Course Descriptions Summer 2024-5784

BIB 348  Leadership Lessons in Numbers: Holiness, Soulcraft, and Transformation of Peoplehood
Dr. Job Jindo 
This course entails a critical examination of the book of Numbers, focusing on themes of leadership (and its failures), holiness, soulcraft, and peoplehood. By the end of the course, students will gain an understanding of: (1) the structure, purposes, and theological outlook of Numbers; (2) the intricate nature of leadership responsibilities, holiness, community dynamics, peoplehood, and soulcraft as depicted in Numbers; and (3) effective strategies for teaching the book of Numbers to contemporary audiences with AJR values, including critical rigor, inclusivity, and a commitment to the pluralistic nature of the contemporary Jewish and broader communities.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Bible
2 credits
Required Texts:

1. 1. The Hebrew Bible [any edition will do]
   2. Jewish Study Bible [2d edition]. New York. Oxford University Press, 2015 [The book of Numbers is annotated by Nili Fox; the 1 st edition is also fine], ISBN: 9780199978465 $39.99
   3. Milgrom, Jacob. Numbers: JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990. ISBN: 9780827603295 $64.99

CAN 308  Introduction to Cantillation 
Cantor Rena Shapiro
This course will serve as an introduction to Ta’amei Hamikra. Students will demonstrate smooth and accurate chanting of Torah and Haftarah and show understanding of grammatical issues, origins of cantillation, and the functions of trope.
2 credits
Suggested Texts (not required)

1. 1. Biblical Chant, A.W. Binder, Sacred Music Press, NY, 1959
   2. The Glory of Torah Reading, Gellis and Gribetz, M.P. Press, Jersey City, 1983
   3. Chanting the Hebrew Bible, Student Edition, Joshua R. Jacobson, Jewish Publication  Society, 2005
   4. Tikun LaKor’im, K’tav Publishing House, New York, 1969, OR any Tikun Korim
   5. Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary, David L. Lieber, editor, 2001
   6. Sefer Haftarot:  The Book of Haftarot, Shilo

HAL 401 Introduction to Codes 
Rabbi David Almog
This course will introduce students to the literature of the halakhic codes, with a focus on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. We will explore several facets of the text: its internal dynamics and unique features; the way in which it sets the standard for Jewish legal codification, and the ways in which it is faithful to its earlier sources and how it reshapes them. Emphasis will be placed on precise and accurate reading of the text, with commentaries consulted as necessary.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Mishnah and Hebrew IIA or the equivalent
2 credits
Required Texts: 

1. 1. Hebrew-English dictionary  

HEB 350 Hebrew IIA
Ilana Davidov
This course will bring students to Chapter 12-13 of Hebrew from Scratch. The focus of the course is on reading comprehension of adapted informative and narrative texts in Modern Hebrew, with an emphasis on vocabulary development and dictionary look-up skills. The grammatical component of the course mostly follows the textbook. It includes future tense of Hif’il, Binyan Nif’al, noun declension, prepositions, concessive clauses. Written and oral assignments will enhance communicative skills while improving absorption and integration of vocabulary and grammar. 
Prerequisite: Hebrew IB or the equivalent 
4 credits 
Required Texts: 

1. 1. Hebrew From Scratch Textbook Part II (English and Hebrew Edition) 2001 Edition. Amazon $80.93 ISBN 9653501270  
   2. Recommended textbook: From Here to There (מפה לשם) Vol. 2 by Esti Simons and Noa Weinberg, Academon Publishing House. $25 ISBN: 978-965-350-193-5

 HEB 400 Hebrew IIIA
Ilana Davidov
The purpose of this course is to transition students from intermediate to advanced level of Hebrew. The course will focus on vocabulary expansion and reading comprehension and will provide training in speaking and listening. Students will develop their productive language skills via class discussions, presentations and listening practice, and via reading and writing assignments.
Prerequisite: Hebrew IIB or the equivalent
4 credits
Required Texts:

1. 1. מזל כהן, אגדה של שפה, Akademon publishing, $26

HIS 355  Israel Post 10/7
Dr. Yakir Englander
In the aftermath of October 7th, this course aims to examine the diverse reactions and transformations within Israeli society and their implications for American Jewish life, focusing on leadership, ethical, cultural, and societal changes. The exploration will be conducted through an in-depth acquaintance with the questions and challenges arising from the conflict, engaging in dialogue with leaders featured in the course. Furthermore, participants will acquire leadership tools essential for Jewish-American leaders in the aftermath of the war. By addressing a broad spectrum of topics—from the ethical dilemmas of warfare and power dynamics, to sharing complex narratives and combating Antisemitism—participants will gain a deep understanding of the contemporary Israeli and Jewish American contexts.
Additionally, in each session, participants will be introduced to a project created in response to the war, examining the understanding of the need for the project, getting acquainted with the initiators, and how it operated.
The course does not require prior knowledge of Israeli culture or the Hebrew language. However, students will engage with Israeli videos, podcasts, and literature (with English translations provided), and learn about various initiatives throughout the course.
This course will fulfill the Israeli History and Culture requirement.
2 Credits
Required Texts: TBD

INT 368  V’Ahavta: Divine and Human Love in Jewish Tradition
Rabbi Jeff Hoffman, DHL
What does Jewish tradition say about love in its many manifestations? In this course, we will delve into many sources that describe, celebrate, and teach about love between people and God as well as between people. We will examine the implications for the modern notion of romantic love, the mandate to work for justice, and the meaning of the Chosen People, among other ideas. We will deepen our appreciation for how traditional Jewish sources can surprise and inform as we study teachings about love from the Bible – along with its commentaries – and from Talmud, Midrash, Halakhah and Jewish mysticism. 
2 credits
Prerequisites: None
Students should bring to each class session:

1. 1. 1. A Hebrew-English Tanakh. The New JPS edition is recommended.
      2. A traditional complete siddur. Recommended: The Koren Siddur edited by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks or The Complete Artscroll Siddur edited by Rabbi Nosson Scherman.
      3. Articles and book chapters posted on Populi assigned for each class session.
         Recommended Texts:
         1. Held, Shai, Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2024. ISBN: 9780374192440 $35

LIT 101  Introduction to Liturgy 
Rabbi Jeff Hoffman, DHL
Foundations in the academic study of Jewish liturgy including questions of history, textual sources, and literary meaning. Added to that will be inquiries into spiritual meaning for today’s Jews. Portions of the weekday service will be used as examples for developing an understanding of the basic liturgical units: Birkhot HaShahar, Pesukei DeZimrah, Keri’at Shema U’Virkhoteha, Amidah, Tahanun, and the Torah Service. Approaches of the varied streams of contemporary Judaism will be taken into consideration.
Prerequisite: Students in this course must be at the level of Hebrew IA or above
2 credits
Required Texts:

1. 1. Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, eds., The Complete Artscroll Siddur, 1984 (and
      reprinted many times since). Students are required to bring this Siddur to each session. Page
      numbers listed next to the names of prayers in this syllabus always refer to this edition of the
      Siddur.
   2. Jeffrey Hoffman, Weaving Prayer: An Analytical and Spiritual Commentary on the Jewish
      Prayerbook, 2024.
      Other helpful texts, worth owning, (but not required), are:
      1. Reuven Hammer, Entering Jewish Prayer.
      2. Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer.
      3. Ismar Elbogen, Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History (translated by Raymond Scheindlin).
      4. Lawrence A. Hoffman, editor, My People’s Prayer Book (out of the ten volumes in this series, several address the weekday liturgy including the volumes on Birkhot HaShahar, Pesukei DeZimra, Shema and Its Blessings, the Amidah, Tahanun and Welcoming the Night (Minhah/Ma’ariv).

LIT 620  Liturgy of the Yammim Noraim (High Holy Days)
Rabbi Rob Scheinberg, PhD
This course focuses on the liturgy for the High Holy Days of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, with an emphasis on the portions of the liturgy that are most likely to be included by non-Orthodox communities.  We will explore the history and theology of the liturgy for these days, including the earlier Biblical and Rabbinic material that is incorporated into the liturgy.  We will gain facility with a range of High Holy Day prayerbooks as we spark creative thinking on how to use the liturgy and its themes to help Jewish communities to experience the Yamim Nora’im in a meaningful way. 
Prerequisite: Introduction to Liturgy
2 credits
Required Texts: TBD      

MEC 145  Mechina II
Yifat Avner
This course is a continuation of Mechina Hebrew I. This course will build upon the foundational grammar covered in the last semester. The students will continue to work on developing communication skills in Modern Hebrew. They will be introduced to more advanced grammatical patterns, and new vocabulary and continue to improve their writing, reading, and conversational skills. 
No credit
Required Texts: 

1. 1. Hebrew From Scratch Textbook Part I (English and Hebrew Edition) 2019 Edition; ISBN: 9653501127  $64.42      

MEC 150  Mechina III
Michal Nachmany
This course covers the second half of Hebrew from Scratch 1 (עברית מן ההתחלה א’). It takes the students from learning the mechanics of reading and writing unvoweled Hebrew to active mastery of 1200 words, knowledge of the past tense in all of the גזרות of Pa’al as well as the past tense of regular verbs in Pi’el, Hif’il and Hitpa’el reading comprehension of dialogues relating to everyday life, as well as descriptive, narrative and informative texts on Jewish and Israeli cultural topics.
Prerequisite: Mechina II or the equivalent
No Credit
Required Texts:

1. 1. Hebrew From Scratch Textbook Part I (English and Hebrew Edition) 2019 Edition. Sara Israeli, Hilla Kobliner, Shlomit Chayat.  $64.42 ISBN 9653501127
   2. Mi-Po Le-Sham Part 1: A Companion Text for “Hebrew from Scratch Part 1”. Ester Simons, Magnes Press $21 ISBN: 978-965-350-151-5

PHI 311  Medieval Philosophy
Rabbi Len Levin, PhD
The classics of medieval Jewish philosophy will be considered as efforts in the ongoing project to articulate a coherent Jewish world-outlook. How did they seek to integrate the value-orientation of the Bible with the best (Greek) “science” of their age? How might their attempts at integration serve as models for us? Texts to be studied will include: Bible, Plato, Aristotle, Philo, Saadia, Halevi, and Maimonides (with intensive attention devoted to the Guide for the Perplexed).
2 credits
Required Texts:

1. 1. 3 Jewish Philosophers: Philo Of Alexandria, Saadya Gaon, Yehuda Halevi, ISBN 9781592641475; $14.95
   2. Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides, Trans. M. Friedlander, ISBN 9780760757574; $22.99

PRO 003 and 005  Core Concepts III and V
Dr. Ora Horn Prouser
Core Concepts III
This is a multi-year sequence of seminars. The seminars cover some of the fundamental values, concepts and vocabulary of Jewish tradition. Students are expected to first gain a basic acquaintance with these terms and to then delve more deeply into them so as to appreciate their range of significance. The goal of the seminars is not simply to gather information, but to develop an integrated way of thinking about and expressing these value concepts, so that students may grow from having an appreciation of the tradition to actively and creatively participating in the discourse of Torah. Every student is required to take four trimesters of the seminars given in the sequence, but they need not be taken in order. Core Concepts III begins with the term ahavah. No tuition is charged for this course. This course is only open to matriculated students who are also registering for other courses.
No credit
(first half of term)
Required Texts: Course Packet provided by instructor

Core Concepts V
This is a multi-year sequence of seminars. The seminars cover some of the fundamental values, concepts and vocabulary of Jewish tradition. Students are expected to first gain a basic acquaintance with these terms and to then delve more deeply into them so as to appreciate their range of significance. The goal of the seminars is not simply to gather information, but to develop an integrated way of thinking about and expressing these value concepts, so that students may grow from having an appreciation of the tradition to actively and creatively participating in the discourse of Torah. Every student is required to take four trimesters of the seminars given in the sequence, but they need not be taken in order.  Core Concepts V begins with ‘ot. No tuition is charged for this course. This course is only open to matriculated students who are also registering for other courses.
No credit
(second half of term)
Required Texts: Course Packet provided by instructor

PRO 312  Homiletics 
Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner  
Clergy have always been looked to as important communicators. In congregational settings, the weekly sermon is a valuable tool to share values, teaching important lessons and setting a general tone for the congregation community. Other lifecycle mile markers from birth to grave require a rabbinic lessons, inspiration and crafted words, most often spoken.
In this homiletics course we will focus on the uniqueness of this role and how to take a shy and less comfortable speaker and hone this skill set individually based on traits and comfort, while leveraging the skills of a gifted orator and writer and making them better.
Each week we will focus on a different environment including but not limited to wedding, funeral, invocation, sermon, D’var Torah. Each student will be randomly assigned specific scenarios that you will be required to address for different life cycle and rabbinic moments and with different vehicles of communication.
(first half of term)
1 credit
Required Texts and *Suggested Texts

1. 1. Tanakh
   2. Periodicals (NYT, WSJ, The Atlantic, People, 60 Minutes, Time or your news source of choice)
   3. *Wolpe, David, Floating Takes Faith, Behrman House: NJ, 2004; ISBN: 9780874417333; $14
   4. *Wohlberg, Mitchell, Pulpit Power , EMEK Publishing: OR, 2008; OCLC: 1311038574; Available on org
   5. *Feinstein, Edward, Capturing the Moon, Behrman House: NJ, 2008; ISBN: 9780874418408; $20
   6. *Weiss, Abner, Death and Bereavement, Ktav Pub. House: NJ, 1991; ISBN: 9780881251272; $10

PRO 315  Counseling I
Cantor Michael Kasper
This course is an introduction to the practice of pastoral counseling, offering the philosophical / religious / psychological underpinnings as well as developing actual practical skills. Emphasis is on acquiring the ability to actively listen and assess situations, and then respond appropriately, knowing when to offer various kinds of help, and when to recommend appropriate referrals.
Specific issues in this course involve counseling for life cycle events, pre-marital meetings, helping people cope with illness, losses and grief/bereavement, as well as crisis situations and the stresses of life. We explore ways to use Jewish texts, song, prayer and ritual for healing. Classes often have an experiential component.
2 credits
Required Texts:

1. 1. Jewish Pastoral Care – A Practical Handbook , Jewish Pastoral Care – A Practical Handbook, ISBN 1580234275; $24.95
   2. The Good Listener, James E. Sullivan,  ISBN 0877939438; $36.61
   3. Kitchen Table Wisdom:  Stories that Heal, Rachel Naomi, Remen, ISBN 9781594482090; $10.31

PRO 344  Life Cycle – C2R
Rabbi Jef Segelman
In this class, students in the Cantors to Rabbis program will engage in a very particular type of exploration into life cycle rituals and experiences. As AJR is dedicated to pluralism, the goal of the course is to broaden students’ knowledge base and perspective beyond their denominational training. The presentations and conversations with regard to birth, marriage/divorce, and death will not only expand their “clergy toolbox” but may also deepen the meaning of their current denominational practice. This course is only open to students in the Cantors to Rabbis program, and fulfills a requirement for that program.
1 credit
(second half of term)
Required Texts: TBD 

PRO 349 Cancer in the Community
Sharsheret
Intersession online – course description to be posted

PRO 470   Chaplaincy
Rabbi Julie Schwartz
This course seeks to integrate the theoretical knowledge about the science of spiritual care with the practical application of the art of spiritual care. Students must secure an internship of at least 27 hours in a chaplaincy setting (hospital, senior housing, etc.) during which they are expected to intentionally practice the skills and approaches presented during the course. Class sessions will include regular opportunities for students to discuss and process their practical experiences in the field and to learn from the experiences of their peers. Students will continue the development of their pastoral care skills while also identifying the multiple roles that a chaplain may serve during the provision of pastoral care. Students will be introduced to methods of spiritual assessment, theological reflection, and the use of self during the pastoral encounter.
This course will meet six times over the course of the trimester – May 21 & 28,  June 11 & 25, July 9 & 23.
1 credit
Required Texts: TBD 

PRO 700  FWSS   
Rabbi Jef Segelman
This seminar group focuses upon issues that arise in the course of rabbinical and cantorial work. Students will explore the challenges that they face in their work and in their developing rabbinate/cantorate through the presentation of a case study. Participation is required of all students whose work is counting as a required internship experience. All Fieldwork must be approved prior to the beginning of the semester by Rabbi Jef Segelman.
No credit
Required Texts: None  

RAB 110  Intro to Midrash 
Dr. Ryan Dulkin
In this introductory class, we will examine the forms, techniques and vocabulary of rabbinic Midrash and explore the function that Midrash plays in rabbinic interpretation of Torah.  We will study fundamental Midrashic reading strategies, and become familiar with a variety of midrashic collections that date from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages. We will pay particular attention to the development of rabbinic hermeneutics and exegetical strategies as they evolved in particular historical contexts. This is a text-based class and we will spend time during each session reading Midrashim in Hebrew to improve our fluency.
2 credits
Required Texts: TBD 

RAB 430  Intermediate /Advanced Talmud
Rabbi Will Friedman
This course will hone students’ abilities to critically read, parse, and understand Talmudic material that is relevant for understanding contemporary Judaism. This semester will focus on sugyot related to Shabbat practices and prohibitions, which will provide students with a historical and literary understanding of the underpinnings of contemporary Shabbat observances.  Prerequisite: Three trimesters of Talmud.
2 credits
Required Texts: None 

SPI 325  The Spiritual Dialogue: Our Prayer and Our Learning
Rabbi Jef Segelman
In this course we will explore the meaning of prayer as an expression of ourselves to God and our learning as an act of embracing God’s expressing God’s self to us. 
Most importantly, we will focus on how we create meaningful prayer services and learning experiences for others and ways that we can make sure that this holy work does not come at the expensive of our own spiritual growth.This course will count as one credit of Parashat Hashavua and one credit of Tefillah and Seminar, or as a Spirituality elective.
2 credits 
Required Texts: TBD 
Intersession onsite at AJR

SPI 385  Jewish Text & Art
Rabbi Peter Stein
Art can be a powerful tool for uncovering new layers of meaning in Jewish texts and ideas.  In this class, students will use art to respond to Jewish texts, expressing their own insights and original interpretations through a variety of visual media.  Through this process, students will gain new tools for studying and teaching Torah while nurturing their own connection to art as a spiritual practice.

Students with all levels of textual and artistic background are welcome.  No prior experience in either is required.
This class satisfies the Sacred Arts requirement.
2 credits