The Jews of Bukhara (Sunday in Denver); the Maimonidean Controversy; Save the Date for Roslyn NY
Really looking forward to speaking to the Or Avner community in Aurora, CO!
The Maimonidean Controversy
Save the Date: Shabbaton in Roslyn NY, December 20-21
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Nine: Bury the Past
The Ninth Level: Bury the Past “The Scapegoat (Bury the Past),” illustration of Level 9 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Ninth Level: Bury the Past Translator’s Introduction The Ninth Level of Mercy addresses a principal common to both Kabbalah and physics: energy never dissipates of its own accord; rather it is redirected…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Eight: Maintain a Core of Love
The Eighth Level: Maintain a Core of Love “Maintain a Core of Love,” illustration of Level 8 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Eighth Level: Maintain a Core of Love Rabbi Cordovero expands upon the metaphysics of forgiveness in the Eighth Level. God preserves a core region of positive regard for every human…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Seven: A Knot is Stronger
The Seventh Level: A Knot is Stronger “Building a Fence (A Knot is Stronger),” Illustration of Level 7 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Seventh Level: A Knot is Stronger Translator’s Introduction Rabbi Cordovero begins the Seventh Level of Mercy with a well-known teaching from the Talmud (Berakhot 34b): “in a place where penitents…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Six: Who Makes Your Lunch?
The Sixth Level: Who Makes Your Lunch? “Who Makes Your Lunch?” illustration of Level 6 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Sixth Level: Who Makes Your Lunch? Translator’s Introduction The Sixth Level begins with a deeply mystical passage in Ezekiel, set in the years immediately prior to the 6th century BCE destruction of…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Five: Release the Anger
The Fifth Level: Release the Anger “Release the Anger,” illustration of Level 5 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Fifth Level: Release the Anger Translator’s Introduction The prophet Zechariah portrays God as a shepherd with two staffs: one is called “pleasantness” (נאם) and the other is called “woundings” (חובלים). In his commentary on Date…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Four: Remember the Family
The Fourth Level: Remember the Family “In the Same Boat (Remember We are Family),” illustration of Level 4 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Fourth Level: Remember the Family Translator’s Introduction The Fourth Level of Mercy calls attention to the fundamental connectedness of humanity. The Jewish people in particular maintain a strong familial…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Three: Take Care of it Personally
The Third Level: Take Care of it Personally “Part of the Process (Take Care of it Personally),” illustration of Level 3 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Third Level: Take Care of It Personally Translator’s Introduction The Third Level of Mercy addresses the personal role that God plays in the process of forgiveness. Rather…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level Two: Let it Go for Now
The Second Level: Let it Go for Now “Whose K’tegors are These? (Let it Go)” Illustration of Level 2 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily The Second Level: Let it Go for Now The second of the Thirteen Levels, “Who Bears Sin,” describes a degree of mercy that is even more profound than…
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Level One: The King Who Endures Insult
The First Level: The King who Endures Insult “The Insulted King,” illustration of Level 1 by Rebecca Odessa, Courtesy The Wisdom Daily Translator’s Introduction Rabbi Cordovero’s discussion of the Thirteen Levels of Mercy begins with an awesome depiction of human sin from God’s perspective. Given that all power in the Universe has God at…
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Free Download of The Kabbalah of Forgiveness (Expires October 19, 2014)
Please visit https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/464044 and enter coupon code YT52E (Expires October 19, 2014). Please click here for excepts and supporting videos.
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The Kabbalah of Forgiveness Coming in Time for Rosh Hashanah
New for the Season of Repentance: a translation and modern commentary on Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s classic of Jewish ethics, the Date Palm of Devorah (Tomer Devorah). Learn the Thirteen Levels of Mercy and discover how to forgive others (and yourself). Please visit http://www.jewishhistorylectures.org and click on “The Kabbalah of Forgiveness” for excerpts and videos. Publication date:…
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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (This Week in Jewish History)
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) articulated a strategy to allow Jews their traditional observances while participating actively in the modern world. Criticized from both the left and the right, his thought remains highly influential into the 21st century.
The Jews of Bukhara (Denver, CO); The Jews of the Lesser Antilles; Varieties of Crypto-Jewish Identity; Wait, Alexander Hamilton was Jewish?
Looking forward to a wonderful Shabbat in the Denver Jewish community!
Our Itinerary of Discovery in the Western Caribbean
Channel Members
Premiering at 10am ET
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YILC Annual Dinner; What is a Synagogue? Birth of Modern Jewish Politics
My wife Ilana and I are proud to serve as the Guests of Honour (note the Canadian spelling, very considerate of them) at the time 41st Annual Dinner of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, together with the Young Leadership Awardees Gila and Alan Goldberg. We are enthusiastic participants in YILC, a wonderful community resource under…
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The Premature Burial Controversy of 1772 and the Perilous Challenges of Modern Orthodoxy (Tonight at 9pm ET)
Proud to address the famous Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Teshuvah Haburah (at first I thought they were all about repentance, but in reality it’s a group of highly intelligent people who gather to discuss Rabbinic Responsa, also good). Please join in person tonight at 9pm ET or via zoom: bit.ly/YILCSHUT, passcode is yilctorah.
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Emancipation of the Jews in Western Europe, Aryeh competes for Team USA in Jerusalem! and Biblical Jewish History Course hits registration milestone
European Jews Achieve Citizenship Good morning fellow students of Jewish history! Please join me at 11:30 am ET for a half-hour discussion of the emancipation of the Jews of Western Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Help Aryeh achieve his goal! I’m very proud of our teenage son Aryeh, selected to participate…
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Teenage Son Aryeh to Represent Team USA at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem!
Hello fellow students of Jewish history! Here’s something historic, at least in terms of the Abramson family: our teenage son Aryeh has been selected to represent Team USA at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem! His sport is Shotokan Karate. It’s a kind of a family tradition now: his older sister Aliza competed four years…
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Rabbis Who, If they had the Temerity to Show up in Our Shuls today…(Lecturing in Monsey this Shabbos)
Very honored to serve as a Scholar-In-Residence this Shabbos, parshas Vayehi, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, New York. Please view the video for the planned public talks (which will not be recorded, of course). Friday Night, December 17, 8pm Rabbis Who, If they had the Temerity to Show up in Our Shuls today……
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Hasidism is born, The Misnagdim Strike Back! and Haskalah Enters the Debate.
Good morning fellow students of Jewish history: please join me for this week’s series of video premieres (with live chat), live in-person and zoom classes. We’ll be looking at the 18th century with some forays into Jewish art history and the controversy that led the Jews of France to torch Maimonides’ works in 1232. Here’s…
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TODAY: Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Wisdom: Postmodernism and the Digital Age (Torah and Science Conference) 1:45 pm ET
Good morning fellow students of Jewish history. Please join me today for a discussion of the implications of postmodernism and the digital age in the XIV Torah and Science conference, held virtually at this link. My presentation is at 1:45 PM ET, the conference program is below. I hope to release a recording later, but…
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Jewish Migration to the Americas; The Haskalah; Torah and the Internet
Sunday Premiering today at 12pm ET: Jewish Migration to the New World. Following up on the previous Jewish History Lab video on the Origins of the Jews in the New World, this brief video will survey the major waves of Jewish migration in the 18th-20th centuries. Tuesday Final lecture in the three-part series entitled Hasidim,…
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The Jewish (Re)Discovery of Chanukah
Strange but true: Jewish sources largely ignored the history of Chanukah until the 10th century! Here’s a quick review of the major works, and how they affected the Jewish memory of this remarkable period in Jewish history. Here’s a few Sefaria links to texts mentioned in the video: Relevant section of Talmud, Tractate Shabbat Megilat…
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History and Practice of Eating Donuts on Chanukah: A Book Review
Review of Reuven Melekh ben Binyamin Yitzhak Schwartz, Emek Ha-Sufganim: Iyunim u-beiurim be-inyan minhag akhilat sufganim be-yemei hanukah Israel: Sh. Vaynraikh, Hanukah 5780 (2019), 431 pages. For a copy, please contact your local Jewish bookseller or the phone numbers listed on the copyright page: (718) 253-2804; (516) 581-3597; (718) 501-3165. Interested in studying more deeply?…
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Elazar Maccabee and the Battle of Bet Zekharya; The Shtadlan in Jewish History
The Misnagdim Strike Back! Part II of the series on Hasidim, Mitnagdim and Maskilim: The Formation of Jewish Identity. Open to the Community at Beit Midrash of Teaneck, 70 Sterling Place, Teaneck NJ. Tuesday, November 30 at 11:45 am. Please write BMTeaneck@gmail.com for Zoom links. Take your learning to the next level: try a course!
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The Origins of American Jewry
We begin with 23 bedraggled refugees from the Inquisition, sailing into the harbor of what would become New York.
Visits to Synagogues in Bordeaux and Libourne (France); Another Open Letter to Jewish Participants in anti-Israel Protests re: Amsterdam; Conference Presentation on Sheptytsky and WW II
Fantastic Voyage of Discovery with Kosher River Cruises
A Difficult Conversation
Recent Conference Presentation in Toronto
Wait, Christopher Columbus was Jewish? Documentary on Roman-Jewish War now Online
Surprised how much attention this got.
Herod’s Tragic Reign
The Fatal Conflict
How Jewish Culture will Thrive after October 7; The Jews of Al-Andalus Part II
Remarks at Lander College for Men
Maimonides and the Controversy over His Work
Jewish Resilience After October 7; American Jews, Post-Honeymoon; The Jews of Al-Andalus
Three Strategies
Jews under the Visigoths II; The Spanish Golden Age
Public at 10am ET (44 minutes)
Online Courses in Jewish History
Jewish Life in Visigothic Spain; Commemorating October 7
This is one of the most bizarre periods of Jewish history, and that’s saying a lot.
New Lecture Series: The Sweep of Sephardic History; Faith in Times of Crisis: Commemorating the Tragedy of October 7
New Lecture Series: The History of Sephardic Jewry
