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April 6-7, 2024
Rabbi Shai Held– philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar– is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013) and The Heart of Torah (2017). His next book, Judaism is About Love, will be published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in March 2024 and he is the host of Hadar’s newest podcast, Answers WithHeld.
Talmud Class: Waiting for God
Date and Time: April 6 @8:30am – 9:20am
The book of Exodus famously evokes five types of redemption that God brings the Jewish people. And yet at the seder, we commemorate these five redemptions by drinking four cups of wine. What explains this anomalous practice, and what can we learn from it? In this session, we’ll discover the Rabbinic idea of “waiting for God” and what it means– and we’ll also explore whether and how it can help us celebrate Pesah more meaningfully – especially this year.
Main Shabbat Morning Service: More Love – Responding to Devastation
Date and Time: April 6 @9:30am – 12:00pm
The destruction of the Second Temple was unimaginably devastating for the Sages of the Talmud. The very center of their world, the point where they believed that heaven and earth met, had been obliterated. They responded in many ways. One of the most powerful– and surprising– was their insistence that in the face of desolation and heartbreak, what was needed was… more love. In his guest sermon this morning, Rabbi Shai Held will explicate and explore this vision and its implications for today.
Judaism is About Love: Rabbi Shai Held in Conversation with Rabbi Marc Baker
Date and Time: April 7 @10:00am – 12:00pm
A common misconception is that love is a “Christian idea” and not a Jewish one. But what if we have it all wrong?
Join Rabbi Shai Held as he introduces the central themes of the book then joins Rabbi Marc Baker in a conversation on the centrality of love to the Jewish vision of ethics, spirituality, and theology. What can Judaism teach us about love, and what can a renewed focus on love reveal to us about Judaism?
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