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.