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Rosh Hodesh Tevet | ראש חודש טבת
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Welcoming Tevet
As we welcome a new month, we invite you to read, listen, and share the words of Torah in this newsletter—bringing your lives to Torah and Torah to your lives. We are pleased to again share words and artwork by Nireh Or Instagram Project founders Rabbi Hayley Goldstein`19 and Lizzie Sivitz.
This new month of Tevet, coming from the Akkadian word meaning the forthcoming of water, shares a Hebrew root with the word "Tov," meaning goodness. Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest book of Jewish mysticism that we know of, ascribes different Hebrew letters to each month of the Jewish calendar. The letter ascribed to Tevet is the letter ayin, meaning eye. Put together with goodness, we are tasked this month with cultivating ayin tov, an eye for goodness. In our world, and particularly in these dark times for our people, the pull towards darkness is increasingly strong. It is no mistake that the month of Tevet begins with the brightest nights of Chanukah, tasking us to carry that light forward, finding it in the darkest places.
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Chanukah Heroines of Yore
Parasha Mikeitz: Genesis 41:1-44:17
By Rachel Adelman, PhD
Hebrew College Associate Professor of Bible
When we light Chanukah candles around the winter solstice, we shunt back the darkness, defy the long nights, and, placing the menorah on the boundary of our homes, proclaim the Chanukah miracle [pirsumei nisa]. Yet the debate as to what that miracle may have been still rages. Most Jews are familiar with the rabbinic account of the little cruse of pure oil found in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, which should have lasted a day but miraculously persisted for eight. Some are even familiar with the historical account of the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 BCE) against the tyrannical decrees of Seleucid Greek rule under Antiochus Epiphanes IV, led by Mattathias and his five sons (as recounted in the Book of Maccabees). But very few know the stories of Hannah, the daughter of Mattathias, and Judith from the Apocrypha. These Chanukah heroines of yore highlight the fraught relationship between political power and the source of miracle: God’s guiding hand in history.
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Why We Say "70 Faces of Torah"
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 (above), 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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Extending the Horizons of our Hearts
"The story invites us to feel triumph and its opposite, compassion, at the same time. And it’s reminding us that we can feel those things. It’s an incredible story and it’s part of a thread that runs throughout Torah, of ambiguity, that is always telling us we can triumph and we can feel compassion. We are human beings with both those capacities." — Alicia Ostriker
In this episode of Speaking Torah, Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld goes deep into the story of the Binding of Isaac, and invites us to think about the thicket of our own lives; the possibilities that we haven’t seen, and the impacts of the stories that we tell ourselves.
Alicia Ostriker, feminist poet and 2018 New York State Poet Laureate, takes us through Sharon’s d'var torah — a piece that transports us along a journey of conflicting emotion, and shows us what’s possible when we extend our hearts and consider all sides of what Torah has to teach us about compassion and our role in repairing the world.
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Torah For This Moment
Visit our On Torah web page to read, listen, and watch the words of Torah emerging from our students, faculty, and alumni. May they draw you more deeply into sensitive listening, probing questioning, and humble speaking of Torah and Jewish living.
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Hebrew College is an innovative national institute for Jewish learning and leadership based in Newton, Massachusetts. We are dedicated to Jewish literacy, creativity, and community, and a world of dignity and compassion for all. Our students are future rabbis, cantors, and educators, and people at every stage of life who love to learn. Together, we are infusing Jewish life with substance, spirit, beauty, imagination, and a sense of purpose. Please join us and support our work with a tax-deductible gift.
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