Ta Shma

Last week, we began an exploration of the different stories of how Israel “fell in love” with God. Far from a naive picture of the beloved who swoops in to make everything better, digging deeper into these texts we find a more rugged texture of how redemptive relationship interfaces with complex realities. This week, we will explore the relationship between parents and children, their respective relationships with God, and how these webs of relationship shape each other.

Our tradition invites us to explore the nature of redemptive relationship. Instead of reading the Exodus as primarily historical or mythic, a prominent strand among our sages interprets the Exodus intimately and poetically, through the lens of the Song of Songs. The narrative becomes the origin story of our covenantal relationship with God — or, one might say, the story of how we fell in love.

Some people see Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, as an allegory for the love between God and Israel. Some see it simply as a love poem. But what if it’s both?! R. Shai Held takes us through intertextual references in Shir HaShirim and the history of ancient perfume to try to convince us that maybe Shir HaShirim can be both an allegory and literal text at the same time. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar’s Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Sometimes we need a new name for God. The ways we’ve known God so far may feel limited, inadequate, or even disappointing. Moshe is lucky enough to have God disclose a new name, one that will usher in redemption. Learning new names for God that represent a different kind of relationship, or new ways for God to show up in the world, is not generally so straightforward. Sometimes we have to be proactive, whether out of gratitude or desperation, and call God into being in new ways.

Where does our story of slavery begin? These are times when our own ancestors mistreated or enslaved others, perhaps laying the groundwork for the kind of oppression that would end up enslaving us. Noticing these moments is about becoming aware of how our choices about how to exercise power shape the communities and world our descendants will inhabit.

Get to the roots of gender in the Torah by turning to the opening narratives of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. What might these two different accounts of the creation of the first man and first woman imply about the Torah's understandings of gender and gender roles in relationships? Moving beyond the Torah, we meet Lilith, the woman who breaks the mold and challenges stereotypical notions of gender. Through a close encounter with Torah, traditional midrash, and contemporary interpretations, we'll examine and reexamine notions of gender and relationships in hopes of better articulating our understandings of gender and gender roles in relationships. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

Yosef and his family are reunited, and we might hope to find meaningful resolution and reconciliation between brothers. Instead, we discover communication gaps, accompanying persistent guilt and fear. When we embrace the mess of Sefer Bereishit that has so much unresolved conflict, we can be inspired to expand our views of reconciliation and forgiveness.

In the Bible, where characters are generally multifaceted, the first murderer in the Bible, is a notable exception -- until we consider the world of midrash. R. Tali Adler teaches about Kayin through the lens of midrash and discusses how this character might serve as a surprising religious role model. This lecture was originally delivered as part of Hadar's Summer Learning Retreat in June 2021.

What is the tone of Yehudah’s approach to Yosef? Surprisingly, early traditions emphasize the aggressiveness of the encounter, suggesting that Yehudah approached “for war.” Even more surprisingly, we learn that we are meant to adopt this very stance in our own daily prayer. We too must cultivate the capacity to fight for what conviction and compassion demand, day in and day out.

In Parashat VaYeishev, Yosef repeatedly resists the advances of Potifar’s wife. In the wake of modern and contemporary sexual revolutions, there has been pushback on a sexual ethics based on boundaries and “purity” in favor of a sexual ethics that focuses primarily on consent. Consent is critical, but sometimes too narrow a lens to understand the significance of sexuality in our lives. Upon closer look at Yosef’s encounter with Potifar’s wife, we find an approach to sexual ethics that intersects with fundamental questions of identity and purpose.