Entering the Gates of Splendor: An Exploration of the Zohar

New Six-Week Online Course | April 18 – May 23

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The Institute for Jewish Spirituality invites you to learn with renowned Israeli scholar and teacher Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D in a six-week online course designed to immerse experienced students in the history, concepts, and themes of the Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah, first published in the late 13th century. This course will explore the mystical, mythical, poetic, and theological aspects that weave together the rich tapestry that is the Zohar.

NOTE: This course is designed for clergy, educators, and experienced students of Torah.

The six live weekly sessions will be framed as follows:

Week 1: Historical, conceptual and literary framing of the Zohar
Week 2: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the Hevraya
Weeks 3-4: Language of the Sefirot
Week 5: Strategies for Managing Evil
Week 6: The Relationship between Humanity and Divinity

The course includes six live weekly sessions led by Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D. Teaching portions of live sessions will be recorded and available for all participants.

 

These sessions will run on Tuesdays from 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM ET on the following dates: April 18, 25; May 2, 9, 16, 23

Entering the Gates of Splendor:
An Exploration of the Zohar

Meet your instructor:

Melila Hellner-Eshed, PhD

Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and has been teaching Jewish mysticism and Zohar for the past 26 years. ​She is the author of And a River Flows from Eden: On the Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, Seekers of the Face: The Secrets of the Idra Rabba of the Zohar, On the Path of the Tree of Life (co-authored by Omri Shasha; Hebrew ed. published by Yediot Feb. 2023; English trans. forthcoming, Brandeis U. Press, 2024). ​Melila is active in Sulha, a grassroots organization that brings together Israelis and Palestinians from the West Bank to ensure humanization of all peoples impacted by the conflict.

About the Institute for Jewish Spirituality

Since 1999, IJS has been a leader in teaching traditional and contemporary Jewish spiritual practices that cultivate mindfulness so that each of us might act with enriched wisdom, clarity, and compassion. These practices, grounded in Jewish values and thought, enable participants to develop important skills while strengthening leadership capacities, deepening their inner lives, and connecting more meaningfully with others, Judaism, and the sacred.