These courses have been offered previously, and are available for congregational or private study:
BLOODLINES, REPUDIATION, CHILDBIRTH, ADOPTION, SIBLING RIVALRY, DEATH, BURIAL AND MOURNING, HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS
Explores further aspects of family relationships in biblical Israel, and what we know of life and death in ancient Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt. Learn what the biblical laws governing divorce, childbirth, adoption, sibling rivalry, death, burial and mourning, heirs and succession owe to the laws of the Hittites, and to ancient Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt. Read the biblical narratives that support — or violate — these legal frameworks and fire up your imagination about life in the ancient world.
CHASTITY AND SEXUALITY, BETROTHAL,
MARRIAGE AND REPUDIATION IN THE BIBLE
AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Explore aspects of family relationships in biblical Israel, and what we know of daily life in ancient Mesopotamia. Learn what the biblical laws governing chastity, sexuality, betrothal, marriage, adultery, repudiation and divorce owe to the Hittites, and to ancient Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt. Discover the social roles of concubines, divorcees and unmarried women in these cultures. Read the biblical narratives that support – or violate – these legal frameworks and fire up your imagination about life in the ancient world.
BATTLE OF THE GODS:
THE MYTHS OF BAAL VS. THE GOD OF ISRAEL
In Canaanite myth, Baal is characterized as Rider of the Clouds, Ruler of the Storm, Subduer of the Sea and Lord of Fertility. While the seat of Baal worship was destroyed in 1200 BCE, the power of its archaic traditions captivated Israelites, from farmers and herdsmen to transgressive priests and leaders, luring them to alien worship and seducing Israel into abandoning the covenant at Sinai. Over time, the language, imagery and rituals associated with Baal have come also to suffuse the worship of Israel's God. Examine how the struggle between Baal and Yahweh plays out throughout the biblical story of ancient Israel from the Book of Judges through the prophets and the psalms, and how its traces mark our Jewish lives today.
Rash Vows and Dire Consequences in the Book of Judges
When someone makes a vow out of desperation or recklessness
in the Hebrew Bible the outcome is almost always unexpected and
often devastating. In this three-session course we will look at three
episodes from the book of Judges in which ill-advised vows are
made, or broken, with disastrous outcomes.
Other Gods Before Me: Ancient Near Eastern Myths and the Evolution of the God of Israel
Wrathful gods, passionate yet vengeful goddesses and divinities of mercy and death dominated religious life in the ancient Near East for thousands of years before evolving into the One God of Israel. In this course, you will meet these divine predecessors where they originated in Mesopotamia and the Levant and discover how they were adapted, transformed, inverted and subsumed into Israel’s One God.
Holiness: How to Serve an Unpredictable God
Sometimes it seems that religious laws and conventions make no sense to us. We feel scornful, or skeptical, or unworthy when we talk about the holy or sacred. We don't understand what animal sacrifice has to do with us. And what kind of God allows random tragedies? In this course we will unlock the underlying hidden meaning of obscure biblical rituals, mysteries, and priestly secrets in the challenging book of Leviticus. What can we learn about how to live a sacred life when the God we worship can seem to be capricious and unpredictable?
Models of Godwrestling: Aaron
Life is hard, and each of us faces daunting challenges and devastating losses during the course of a lifetime. Sometimes we experience moments of healing and love, and sometimes we despair. Sometimes our relationship with God is tested and found wanting, and sometimes it is strong and true. Always, we are imperfect and striving. We are not the first to navigate these peaks and valleys. Biblical leaders, as imperfect as we are ourselves, have also stumbled or soared. Aaron, brother of Moses and Israel's first high priest, is our model and guide.
The Golden Calf: What is Aaron's Sin?
While Moses is at the peak of Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments from God, his brother Aaron accedes to the people's request to create an image of molten gold. This act of idolatry ought to merit the death penalty, yet, a few chapters later, Aaron is inaugurated as Israel's first high priest. What is actually going on here? In this session we will examine the incident of the molten calf to take from it lessons about leadership, about God's relationship to Israel, and about the slippery slope that sometimes exists between righteousness and apostasy.
Healing the Family: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam
The most famous healing statement in the Bible is Moses’ fervent, short prayer on behalf of his sister: El na rephana lah, “God, please heal her.” Our text study will focus on the biblical context in which this prayer appears, Numbers 12:1-16, learning about the biblical transformation of a potentially toxic situation into one of healing, and exploring how to apply this lesson to our own families.
When fathers refuse to eat: Aaron, David, and the unspeakable loss of their sons
Both Aaron and David lose sons, though under very different circumstances. Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, are snuffed out on the day of their dedication to service in the sanctuary in Leviticus 10. David's child with Bathsheba dies in accord with Nathan's curse in 2 Samuel 12. Neither father demonstrates grief following these deaths, and both fathers have their relationships with God sorely tested by their experience. Yet the two men could not be more different, as people and as parents. What can we learn about loss, about healing, about relating to God, by studying two such imperfect models?
The Secret Life of the Psalms
Hidden within the poetry of the psalms are ancient Near Eastern myths that tell of primordial chaos and creation, and battles among the gods for divine supremacy amid rebellion, destruction and triumph. In this course, we will uncover the many ways these ancient and powerful stories are woven into the imagery and language that we associate with the God of Israel and our own Jewish heritage./strong>
The Bible’s Origins Revealed
Unearth the ancient Near Eastern sources of the biblical stories you know so well, and trace their evolution into the biblical episodes we hold sacred today.
Introduction to the Bible
Reading the Hebrew Bible in One Year
Rebound from Rivalry: Biblical Models for Healing
Genesis as You’ve Never Read It Before
It's hard to imagine that we could learn something brand new from the biblical book most people know best, but this course promises new insights from every episode, as we identify theological ideas about God, and about humanity's role in the world, that are woven into the very fabric of the biblical universe.
Mysteries of the First Week of Creation
Rivalry in Genesis
Ancient Egypt in Genesis
Ancient Egypt in Exodus: Myth or History?
Israel’s enslavement and emancipation forms the foundation story for our faith in God—we refer to it daily in our prayers, recite it in the sanctification of wine on the Sabbath, and tell the story of the Exodus in the Passover ritual of the Seder. Theology and archaeology come together to answer the question of what really happened in the Egypt of the Exodus.
Rivalry and Redemption
The Women in Moses’ Life
The Book of Numbers: Holiness and the Land
Introduction to the Book of Be-Midbar/Numbers
Rebellion in the Wilderness
Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy
Bad Boys and Fast Women: Not Your Father's Book of Judges
A famous bad boy would have done better if he had his mother’s smarts instead of his father’s. An illegitimate son of a leader goes down in flames. An unmarried woman should have stayed in her father’s house instead of following after a cut-up. Human nature hasn't changed that much, and these stories which could be today's tabloid headlines point to surprising theological messages.
Cowards and Conquerors: Rise and Fall of the House of Gideon
Samson and His Women
Heroes and Harlots: Not Your Father’s Book of Judges
Murder, Mayhem, and Dismemberment in Judges
Demagogues, Madmen and Cowards: the Failure of Leadership in the Book of Judges
God chooses Israel's leaders, who are often flawed in significant ways: One is found cowering in a cave when he is called to action; another slaughters his 70 brothers before being crowned; and a third doesn't know his own strength, and resists efforts from all sides to control his impulses. The cumulative effect of these and other chieftains is a total breakdown of the Israelite social fabric and a transformation of Israel's ruling paradigm.
Rebel, Bully, Coward, Thief:
Reprobates in the Wilderness
Paradigm - Forty years wandering in the wilderness left plenty of time for rebellion, fornication, theft, and apostasy. We'll learn about the noble son who defiled a holy place with transgressive sex; the priest who rebelled against Aaron and was swallowed by the eart; the thief who stole from God, then tried to hide; the women who badgered and betrayed their way to riches; and much more depravity in a land unsown.
Who's in Charge Here? Covenant, Succession, and Alliances
Rebels, Rivals, Royals: The Bloody Story of Israel in the Land
Books of Samuel
Bitter Legacies: Eli and Samuel and Sons
Saul and the Failure of Power
Anointed to Fail: Dysfunctional Models of Leadership in the Israelite Monarchy
God resists establishing monarchy in Israel, and the performance of human kings proves God right. One king rapes the wife of his courtier, and looks the other way when his firstborn son rapes his own sister. Another seeks the life of a rival rather than battle Israel's enemies surrounding her in war. A third acts upon judgment so flawed that it splits the kingdom in two. This course explores the devastating impact of what happens when human failings are writ large and the nation must pay the price.
From Heresy to Holiness: Origins of Israelite Monarchy
The Story of David
David’s Women
David’s Children
Traitor, Liar, Killer, Spy:
Villains in the Israelite Monarchy
Israel’s monarchy was rife with intrigue, betrayal and perversion. Learn about the snitch who triggered the slaughter of a hundred priests; the brutal general whose violence brought a kingdom to its knees; the prince who raped his sister and was murdered by his brother in revenge; and the kings who sacrificed their sons on flaming altars to alien gods. Lying prophets, murdering queens, perjury, coercion, and deceit: Bad behavior is not limited by time or place.
Dark Reflection: Elijah and Jezebel
Agony and Ecstasy in the Major Prophets
Contemporary Issues in the Book of Ruth
This story of ancient Israel raises surprisingly relevant themes: who is an insider and who is an outsider, how do conversion practices evolve and change, and how to find the courage to start over and make the most of second chances.
Sexual Politics in the Book of Ruth
Biblical Temptresses: Sacred or Profane?
What Makes You Think You’re So Special? Who Is Chosen, by Whom and for What, in the Hebrew Bible
Selected Readings in Psalms
Kingship in the Psalms
What Is Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible?
Gender and Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible
The Evolution of the God of Israel from Many to One
Family Law in the Bible and Ancient Near East
Women and Children First: Family Relationships in the Hebrew Bible
Testing, Testing, This Is Just a Test
In the Hebrew Bible, God tests human beings and human beings test God. Sometimes they pass and sometimes they fail. Come and examine the tests that God gives us and that we give God—then decide for yourself what grades each of us earns.
Witches, Wives, Victims and Mothers
Learn the lessons of relationships, lineage, sexuality and male and female archetypes in the Tanakh from the experiences of the matriarchs, concubines, handmaidens, daughters, wives, princesses and queens and the men who love them, hate them and save them in the Hebrew Bible.
Family Feuds and Kinship Carnage
Family relationships in the Hebrew Bible are full of strife and rivalry, whether it’s between brothers and sisters; fathers and sons; fathers and daughters; or wives, sisters, mothers and concubines. In the Bible, these rivalries are of epic proportions and even affect the survival of the Israelite nation. From Cain, Abraham and Sarah to Tamar, Bathsheba, Uriah and Vashti, the family dynamics include abuse, betrayal, coercion, deception, enslavement, murder and rape. Discover the truths from ancient texts that may give you new perspectives on your own kith and kin!
Crime and Punishment in the Biblical World
According to the Bible, civil society is ruled by laws given to the Israelites by divine revelation. Nonetheless, biblical jurisprudence owes a great deal to legal practices of the ancient Near East. In this course we will compare biblical and Mesopotamian laws governing due process, rape, false witness, fornication, murder, and adultery. Uncover the many ways in which the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi influences biblical law, and discover ways in which the Bible adapts and democratizes the common law of the ancient Near East.
Hebrew Bible in the Christian Scriptures
Seven Deadly Sins and the Hebrew Bible
Man, Miracle and Menace: The Truth about Elijah
Rabbinic literature depicts Elijah as a kind of magical, benevolent, jolly figure dispensing gifts and rescuing those in trouble. The biblical Elijah is quite different: demanding, vindictive, passionate and stubborn—not someone you’d like to invite for Shabbat dinner. Come and learn the truth about Elijah, his zeal for God, his amazing miracles and his wicked temper.
Jewish Readings of “Messianic” Passages in the Hebrew Bible
Passages in the Prophets, the Psalms, and other books are read by Christians as prefiguring the coming of the Messiah. How do Jews read and interpret these passages?
The Hebrew Bible in Matthew
Bible and the Bard: Shakespeare’s Inspirations
Which episodes in the Hebrew Bible inform Shakespeare's plot lines and character development. We focusing especially on how the books of Samuel influenced the tragedies of Hamlet and Macbeth, and how the motifs of Genesis permeate The Tempest.
Proverbs Your Mother Never Taught You
Come and study the wise sayings of the ancient nations of Egypt and Babylon, how they influenced the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible and how they differ from the wisdom of the Rabbis in Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers. Find answers to the eternal question of how to live the good life—from the beginning of written history through the rabbinic period.
Ancient Egypt in Genesis: Myth or History?
The relationship between Israel and Egypt goes back to the very origins of the Hebrews in the Bible. Abraham, traditionally seen as the father of the Jewish people, flees to Egypt during a famine in Canaan, and passes off his wife, Sarah, as his sister. With this account of Abram’s troubled interaction with the Egyptian Pharaoh, there begins an ambivalent, and often tempestuous, relationship between the Hebrews and the Land of Egypt. This 6-session course will look at the literary and theological functions of the stories of Israel and Egypt in Genesis, bringing to bear the available archeological evidence that supports or refutes biblical accounts from Abraham and Sarah to the death of Joseph.
