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Rosh Hodesh Cheshvan | ראש חודש חשון
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Welcome to Our Rosh Hodesh Newsletter
By Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College
So much of our work at Hebrew College is about inviting people into the Jewish conversation; welcoming them into the complexity, beauty, and depth of an interpretive tradition that has been carried on for millennia; welcoming them not as passive observers, but as active and creative participants in the ongoing and unfolding dialogue through which Torah is forever revealed and renewed.
This is the thread that runs through our work at Hebrew College, as teachers and students of Torah. It is our deep privilege and joy to invite talented, passionate individuals—including those who might have been previously marginalized or silenced—to bring their hearts and minds to the tables of Jewish learning and leadership, to contribute their distinctive voices, to offer their unique gifts, to enrich, enliven, and expand our community and allow the words of Torah to continue to speak to us in our own time. This is truly what hope looks like.
We invite you to read, listen, and share the words of Torah in this newsletter each month—bringing your lives to Torah and Torah to your lives.
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The ancient rabbinic expression “70 Faces (or Facets) of Torah” is a simultaneous call for epistemological humility and interpretive creativity. It is a reminder that only the Divine possesses ultimate truth and that as finite seekers, we need the contributions of many distinct voices. Torah can be compared to a precious gem that refracts differently based on one’s perspective. We, must, therefore, “turn it and turn it” in the company of passionate and compassionate teachers, students, and peers, who each bring their own unique gifts—“faces”—to the ongoing search for light and life.
By Rabbi Or Rose, Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College & Founding Editor of the Hebrew College Seventy Faces of Torah blog
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"In the Beginning..." Returning to the Wild Depths of Creation
Parashat Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8)
By Tom Reid, Associate Director, Miller Center
It is an interesting time to be thinking about beginnings. Allegedly, we are in the month of October (but did we ever actually make it through March?!). As we continue to grapple with the intersecting pandemics of COVID-19, systemic racism (what some are calling COVID-1619), wildfires, and economic devastation, it is very difficult to mark beginnings and endings.
A friend and former classmate of mine, McKenna Lewellen, offered a powerful description of this bizarre moment in which we find ourselves. She describes us as living in “too much time” and in “too many verb tenses.” Past, present, and future seem to collide daily and moment to moment as we try to untangle our histories in light of our current struggles and aspirations. The political, racial, environmental, and financial crises that besiege us require us to move more consciously and intentionally than ever between what was, what is, and what will be.
As we seek to ground and locate ourselves amidst the seeming churning abyss of uncertainty, it is powerful to revisit the biblical creation narrative—a story of God’s shaping and ordering of reality and God’s invitation to humanity to actively participate in the ongoing process of creating a just, compassionate, and sustainable world. As the Genesis text and various other biblical sources indicate, we are given the awesome privilege and responsibility to steward creation with care and humility. This requires careful reflection about how to exert our creative powers and what we can and cannot control.
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Two Ways to Tell a Story
"I’ve always found the image of the two sets of tablets and the ark to be deeply evocative. But until I read Gray’s essay, it hadn’t occurred to me that this was a perfect example of non-binary thinking in the Torah and a perfect example of the way a non-binary person’s understanding of life can illuminate the Torah." — Joy Ladin
In Torah, there are many instances where two contradictory ideas of God’s relation to humanity are displayed. The truth is that the divine relationship between humanity and God in the Torah isn’t an either-or binary, but rather points to a larger truth.
As a queer, non-binary rabbi, Gray Myrseth (above left) inherited a tradition with deeply institutional structures. But Grey recognizes that the constant evolution that is foundationally built into rabbinical Judaism has paved a way for them to be part of that lineage.
In this episode, Joy Ladin (above right) guides us through Gray’s work, Two Ways to Tell a Story, taking us on a powerful journey built equally upon continuity and disruption, from Moses shattering the 10 Commandments, to their own journey to find a self that they could inhabit fully, without fear.
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Hebrew College is a Boston-area institution of Jewish learning and leadership that offers graduate programs in rabbinical, cantorial, Jewish education, and Jewish studies as well as community education programs for all ages and stages within a pluralistic environment of open inquiry, depth, creativity, and compassion. Please support our work with a tax-deductible gift.
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