Text Study 5781

Every week you will receive:

• • • Text of the Week
    • Study Materials
    • Related Spiritual Practice

See below for special Student and Educator pricing

Also included:

• • • Each course will have five, online, faculty-led live practice sessions at the conclusion of each of the five books of the Torah.
    • Access to an archive of all the texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings

She’elot Gedolot:
Asking Bigger Questions in the Weekly Torah Portion

Text Study with Rabbi Josh Feigelson, PhD

Where do you feel at home? Who is in your community? When do we say yes? How can we be resilient? All of these questions share some common features. Most important, these are questions that matter to just about anyone and they are questions that just about anybody can answer meaningfully. And yet they are far from common questions. Instead, these kinds of questions invite us into deeper reflection on what it means to be human—to have a body, to live in relationship with ourselves and others, to be made in the Divine image.

In this collection of weekly reflections, IJS Executive Director Rabbi Josh Feigelson, PhD will explore the weekly Torah portion through the lens of these types of Big Questions. As a participant, you will receive an email each week with a short essay from Josh raising a Big Question from the Torah portion and accompanying questions to guide your personal reflection through journaling or study with a group or partner. You will also receive instructions for how to engage in spiritual practice emerging from the text. This program is suitable for participants at all levels.

The idea of Big Questions is one Josh developed as founder and executive director at Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, which won the 2016 Lippman-Kanfer Prize in Applied Jewish Wisdom and was featured in The New York Times and Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.

She’elot Gedolot: Asking Bigger Questions in the Weekly Torah Portion

$299

$249

That’s less than $5 a week!

Derekh Hamelekh:

The Path to
Transcendence

Text Study with Rabbi Yael Saidoff, MA-AMFT

There are many who decry the descent of Hasidism into obscurantism, xenophobia, and isolation. That was not always the case, even into the 20th century. A luminous figure of that time was Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, the rebbe of Piaseczno. Descending from a distinguished line of Torah luminaries, Rabbi Shapira came from the famed Maor VaShemesh, the Maggid of Kozhnitz, the Chozeh of Lublin and Rabbi Elimelech of Lyzhansk.

In 1923, Rabbi Shapira established what was to become one of the largest hasidic seminaries in Warsaw at that time. In that role, Shapira wrote several works focusing on education. The book Derekh Hamelekh (The Path to Transcendence) is a collection of the Rabbi’s talks given between the two World Wars to his learned disciples. It is one of his more sophisticated works, which has a personal tone throughout that conveys the Rabbi’s feelings, thoughts and deep psychological insights.

We are pleased to welcome Rabbi Yael Saidoff to our teaching roster this year. Rabbi Saidoff is a graduate of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University. After graduating, Rabbi Saidoff taught courses at AJU including character development, mysticism and gender in Judaism. Today, Rabbi Saidoff practices psychotherapy in Calabasas, California. As a therapist, Rabbi Saidoff draws from her background in psychology, neuroscience and meditation to understand clients from a mind-body-soul perspective. Rabbi Saidoff has a long, deep relationship with mindfulness and has taught meditation in many settings.

Derekh Hamelekh: The Path to Transcendence

$299

$249

That’s less than $5 a week!