Course For: All Adults

Year One Bible and Rabbinics: Tuesday Evenings In Person at Hebrew College

Program: Hebrew College Me’ah Classic
Instructor: Rabbi Neal Gold (Bible) and Rabbi Benjamin Samuels (Rabbinics)  (Read Bios)
Dates: 11 Tuesdays, Winter/Spring 2024: 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/27, 3/5, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/2 & 4/9
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Cost: $425, financial aid is available
Location: In Person at Hebrew College: 1860 Washington Street| Newton, MA 02466
Hosted by: Hebrew College

The Me’ah Classic Year 1 Program begins with Bible in the Fall and continues with Rabbinics in the Spring.  Your tuition covers the Spring semester.  

Fall: Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is the central text of ancient Israel and the foundational text for Judaism through the ages. You’ll examine the various biblical genres, structures, concepts, theological and historical settings of the biblical world, and then explore selected topics, often integrated with rabbinic perspectives.

This sequence balances an overview of the Hebrew Bible with focused discussion of core texts, such as the Creation stories, the binding of Isaac, the Exodus story, the revelation at Sinai and the prophetic books. You’ll analyze the primary biblical texts and secondary scholarly materials through various lenses: literary, historical-comparative, and rabbinic commentary.

While you may be familiar with the Bible from childhood, this in-depth exposure to other texts and different modes of reading will challenge you — and may well lead you to reassess some long-held views.

Winter/Spring: Rabbinics

The Rabbinic Period — the millennium from the Second Temple to the completion of the Babylonian Talmud (500 BCE to 600 CE) — refers to a time when new Jewish leaders, sages and rabbis emerged and developed rich texts of their own. Some of those texts took the form of extensive commentary about the earlier world of biblical Israel. During this seminal period, rabbinic scholars created a legal system which led to a Jewish belief system that has informed and ordered Jewish community, culture, and behavior for the past millennia.

Your instructor will guide you through enduring questions:

What is the relationship between God and human beings?
How do we understand Jewish history and Jewish ethics?
What is the role of ritual, holy days and life-cycle events?

Readings illustrate the development of the rabbinic mindset and talmudic beliefs. As with the Hebrew Bible sequence, you’ll first cover selected historical, textual, and conceptual areas, then examine core concepts in conjunction with Bible study to illustrate how beliefs and practices evolved over time.

Please contact meah@hebrewcollege.edu for more information.

Year Two Medieval and Modern: Tuesday Mornings In Person at Hebrew College

Program: Hebrew College Me’ah Classic
Instructor: Dr. Jacob Meskin (Medieval) and Rabbi Leonard Gordon (Modern)  (Read Bios)
Dates: 11 Tuesdays, Winter/Spring 2024:  1/16, 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/27, 3/5, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26 & 4/2
Time: 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Cost: $360, financial aid is available
Location: In person at Hebrew College:  1860 Washington Street| Newton, MA 02466
Hosted by: Hebrew College

The Me’ah Classic Year 2 Program begins with Medieval in the Fall and continues with Modern in the Spring.  Your tuition covers the Spring semester.

Fall: Medieval

Study the Jewish mindset and the contours of medieval Jewish civilizations under Islam and Christianity during the Middle Ages (600 to 1700 CE).

Jewish life during the Middle Ages (about the seventh century through the 17th century), built upon earlier rabbinic foundations, made manifest in form and content what the rabbis of the Talmud had only begun: the construction of a rabbinic Jewish civilization, with distinctive approaches to community life, behavioral norms, and beliefs and values. As a result, Jewish culture and its genres expanded dramatically in several areas: philosophy, mysticism, liturgy and commentaries on the Bible and talmudic texts.

Readings and discussions in this sequence focus on Jewish encounters with non-Jews, including the rise and fall of Jewish life in Spain and Eastern Europe. You will examine the modes of community that Jews constructed in the shifting diaspora, as well as the expansion of Jewish thought in the areas of philosophy, mysticism, liturgy, and biblical and talmudic commentaries.

Winter/Spring: Modern

Beginning with the 17th century Age of Enlightenment, modernity posed a significant challenge to traditional Jewish culture, community, and identity, creating new social and economic opportunities but also threatening traditional Jewish values and society. As in each of the previous eras, modern Jews remained preoccupied with sacred texts, suggesting that however great the impact of rupture and discontinuity, their passion for reading and re-reading classical Jewish texts became the creative wellspring for modern Jewish thought.

You’ll delve into some of these modern primary texts representing differing ideological viewpoints — works of Jewish philosophers such as Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, and Zionist thinkers such as Ahad Ha’am and Micha Josef Berdyczewski — that mirror the issues faced by Jews of that era.

And you’ll wrestle with the subtle points of comparison and contrast between Jewish modernity and the civilization we’ve inherited. Texts will examine the emancipation of European Jewry; the rise of Hasidism; the Jewish cultural revolution of Eastern Europe; and the birth of Modern Zionism.

Suggested Readings Before Year Two:

Below are a few suggestions (not mandatory!) for reading before Me’ah Classic Year Two begins.

Historical Fiction
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn
The Coffee Trader, David Liss
The Day of Atonement, David Liss
The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish

We encourage students to take Year One before registering for Year Two. If, however, starting with Year Two would work better for your schedule, please contact Terri  Swartz Russell, Associate Director, Me’ah Classic & Select at meah@hebrewcollege.edu.