This too, is Torah
Lex Rofeberg
Mondays - 12 Classes
8 PM Eastern - Starts February 21, 2022
Course Description:
“This too is Torah, and I must learn.”
The Talmud’s rabbis say this repeatedly, in expanding the definition of what the word “Torah” (wisdom/teaching) might mean.
Let’s look at when and why they say it. Rabbi Akiva, perhaps the Talmud’s leading mind, applies “This too is Torah” to pooping, when he says that defecation, too, is Torah! Akiva’s student, Ben Azzai, follows his lead, and finds additional Torah in the bathroom. A third rabbi, Kahana, in the most frequently-cited instance of ‘This Too is Torah,’ applies the phrase to sexual intercourse (in a story that is...more than a little bit creepy).
Could you come along, (in this course perhaps!), and argue that Torah can be found in some other unexpected place? Is Leonard Cohen’s music rightly regarded as Torah? Barbra Streisand’s? Vampire Weekend’s? A song your friend wrote last week?
Can Jewish-themed TV shows like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, or Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Rugrats, be approached as Torah? How about not-as-clearly-Jewish productions, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Is intense baseball or basketball fandom a religious practice? Is there Torah to be found at your local deli? How about at the bookstore? Just in 350-page philosophical works, or in the children's fiction section as well?
In this course, we will seek out Torah in unexpected places. Just like the Talmud did (see above!), but also in ways that the Talmud might not have considered. We’re part of a tradition – even in that official “Torah” – where Jacob woke up after a dream, featuring a slew of ascending and descending angels. And he said “Wow! God is in this place, but I hadn’t noticed.”
Torah, too, is in unexpected places – let’s notice it.
Practical Details:
Classes meet on Zoom
Interaction and community outside of class:
This class utilizes a Discord for students to connect between classes.
Assignments and/or reading, watching, listening outside of class:
Each week there will be a text to engage with. Some weeks it will be a written article, others a film/tv-show clip, others potentially a podcast. Some weeks there will be a written assignment (100 words for a response, nothing big) about what was assigned -- very short -- designed to foster conversation among students with one another in an online discussion group.
Want to know more before registering?
Join us for an information session!
Meet Lex
Lex Rofeberg serves as Senior Jewish Educator for Judaism Unbound. He is the co-host of Judaism Unbound’s podcast, facilitates many of its live digital events, and is thrilled to be one of the first teachers for the UnYeshiva. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in Judaic Studies, and was ordained as a rabbi in 2021 by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. You didn’t ask, but he would like you to know that his rabbinic ordination speech looked at OutKast’s song “Hey Ya” through the lens of Jewish numerology. He has participated in Jewish activist movements including Judaism On Our Own Terms, IfNotNow, and Never Again Action. As an educator, he has taught students of all ages in synagogues, at Limmud gatherings, at IHOP, in 30-hours-straight Zoom events, and anywhere else he gets the chance. His first course for the UnYeshiva will be entitled “Jewish Discontinuity,” and it will explore Judaism’s oldest tradition: changing the tradition. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lex lived for two years in Jackson, Mississippi — working for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life — and he currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Valerie. Contact Lex via Lex@JudaismUnbound.com.