Friday, April 17–Sunday, April 19
The 2015 Scholar-in-Residence Weekend at Ohef Sholom Temple, sponsored by Rabbi Connie and Dr. Jerry Golden, will feature Rabbi Amy Scheinerman. Opportunities to hear and study with Rabbi Scheinerman include Friday Shabbat services, Saturday Torah Study and services and a Sunday brunch.
An energetic, engaging speaker, Rabbi Scheinerman is the consummate teacher who brings unique insight to Talmudic and Jewish texts. She is known for interpreting Talmudic texts, which respond to concerns of the present through the Jewish wisdom of the past. By engaging learners of every level, she brings the Oral Tradition alive, making it relevant and meaningful in the 21st Century.
Scheinerman, who fell in love with the Talmud as a teenager when she first had an opportunity to study a short passage, says, “Talmud is our heritage, and it is a treasure trove of wisdom and insight into the universal questions of life that we all struggle with. Talmud is known as the ‘Oral Torah’ and it is the foundation of the Judaism we all practice. Many people don’t know what it is and even those who do are often frightened and think it’s too difficult to understand. It’s not—I promise.”
She is one of the first teachers to make the Talmud accessible to non-rabbis. “I spent a lot of time thinking about what people needed to know to approach a text, how to craft questions that invite people to join a discussion, and how to explain sometimes ‘foreign’ literary styles and abstract ideas expressed through metaphor in a way that people could understand, appreciate, and enjoy,” she says.
In other “firsts” Scheinerman was also one of the first to use the Internet as a teaching tool and among the first handful of rabbis to have a website. (She even programmed her site in html!) She credits her technological savvy to living in a “geeky” household. In addition to her updated website, she also maintains a Torah commentary blog and a Talmud blog.
The weekend will begin with Shabbat services on Friday, April 17 at 6:30 pm. Rabbi Scheinerman will deliver a sermon, What is Talmud? (Come see!) What’s in it for Me? (Everything!).
Rabbi Scheinerman will lead Torah Study on Saturday, April 18, from 9 until 10 am. Her topic will be The Rabbis’ Radical Views of God: Not What You Might Think. Shabbat services will follow at 10:30 am, during which Rabbi Scheinerman will deliver a sermon entitled Religious Fanaticism. A light Kiddush luncheon will follow.
Finally, she will be the featured speaker at Sunday’s Carpool Café on April 19, at 10:30 am. Her topic is Jews & Power: From Pesach to Purim and Beyond.
The Goldens say they are pleased to sponsor this weekend. Rabbi Connie Golden says, “Learning is so crucial to us as People of the Book. Even though we have several resources not only in our temple but also in our community, those who are from somewhere else with different experiences and backgrounds can open up a whole new area of studies for us.”
Why come learn about Talmud at the Scholar-in-Residence Weekend? To understand it, find it fascinating and extract wisdom and insight from it.
All programs during this Scholar-in- Residence Weekend are free and open to the community. Reservations, to reservations@ohefsholom.org, are not required, but are appreciated so the temple knows how to prepare for each session. For more information, contact Ohef Sholom at 625-4295.