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Beit Midrash with Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses & Professor Ronnie Scharfman (January & February)

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 Registration for Beit Midrash is required once per month. Zoom links and registration forms will be refreshed on the 1st of each month. 
Lifelong Learning at Romemu: The Well

Beit Midrash | Moses the Man: Literary, Psychoanalytic and Spiritual Dimensions of Liberation and Mysticism 
with Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses and Professor Ronnie Scharfman

**PLEASE USE THIS FORM TO REGISTER FOR THE MONTHS OF JANUARY & FEBRUARY, 2021**

Dates: January 5, 12, 19, 26; February 2, 9, 16

There will be a break between semesters; class will resume again on March 9th.

The Biblical character Moses has captured the imagination of poets,  theologians, mystics and thinkers over the centuries. What makes him so  extraordinarily compelling to so many students, scholars and writers over the ages? Drawing on Torah, classical commentary and midrash  and wide ranging sources including psychoanalytic theory, literature, poetry and Kabbalah, as well as the work of the political theorist Michael Walzer and the literary analyst Aviva Zornberg, we will explore the multifaceted mystery that is Moses.  

Fees for this class will be:
$36 per month for General Public | $18 per month for Members

This class is made possible by your generosity.


**No one will ever be turned away from any Romemu class or event for financial reasons.  To request financial aid, email support@romemu.org before filling out this form.**
This class will be held on Tuesdays from 8:00 - 9:30pm Eastern Time.  Some Tuesdays may be off due to holidays.  The following is a full schedule of class dates.
 
Semester 1: 
Nov: 10, 17, 24 
Dec: 1, 8, 15, 22 
Jan: 5, 12, 19, 26 
Feb: 2, 9, 16		 Semester 2:
Mar: 2, 9, 16, 23
Apr: 6, 13, 20, 27 
May 4, 11, 18, 25
June: 1, 8


All classes will meet via Zoom. Zoom link provided upon registration.
 
Curriculum for the remaining Fall Semester classes, including reading assignments, will be as follows:

January 5th - Moses: Family Man and Relationship to Jethro 
Reading: Exodus 18 

January 12th - Revelation: Moses as Vessel
Reading: Exodus 19 and 20 

January 19th - The Golden Calf and the Shattering
Reading: Exodus 32

January 26th - After the Shattering the Encounter with the Divine 
Reading: Exodus 33 and 34

February 2nd - Competition Between Siblings 
Reading: Numbers 11 and 12

February  9th - Hitting the Rock and Grief
Reading: Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 

February 16th - Death of Moses
Reading: Deuteronomy 34
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses
Associate Rabbi & Director of Lifelong Learning
Rabbi Dianne loves serving the Romemu community! She was the first woman from the Syrian Jewish community to be ordained as a Rabbi. She graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1995, where she was awarded several fellowships and a prize for academic excellence. Before coming to Romemu, she served as Co-director of the Bronfman Youth Fellowship,  Scholar in Residence at UJA Federation, and Senior Educator at The Curriculum Initiative.   In 2007 she was named one of fifty top rabbis by the Washington Post online. She writes and speaks regularly about Torah, Jewish ethnicity and disabilities. She grew up in Brooklyn and was recently inducted into the Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Larry, an investigative journalist, have three children and live on the Upper West Side of New York City, a stone’s throw from Romemu! 

Professor Ronnie Scharfman
Ronnie Scharfman, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of French at Purchase College, SUNY..  Since retiring, she has devoted herself to deepening her connection to Judaism and to writing poetry and midrash with Romemu’s Sharon Dolin and Alicia Ostriker..  She has studied at Drisha, Hadar, Elat Chayyim, Streicker Center, Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and, of course, Romemu, where she was in the first adult B Mitzvah cohort. Ronnie has led Romemu's  Israeli Literature book group  with Rhonna Rogol for the past 5 years, and is currently co-chair of the Lifelong Learning Committee  with Robin Aronson.
Security Note: to be admitted to our Zoom room, you must register with the name or phone number displayed on your Zoom account.
Payment: 
Mon, January 25 2021 12 Shevat 5781