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HISTORY CLASS: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

5/26/2021

 
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide us with an invaluable window into the Judaism of the latter Second Temple Period. This is the Judaism from which modern Judaism and Christianity were born. ​
- Lecture 1 (Introduction)
- Lecture 2 (Scandal and Publication)
- Lecture 3 (The Manual of Discipline)
- Lecture 4 (Historical Backdrop)
- Lecture 5 (Sects of the Second Temple)
- Lecture 6 (The Qumran Site)
- Lecture 7 (The Rabbinic System)
- Lecture 8 (The Cairo Geniza)
- Lecture 9 (Pesher Texts)
- Lecture 10 (The War Scroll)
- Lecture 11 (Qumran Manuscripts)
- Lecture 12 (Vision for a New Temple)
- Lecture 13 (Daily Life)
- Lecture 14 (The Halachic Letter)
- Lecture 15 (The Qumran Biblical Canon)
- Lecture 16 (The Calendar)
- Lecture 17 (Qumran Ritual)
- Lecture 18 (Prayer)
- Lecture 19 (The Politics of Qumran Hebrew)
-Lecture 20 (The Copper Scroll) 
​- Lecture 21 (Connections to Christianity)
- Lecture 22 (Scroll Fragments)​

Ki Tisa 5781: Isn't It Enough to Just Be Spiritual?

2/25/2021

 
Why does God emphasize action over belief? ​
Video: To watch click here

Vayigash 5781: Correcting the Record

12/25/2020

 
​A respectful response to inaccuracies about Israel in President Obama's autobiography.
Video: To watch click here
PDF Text of Sermon
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The Real History of Chanukah

12/11/2020

 

The Hasmonean revolt was as much a civil war as it was a war against the Seleucid Empire.

Video: To watch click here

Toldot 5781: Torah for your Thanksgiving Table

11/22/2020

 

The connection between Thanksgiving & Sukkot is deep and speaks directly to today's America. 

Video: To watch click here

Tisha Bav History Class: Destruction and Redemption

8/28/2020

 
A look at the events which led up to the destruction of the Second Temple. 
Video:​ To watch click here

HISTORY CLASS: JEWISH LIFE IN CHRISTIAN & MUSLIM LANDS

6/18/2020

 
This history course focuses on the encounter of a rabbinic civilization shaped centuries earlier in the Near East with the emerging new social, political, economic and intellectual environments of medieval Islam and Christianity. We will explore how these three major Western religions interacted with and influenced each other between the 7th and 17th centuries. ​
Click here to watch lecture 1: Life Under Islam 
Click here to watch lecture 2: The Gaonic Age
Click here to watch lecture 3​: The Rise of Saadia Gaon​​
Click here to watch lecture 4: The Philosophy of Saadia Gaon 
Click here to watch lecture 5: The Rise of the Spanish Jewish Community
Click here to watch lecture 6: Judah ha-Levi
Click here to watch lecture 7: Maimonides
Click here to watch lecture 8: Jews in Christian Lands
Click here to watch lecture 9: Origins of Christian attitudes towards Jews
Click here to watch Lecture 10: The Crusades and the Jews
Click here to watch lecture 11: Rashi
Click here to watch lecture 12: Kabbalah
Click here to watch lecture 13: German Jewry 
Click here to watch Lecture 14: Medieval Jewish-Christian Debates

Click here to watch Lecture 15: Medieval anti-Semitism 

Click here to watch lecture 16: The Medieval Jewish Family

Click here to watch lecture 17: Spanish Jewry

Click here to watch lecture 18: Italian Jewry

Click here to watch lecture 19: Kabbalah in Safat
Click here to watch lecture 20: Shabbetai Zevi
Click here to watch lecture 21: Eastern European Jewry 
Click here to watch lecture 22: The Sephardim of Amsterdam

Vayetze 5779: How Important is the Synagogue to the Jewish Community?

12/6/2018

 
​Jacob stumbled into the world’s first synagogue while on the run. What can we learn from his experience?
Vayetze5779voice.pdf
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Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre, 5779: Anti-Semitism – Stage Four

10/4/2018

 
​It’s been said that the world’s oldest disease is anti-Semitism. But there is something new about this old disease. In fact, this disease had already mutated three times, and we are now suffering through its fourth mutation. How should we respond? 
Audio File:To stream or download click here and then the appropriate icon above on the next page 
KN5779.pdf
File Size: 144 kb
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Miketz 5776: The Syrian Refugees and the Torah: Beyond the Knee Jerk Reactions

1/7/2016

 
​Despite security concerns, many in the Jewish community have called for the Syrian refugees to be allowed into the U.S. comparing their plight to that of the refuges of the Holocaust.  Is this a valid comparison? Is this position indeed the “Jewish position?”
MP3 To download click here and then the download icon above on the next page
​
Miketz5776_Syrian.pdf
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