A Blessing for the Month Nisan: May We Turn Toward One Another

By Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College

Dear friends,

A friend wrote to me the other day and said, “I mishandled a glass bowl this morning in my kitchen. It shattered . . . immediately and with stunning force. I was surprised that this shattering felt like nothing to me, as if shattering is something I have grown so accustomed to these days and months.”

This has been a shattering year for our people. And not only for our people.

October 7 — and the brutal war that it launched in Israel and Gaza — has left so much broken. In our darkest moments, we fear it has left our world shattered beyond repair. The shards are everywhere. Shattered hearts, families, homes, dreams, lives.

How do we come to the seder table this year? Even our questions feel broken — the innocence of the Four Questions splintering into a thousand questions we don’t know how to answer, and some we barely know how to ask.

Spring Concert Series 

Hebrew College Musicant Cohen Center for Performing Arts

Join us for three more spring concerts with artists from around the world. Light refreshments served 30 minutes before each concert.

April 18 at 7 pm: Until Love Pleases: Piyutim of Shir HaShirim and Pesah 
May 5 at 7 pm: Catalan Mahzor Suite
June 6 at 8 pm: The Rabbi’s Family Band

Special thanks to our generous underwriters: The Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation; Suzanne Priebatsch; Susan and James Snider; The William Davidson Foundation and The Wexner Foundation. 

SEVENTY FACES OF TORAH

Finding Humanity Amid Randomness

By Rabbi Justin David, Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College

Parashat Tazria (Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59)

Early in my years as a rabbinical student, I applied for an internship as a hospital chaplain. It was in a large, high profile hospital, and the rabbi who directed the program had a national reputation. He conducted the interview while taking me on a brisk tour of the hospital’s various wards. As we were walking quickly, the rabbi turned to me and asked, “So, how do you deal with the dark side of life?” 

It was a question that I had been wrestling with in my mid-twenties and I supplied an answer that brought me a measure of clarity and comfort at the time. I said, “Accepting randomness. It helps me to understand that so much suffering is random.”

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Hebrew College Passover Companion

The Hebrew College Passover Companion offers a pathway into one of our central ritual moments—the Passover seder. The Companion is structured around the simanim, or signposts, of the seder, bringing you from the ritual’s beginning, through the meal, and to its closing. We hope it will generate new questions and new conversations around your own seder table—and that you will be touched and surprised by the many ways we can tell our story of liberation.

Read the online version...

Celebration of Adult Learning

Join us on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in person (or via zoom) as we celebrate milestones of adult learners. We’ll be acknowledging learners who have reached the milestone of attending at least 18 courses by inducting them into our Chai Society, as well as those who have completed 100 hours of learning through our Me’ah Classic program and new learners who attended a class for the first time this year.

During our celebration, we also will learn with Rabbi Charlie Schwartz, Founder of Lehrhaus – a Jewish Tavern & Beit Midrash; hear reflections from adult learners like you; and meet Adult Learning faculty and students.