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October 29, 2014

Dirshu: Confronting Challenges with Mind and Heart: Why Learn Talmud?

Chaim Saiman

Chaim Saiman

Chaim Saiman is a Professor of Law at Villanova University and is completing his book Halakha: the Rabbinic Idea of Law, which will be published by Princeton University Press. Professor Saiman has recently served as the Gruss Professor of Jewish Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. Prior to teaching at Villanova, he learned at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, clerked for Judge Michael McConnell in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and studied at the law schools of Columbia, Harvard and NYU.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Chaim Saiman.

Dov Linzer

Dov Linzer

Dov Linzer studied for many years at Yeshivat Har Etzion, was a member of Yeshiva University’s Gruss Kollel Elyon, and received his ordination from the Israeli Rabbinate. He is a recipient of the Javits Graduate fellowship, and a doctoral candidate in Religion at Columbia University. He headed the Boca Raton Kollel for the first two-and-a-half years of its existence, giving classes to the rabbis of the Kollel, and lecturing throughout the South Florida communities. He has published Halakha and machshava articles in Torah journals and lectures widely at synagogues and conferences on topics relating to Halakha, Orthodoxy, and modernity. Rabbi Linzer spearheaded the development of the YCT Rabbinical School curriculum into an innovative four year semikha program which provides its students with rigorous halakhic study and sophisticated professional training in the context of a religious atmosphere which cultivates openness and inclusiveness. In addition to overseeing the Yeshiva’s Torah curriculum, he teaches advanced Halakha in a broad range of areas across all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch – including Kashrut, Ishut and Niddah, and Shabbat and Eruvin. Rabbi Linzer teaches advanced classes in Talmud and a year-long class in Contemporary Challenges of Modern Orthodoxy

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Dov Linzer.

Dr. Devora Steinmetz

Dr. Devora Steinmetz

Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculty of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School and the Mandel Leadership Institute. She is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of scholarly articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible as well as of two books, From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis and Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law. She has served on the faculty of Drisha, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshivat Hadar, and Havruta: a Beit Midrash at Hebrew University.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Devora Steinmetz.

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Session 1: Talmud Study as a Religious Practice 10/29/2014
– Talmud study poses formidable challenges: the Talmud is a difficult and complex text, its modes of argumentation can appear foreign or artificial, much of its subject matter can seem dissonant with or distant from the realities of our lives. This lecture focuses on some of the more challenging aspects of the Talmud and discuss how these very attributes can contribute to the religious formation of the student of Talmud.

Session 2: The ‘Conceptual’ Approach to Talmud Study: Where Has It Been, Where Is It Going, and Why Does It Matter? 11/05/2014
– The Yeshiva movement assumes that learning Gemara is the central spiritual practice of Judaism. But why does delving into the specifics of property rights, torts, or even the intricacies of Shabbat and nidah reflect the pinnacle of a person’s encounter with God? This podcast surverys several approaches to learning Gemara within the world of the Yeshiva and discuss how each interprets and fulfills the spiritual aspirations of Talmud study.

Session 3: Navigating the Sea of Talmud: Study, Teaching, and Personal Religious Meaning – a conversation between Dr. Alyssa Gray, Rabbi Dov Linzer, and Rabbi Ethan Tucker. 11/12/2014
– Three master teachers of Talmud will discuss their approaches to Talmud study and talk about how Talmud study is meaningful to them.

Series sponsored by Drisha Institute in partnership with Mechon Hadar, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and Yeshivat Maharat.

Session 1: Talmud Study as a Religious Practice

Session 1: Talmud Study as a Religious Practice - 10/29/2014

Session 2: The ‘Conceptual’ Approach to Talmud Study

Session 2: The ‘Conceptual’ Approach to Talmud Study - 11/05/2014

Session 3: Navigating the Sea of Talmud: Study, Teaching, and Personal Religious Meaning

Session 3: Navigating the Sea of Talmud: Study, Teaching, and Personal Religious Meaning - 11/12/2014
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