Past Events

Wednesdays March 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2018

7-9 pm

Braun Room in Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School,

45 Francis Ave, Cambridge

Schedule

March 7: Dena Weiss

Enslaving Ourselves: A New Look at the Exodus

On Pesah, we celebrate the liberation of our people and the difficult process by which we became free. In this class we'll look at the story of the Exodus from the very beginning and ask ourselves, how did we lose this freedom? What were the political and psychological factors and forces at work in the Egyptian and Hebrew communities that led to the dire state of slavery and how are those dynamics still at play in our own relationships to freedom, work, and responsibility? Our conversation will center around the commentary of the extremely popular and psychologically astute 18th century commentary of R. Hayyim ibn Attar, the Or HaHayyim.

March 14: Jason Rubenstein

If Slavery is Not Wrong, then Nothing is Wrong: The Torah and the Struggle Against Slavery Past, Present, and Future  

How does the Torah orient us to freedom and enslavement of Jews, and of others? What strategies can bridge the Exodus's assault on slavery with much of the tradition's acceptance of slavery as a social institution? We'll look closely at Jewish reflections on freedom and enslavement in both classical sources and more recent American history, with the goal of moving beyond the either-or of particularism/universalism to a stance that integrates universal human dignity with distinctive historical experience.

March 21: Ethan Tucker

Positive and Negative Liberty: Freedom from or Freedom to?

In this session, we will look closely at the question of the purpose of freedom and its role in the Passover story.  Following the insights of R. Yitzhak Hutner, a prominent 20th century rabbinic educator, we will reexamine just what this festival of freedom is about and how it is meant to shape our lives.

March 28: Elie Kaunfer

What is the story of the Jewish People? A close reading of the Haggadah narrative

At its core, the Haggadah is a story about the formation of the Jewish people. How one tells this story has great significance for how we think of ourselves as Jews and as freed people. In this class, we will examine the different approaches to telling the story that are embedded in the Haggadah. By looking at some ancient versions of the Haggadah discovered in the Cairo Genizah, we will explore the basic question of how we tell our story on Passover.