Blessing for the Month of Iyar

As we enter the month of Iyar, I am grateful to be writing to you from Haifa, the city where my mother was born 90 years ago, and where my hope for the future has been rekindled today.

I am here traveling, along with 300 other members of the Greater Boston Jewish community, as part of CJP’s inspiring Spark journey.

We are here to honor the 75th anniversary of the day Israel’s independence was declared on the 5th of Iyar in 1948...

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Rabbi Anisfeld, Keshet Executive Director Idit Klein, Hebrew College Vice President Dr. Susie Tanchel

Sensing and Making Sense

Parashat Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33)

By Jessica Spencer, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student

Our bodies, with their many sensations, their flaws and flows, are hard to understand. They form both our public selves and our most private parts. Parashat Tazria-Metzora offers us two different models of how to make sense of our bodies. What can we learn from the Torah of skin diseases and discharges? What can we intuit?

Our parashah shows us two different models of knowledge. For the external mark on one’s skin, there needs to be an objective decision-making process performed by a public authority. But for the private, intimate experience of a discharge, nobody else can help. The person must understand their body by intuition alone. Sometimes we need independent facts, and sometimes we need intuition. Each model is necessary in a different situation...

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Hebrew College MaTaRoT Teams with the National Library of Israel

“Once a source comes to life, it creates a spark of connection between past and present,” notes Shuvi Hoffman, the National Library of Israel (NLI)’s global Jewish education manager. Joining together with the NLI this Yom HaZikaron, MaTaRoT: Hebrew College’s Center for Jewish Professional Learning & Leadership will offer a free Zoom workshop for Jewish education professionals that will help educators use the library’s resources to recreate these sparks in their own classrooms as schools commemorate Israel’s Memorial and Independence Day.

The workshop, which dives into NLI’s Yom HaZikaron resources, takes place from 12–1 p.m. EST on April 25, 2023.

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TWO WEEKS AWAY!

Hebrew College Spring 2023 Gala

Honoring Andy Offit & Dan Miller

May 4 | 6:30 p.m. | Hebrew College's New Campus

Presenting the Esther Award to sculptor Nancy Schön
Live Music with Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer`14

Kindly RSVP and send tributes by April 27.