious Engagement at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago, a leading urban Orthodox congregation.
She was ordained at Yeshivat Maharat in 2018, holds a BA from Yale University in Philosophy & Psychology, and also trained at the SKA Beit Midrash for Women at Migdal Oz, Drisha and the Center for Modern Torah Leadership. Rabbanit Sarna’s published works have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Lehrhaus and MyJewishLearning.
She has lectured in Orthodox synagogues and Jewish communal settings around the world and loves spreading her warm, energetic love for Torah and Mitzvot with Jews in all stages of life.
The Talmud finds Esther in the Torah through a play on words in the curses of Sefer Devarim, “and I will hide, haster astir My countenance on that day.” Elsewhere the Talmud teaches in the name of Rav that to be a Jew one must experience God’s hiddenness. Why is that, and what does it mean to experience God’s hiddenness? And once we experience it, what are we to do? Join us in an exploration of these verses through the Talmud, Medieval Commentators and Hasidic Masters.