Preparing Our Homes for Pesach: The history behind contemporary practice

April 3, 2020

Preparing Our Homes for Pesach: The history behind contemporary practice

Rabbi Daniel Reifman

13 Lectures

Daniel Reifman has taught Talmud and halakhah at Drisha for close to 20 years. He holds a PhD in hermeneutics from Bar Ilan University and received his rabbinic ordination and an MA in Tanakh from Yeshiva University. During the year, he teaches at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and at the Institute for Advanced Torah Studies at Bar Ilan.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Daniel Reifman.

Most Popular Lectures

All Lectures

We spend the weeks before Passover in a frenzy of cleaning activity. Join us as we take a step back to consider the history and theory behind our modern Passover preparations, beginning with the talmudic sources and continuing all the way to contemporary responsa.

Our first class will examine the roots of the various means by which we rid homes of hametz: bedikah and biur (search and destroy), mekhirah (selling) and bittul (verbally nullifying). Our second class will trace the parameters of the laws of kashering: why different materials and types of utensils require different methods, and how traditional kashering techniques have been adapted to modern kitchens.

Related courses

February 13, 2024

Hanukkah: Holiday of Homebodies

Rabbanit Leah Sarna

Rabbanit Leah Sarna

18 Lectures

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.

Most Popular Lectures

All Lectures

February 13, 2024

Symbolism and Significance: Examining the Yom Kippur Service Avodah

Victoria Sutton

3 Lectures

Rabbanit Victoria Sutton is on the Judaic studies faculty at the Heschel School and has taught in the Drisha High School Summer Program. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Congregation Beth Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. She was ordained through Yeshivat Maharat in 2014. A graduate of Barnard College, with a BA in Biological Sciences, she also holds a Grand Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. Victoria sat on the board of Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay and was involved with community organizations in New York City focusing on homelessness, literacy, sexual assault and domestic violence.