Chasing the Garden of Eden

What does the human transition from hunter gatherers to farmers 10,000 years ago have to do with the Garden of Eden, the land of Israel, manna and Shabbat? Click on this link, go to the sermon titled "Chasing the Garden of Eden,"  and find out! http://h-nt.org/shabbat-worship/shabbat/sermons/

Resources

Resources for the Five Books of Moses
Etz Chayim (what we use in shul) has a good translation and excellent verse by verse commentary. Etz Chayim also has maps of Biblical Israel which will especially come in handy when we reach the Book of Joshua, but are also useful for earlier parts of the Bible. When we finish Deuteronomy and are ready to read Joshua, I recommend The Jewish Study Bible (see below under 'Resources for the Whole Bible').

Link to the Chapter a Day Calendar
http://h-nt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Reading-the-Bible-Calendar.pdf

Online Resources
Go to Sefaria, http://www.sefaria.org/ and click on Tanach. Then click on Genesis. Highlight verse 1 and it will give you the verse in English. Click on the little dot on the right and it will lead you to over twenty different commentaries on that verse in English translation. At the top of the page you can click on the Hebrew letter to get the text and/or the commentary in Hebrew. You can do this for every verse in the Bible. This is a great resource! (on the other hand, be aware that the commentaries are not modern, and they are not explained; for modern commentaries, use the Etz Chayim and the resources below).

Resources for the Book of Genesis

• Harvey Fields, A Torah Commentary for our Times. Each parasha has easy to read essays about major themes. A good introduction to Torah commentary and how it operates.

• Jonathan Saks, Covenant and Conversation. This is a fabulous on line resource. Go to this website and you will find archives containing five or more excellent essays on every parasha of the Torah. For the archives, go to http://www.rabbisacks.org/category/covenant-conversation/ and search the numbers on the bottom for the parasha you are looking for. For the current weekly parasha, go to http://www.rabbisacks.org/

• Richard Elliot Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? A very accessible explanation of why modern scholars don't think Moses wrote down the whole Torah, and an explanation of the Documentary Hypothesis, the reigning theory of who did write the Bible.

• Leon Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. An insightful, thematic approach to the stories of Genesis.

• Aviva Zornberg, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire. Zornberg is one of the most brilliant and unconventional Jewish thinkers on the scene today. She weaves together philosophy, psychology, literature, Biblical text and medieval Jewish commentary in a very unique way. This book is not for the faint of heart. It must be read slowly. Sometimes, you will get lost. But, if you are up for a challenge, the rewards will be great.

• Jon Levinson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil. Levinson believes that Genesis 1 doesn't fully account for the power of evil as we experience it in the world. For this we have to turn to other versions of Creation in the Bible. Extremely insightful book, but this one too must be read slowly.

Resources for the Whole Bible

• The Jewish Study Bible, edited by Marc Brettler and Adele Berlin.  This is the text I most recommend once we get past the Five Books of Moses. It has a good translation, line by line commentaries and informative essays. Click on this link for more information:

https://global.oup.com/academic/search?q=the-jewish-study-bible&cc=us&lang=en; Be aware that Amazon carries inexpensive used paperback editions.

 

A Taste of the Bible

For a full description of our Bible Project and for an outline of the first two sessions, click on the sidebars to the right. Below is a thought on Genesis 1. 

God as an Expectant Parent

In the opening lines of Genesis one, the Torah says this: ‘v’ruach Elohim m’rachefet al p’nei ha’mayim’/Before the world was created, God’s spirit hovered (m’rachefet) over the surface of the primeval waters. It turns out the word m’rachefet is only used one other time in the Torah. Moses describes God’s relationship with the Jewish people as the relationship between parent eagles and their young:

K’nesher ya’ir kino, al gozalav yerachef (same root as m’rachefet)

As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young 

The Rabbis describe the image this way: When the parent eagles want the little ones to fly, they beat their wings against the nest and get them all agitated so they flap their wings and start to lift off. But, they stay hovering close by (yerachef), so that when the little ones get tired, they can ride on their parents wings. 

Now, if we read the root rachaf/to hover expectantly—anxiously back into the Creation story, we get something quite beautiful. Before the world is born, when it is like a chick about to burst its shell, God is a m’rachefet. God hovers, like a nervous, concerned, loving parent watching over a child who is still quite fragile and has all this potential that is about to burst forth. Like the parent eagle, God backs away, enough to give this newly emerging universe room to come to life on its own, yet close by enough to protect God’s child, the world, from danger. The same tenderness that God shows to the fledgling Jewish people in Deuteronomy is shown by God to the world as a whole as it spreads its fragile wings and prepares to take flight for the first time.

 

The Bible's Big Ideas: Foundations

 

Genesis 1-3/First 2 sessions: September 11, 18, 10-11:30am

Don’t worry! You are not behind. You don’t really have to begin reading the first chapter of Genesis until October 16. But, for our first two sessions, beginning September 11, here are some of the big ideas in Genesis 1-3 that we’re going to explore:

 

·         This World Is Brought to Us by the Number Two: What We Can Learn from the First Letter of the Torah

The very first letter of the Torah already teaches us something profound about human nature. All of Jewish mysticism, the practice of meditation, and the difference between Shabbat and weekday consciousness are rooted in this idea. Come discover what it is!

 

·         Is the World Eternal? And What Does That Have to Do with Human Freedom?---What We Can Learn from the First Vowel of the Torah

Does the world have a clear beginning in time? Or did it always exist?  Did God create the world from scratch? Or did God use pre-existing raw materials? And, why does it matter?

 

·         A Religion About Nothing: What We Can Learn from the First Three Words of the Torah

We’ll talk about how the Kabbalists re-imagined Judaism based on an outrageously unconventional re-reading of the first three words of Genesis.

 

·         Paradise Lost and Regained

How does the Garden of Eden story lay the foundation for everything else in the Bible? What was gained and what was lost when we ate from the Tree of Knowledge? What is the Tree of Life now? What is the tikkun/the repair for Adam and Eve’s sin? How did the rabbis re-imagine the Garden of Eden as a destination for the future of each of us and of humanity?

 

·         Who Wrote the Bible? What We Can Learn from Comparing the First Two Chapters of the Torah

The Rabbis of the Talmud taught that the entire Torah (Five Books of Moses) was given word for word by God to Moses in the Sinai desert. Virtually all university level Bible scholars say otherwise. It all begins with a careful reading of Genesis 1 and 2. Come and learn!

 

Are we really going to cover all of this in the first two session? Well, we’re going to try. Come and get a taste of what our year of studying the Bible together will be like! And, don’t forget to sign up to be one of the first 50 righteous people to read the whole Bible.

Reading the Whole Bible, One Chapter a Day

This year, we are challenging ourselves as a congregation to read the entire Tanach (Jewish Bible), one chapter a day, beginning with Genesis, chapter one, all the way through Chronicles and circling back to read the Five Books of Moses last (since that’s the part most people know the best). At that rate, we will complete the Bible in a mere two and a half years! 

 

Why do this?  The Bible is the foundational story of the Jewish people. Everything we do and think about as Jews is ultimately Biblically based. Most of us are familiar with a lot of the Bible. But, most of us have also not had the chance to read the whole book cover to cover.

To be sure, there are obstacles. It’s a long book. And, there are sections that are either boring or hard to understand, even in the English. But, with guidance and commentary, you would be absolutely amazed at how much more deeply you will appreciate everything about Jewish by reading the whole book.

See my article on "Unreading the Bible" in the Summer HaKol.

Here is how it’s going to work:

1.      I will be teaching a weekly Sunday morning class, 10am to 11:30 called The Bible’s Big Ideas. Even if you don’t do a single page of outside reading, you will still enjoy and benefit from this class.

 

2.      A great way to do make this project maximally fun and enjoyable is to do it with a study partner or as part of a group of friends or chavurah.

3.      Beginning on October 13, the day after Yom Kippur, we will begin reading a chapter a day, beginning with Genesis, chapter one. On our website, there will be a calendar for the next 12 months, reminding us of what chapter we’re on. Don’t hesitate to get a head start.

 

4.      I will post on the website on line resources. For example, the United Synagogue version of the program, Perek Yomi (‘a chapter a day’) has a daily study guide for each chapter of the Bible. I’ll tell you how to access that.

 

5.      I will be regularly posting insights, questions and things to think about regarding the books of the Bible we are reading. Even if you don’t intend to read the Bible, you can still tune in and enjoy much of what is posted.

 

6.      There is an Israeli version of Perek Yomi called ‘929’, based on the ideas that there are 929 chapters in the Bible. 929 has great online resources. Of course, they are all in Hebrew! So, for fluent Hebrew speakers, that’s great. For everyone else, I will make available in translation selected insights and ideas.

 

7.      Sign up today:

a.      To be part of the HNT group that will take on the amazing challenge of reading the whole Bible, click here: https://hnt.wufoo.com/forms/reading-the-whole-bible/

b.      To be part of the class, The Bible’s Big Ideas, click here: (coming soon)

 

 

The Bible’s Big Ideas

The Bible is the basis of everything Jewish. There is so much in it: melodramatic stories that would make the writers of Game of Thrones blush, law, poetry, parables, prayers. How do we make sense of it all?  Join us as we study the Bible at a level of depth and intensity that will enlighten and enchant you. Among the many questions we will consider:

 

·         Who wrote the Bible? What did our ancestors think? Why do modern scholars differ?

·         How do Jews study the Bible? What are the kinds of questions Jews ask when we study the Bible? How can an in depth study of the Bible give us an understanding of the evolution of Jewish thought and belief over 3000 years?

·         How do Christians and Muslims understand the Bible differently than we do?

·         What does the Bible have to say to us? What does the Bible have to teach us about God, human psychology and the meaning of it all?

Sundays, 10-11:30am in the Board Room starting in September (signup coming soon to h-nt.org/adult-lifelong-learning)

 

This class is open to everyone in the congregation, whether or not you are participating in the Read the Whole Bible project.