Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? One who learns from everyone, as is said,
“Because everyone has been my teacher, I have gained understanding.” —(mAvot 4:1)
Rabbi Hanina said: From my teachers I learned much, from my colleagues still more,
but from my students most of all. –(BT Ta’anit 7a)
This is a list of the various classes and workshops I have taught. For more information about my teaching and for student endorsements, please read here
Ruth and Naomi: Boundary Crossing, Bitter Soul, and Chesed (May 17, 2018)
Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA – May 17, 2018. See end of post for logistics. (Scroll to end for logistics) Banner shows two woodcuts by Margaret Adams Parker. In both, Naomi and Ruth and villagers are portrayed as long robed and hard laboring – not the common idyllic scenes. First image shows Naomi entering her old village, drooping, supported by Ruth. Caption “Ruth 1:19 – And the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’” Second image shows Naomi looking up at Ruth. Caption “Ruth 3:16 – And she said, ‘Who are you my daughter?’” Join…
Reading Torah through LGBTQ Eyes: A study of Joy Ladin’s work (April 19, 2018)
Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA – April 19, 2018. See end of post for logistics. Join us for a discussion led by Penina Weinberg about Joy Ladin’s Tikkun Magazine article (fall, 2014): “Both Wilderness and Promised Land: How Torah Grows When Read Through LGBTQ Eyes.” (We will have copies at the study session). This is by way of preparing us for Joy’s book, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, due out later in 2018 from Brandeis University Press. We hope to have an opportunity to learn…
Disability and Divine Power: Reading Julia Watts Belser (December 21, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA – December 21, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. Banner for event has a painting of an ecstatic person in red, possibly flaming, dress whirling in a blue wheel chair. Caption is “Ezekiel’s vision split open my own imagination. Hearing those words chanted, I felt a jolt of recognition, an intimate familiarity. I thought: God has wheels!” from “God on Wheels—Disability and Jewish Feminist Theology” by Julia Watts Belser in Tikkun 2014 Illustration from…
Gendered in the image of God: The first human (August 17, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA – August 17, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. In speaking of the creation, the Kabbalists call the first human du-partzufin, a Greek term meaning two visages, ie two faces on one body, not two bodies. They describe the divine and human each as bi-sexual. They say that both genders are present in all humans and that this is the image of the divine. What does that actually mean? How does non-binary fit into…
Sex of the Soul: Gendered in the Image of God (June 22, 2017)
The text which we will look at after reviewing the place of Mopsik’s work in the history of the Kabbalah is here: Mopsik Sex of the Soul pp 46-52 Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA June 22, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. We will dip one toenail into Charles Mopsik’s book: Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in the Kabbalah. Mopsik was a modern scholar of Kabbalah. With him we will re-visit the creation…
Saul and the Necromancer of Endor (April 20, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA April 20, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. King Saul’s visit to the necromancer of Endor (1 Kings 28) introduces us to man who is at the end of his political life but hoping for saving words from beyond the grave. Saul hopes the necromancer will bring up the ghost of Samuel to help him. We will look at what drives Saul politically to seek out the necromancer, and at how the woman’s wizardry…
Ki Tisa as a Song of Longing (Mar 16, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA March 16, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. Parashat Ki Tisa is a Song of both longing and danger. First, the longing. Previous to our parsha, Moses has gone up to the top of Mount Sinai, entering the cloud of God’s presence, to remain with God for 40 days (Ex 24:18). While Moses is up on Mount Sinai encountering the Divine, the children of Israel wait expectantly at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses…
Tziporah and the Awesome Fusion of Aaron and Moses (Feb 16, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA February 16, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. There is a mysterious and awe-filled encounter between YHVH and Moses, as Moses returns from Midian to Egypt to undertake the deliverence of the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh (Exodus 4:24-27). It appears that YHVH seeks to kill Moses and that Moses’ wife Tziporah, a Midianite priestess with overtones of Osiris, performs a magical and life-saving circumcision. Immediately afterwords, YHVH sends Aaron from Egpyt to join Moses…
A True Leader – Moses and the Five Women who Birthed Him (Jan 19, 2017)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA January 19, 2017. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. Join us for a queer look at Moses and the five powerful women of Exodus 1-2 who birthed/midwifed/nurtured the great leader of the Hebrew people. Despite contrary decrees by the powerful Pharaoh of Egypt, the women used their wits to gain power when they lacked authority. They launched Moses as a prophet and leader, and Miriam became a prophet herself. At the end of the book…
Genesis: Creation, Destruction, and Re-Birth (Dec 15, 2016)
Ruach HaYam Facebook Subscribe to newsletter Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA December 15, 2016. See end of post for logistics. This study is led by Penina Weinberg. Inherent in the watery story of creation is the deluge – the flood which God will bring to wipe out God’s act of creation. In the first six chapters of the Hebrew Bible, humanity is birthed, drowned and rescued. From “God’s spirit glided over the face of the waters, and God said ‘Let there be light.’” (Gen 1:2-3) to “YHVH regretted having made human beings on earth…