Temple Emanuel Hartman Learning Initiative: Recent Episodes
Temple Emanuel of Newton
Our Temple Emanuel Hartman Learning Initiative continues in person in May with teaching by Hartman’s Dr. Elana Stein Hain. More than six months after October 7, we are still embroiled in a tragic conflict which has unleashed significant antisemitism and questions about the future of both Israel and America. How can we step back and think about what all this means? What moral principles might anchor us right now in thinking about these weighty concerns about the present and about the future?
In the 21st century, Jews in Israel and North America are both powerful and vulnerable, a duality that has only been made starker by the events of Oct. 7th and the subsequent war. While the contemporary expressions of Jewish power and vulnerability have particular and even unique features, Jewish traditions going back to the earliest canonical texts offer possible frameworks for navigating the challenges of this moment.Join Sara Labaton to examine Purim and Pesach as case studies for how Jewish values and rituals can serve as guideposts as we re-interpret them considering unfolding events.Find sources here.
Much has been learned since October 7. Micah will join us online live from Jerusalem and offer his candid thoughts on what it will take for Israel to get from its longest war to a new and better future.
Let’s pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and let’s learn from our friend on the ground there.
As the Israel-Hamas war enters its 4th month, moral, ethical and philosophical questions continue to dominate the discourse. Our Temple Emanuel Hartman Learning Initiative continues in person in February with Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, in conversation with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz about the critical questions of this moment, the obligations of Jewish Peoplehood, the impact on Israel-Diaspora relations and the moral considerations related to fighting a just war.
Donniel’s new book, Who Are the Jews – And Who Can We Become, is available for purchase here.
We continue with Rachel Korazim’s second class of Israeli poetry written in the wake of October 7. More voices. More intimacy. More poems that show, with the change of a letter, how Israel and Israelis have changed in this worst chapter of the state’s existence. And yet, somehow, and miraculously, in addition to the notes of loss and rawness, there are also some notes of hope.
The calamity of October 7th left Israel and the Jewish world in shock and despair. The unimaginable became our reality. As more details of the horror unfold, we find ourselves less and less able to talk about it. The expression most commonly used is םילימ ןיא ein milim – No Words! And yet – there are those who struggle and find words to express pain and anger, despair and abandonment.
In our sessions with Rachel Korazim we will read and discuss poetry written these very days. The poems are often raw and painful, while at the same time also full of love and even hope.
Join us to explore this moment in Israel through the window of Israeli literature, created in this moment.
In the aftermath of the tragic events of October 7, we have seen an unprecedented response from the Jewish community in love, solidarity, and philanthropy. Join Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute, as he shares his thoughts on the big questions people are asking, as well as insights on this complex and evolving moment.
What is going to happen in Israel when later this month the Supreme Court has a hearing on, and issues a ruling about, the Knesset’s vote this past summer eliminating the Supreme Court’s power to invalidate laws it deemed unreasonable?
If the Supreme Court validates the Knesset’s move, what will be with the significant energy against what is broadly seen by hundreds of thousands of protesters as neutering the Supreme Court and undermining Israeli democracy? On the other hand, if the Supreme Court declares the Knesset’s move improper, the Prime Minister has already affirmed that the Knesset will not heed the Supreme Court. In which case there will be a full-blown constitutional crisis in a country without a constitution. This is unchartered territory. This is unsettling.
Micah Goodman, our friend and teacher, is a broadly beloved and respected public intellectual in Israel, and he is working 24/7 to create a positive way forward. In the midst of his Elul teaching at Beit Prat for a rising generation of post-Army Israelis finding new meaning in Judaism, Micah is going to make time to give us an update from Jerusalem.
His talk, on Zoom, will begin sharply at 10:15 am and end sharply at 11:00 am. We are so grateful to Micah for his love of Israel and for his wisdom and friendship.
Let's pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and let's learn from our friend on the ground.
Justin Pines
Inside Out: Self-Knowledge in Our Understanding of Israel
View Source Materials here.
Elana Stein Hain
Reclaiming Religious Language for the Moral Challenges of Zionism
View Source Materials Here.
February 13, 2022
Link to Source Materials: https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/hartman-foundations-for-a-thoughtful-judaism-with-rabbi-gardenswartz/
Gordon Tucker
When Law and Ethics Collide, Who Wins?
December 12, 2021
Link to source materials: https://www.templeemanuel.com/event/hartman-scholar-events-2021-12-12/
TE Connects Hartman: Is Shrinking the Conflict a Moral Advance, or An Excuse for More of the Same? October 31, 2021
Mishael Zion
The COVID Ethicist Revisiting Pandemic Dilemmas
October 3, 2021
View Source Materials Here: https://www.templeemanuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Zion_M_The-COVID-Ethicist_Temple-Emanuel_Oct-2021.pdf
Enjoy our lecture featuring Donniel Hartman on February 24th, 2020. View source materials here
Enjoy our lecture featuring Micah Goodman on November 21st, 2019. You can find the source materials here.
Enjoy our lecture with Rachel Korazim on November 2nd, 2019. View source materials here
Enjoy our lecture with Yehuda Kurtzer on November 8th, 2018. View source materials here
Enjoy our lecture with Yehuda Kurtzer on February 12th, 2012. View source materials here