About this course
Although not required, it may helps to take at least Hebrew Bible I, Homiletics and/or a class like Mikraot Gedolot. Some classes like LGBTQ Jewish Thought also touch on the subjects we will discuss here.
In this course, you will go inside the somewhat Pop Art or Punk methodology Rabbi Patrick uses to craft the classes and sermons he gives in his synagogue. We will begin by understanding how people have tried to comment on the Torah, and how you may find yourself commenting on the Torah.
Modern Torah Commentaries exposes you to what others have written, but it is more about how to interpret than it is a series of book reports. In other words, you’ll need to be ready to do a lot of writing and research on your own. I will give you the sources, but you will have to search them. As our Karaite friends say, “search the scriptures and search them well”.
This course is .5 credits towards smicha
Course overview
- Introduction: Radishes, Biblical Hermeneutics & Modernism
- Abraham, Isaac and God
- Where does God Live?
- Finding Joy In Difficult Times
- Shavat Vayinafash
Course Objective
Through these lessons, our hope is that you will learn how to combine far-reaching elements like classical biblical commentary, the Rule of 32, contemporary academic biblical scholarship, and the art of creative thinking to build your own modern torah commentaries.
Materials needed
- Several translations of the Bible. I recommend Robert Alter, Stone, and NJPS so that the variety of approaches is available to you. Biblia Hebraica is also a standard among rabbinical students
- The writings of Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh, Richard Elliott Friedman and James Kugel
- Strong’s Concordance or some proficiency with BibleHub for parsing language
Assessment
You will be asked to do the following:
- Complete all 5 quizzes
- Create three Sefaria source sheets on parshayot of your choosing and post it in the #PRS Slack channel
- Three sermons (in audio format!) based on those source sheets posted in the #PRS Slack channel
- The sermons and sheets should be together so we can “read along” with your thought process
So let’s get started!
