Rabbi Joe’s Torat Tel Aviv

THINK Haye Sara: Relationships Ruptured & Repaired

This is a shiur about parents' love for children, and children's love for parents - and about how relationships seemingly broken can be fixed over time.At the beginning of Haye Sara, Avraham must think that even though he is 137 he has almost nothing to show for it. He has lost his life's partner Sara, one son is estranged and banished, the other is 40 and single and not seemingly able to settle down.
By the end of the parsha however the many relationships within the family have been restored or repaired in deeply surprising ways. The shiur traces a broad midrashic counter-narrative that connects multiple data points within the parsha (primarily that of where Yitzchak is living) to open up the broader family dynamics at this stage of Bereishit. To our surprise characters who we thought had left the story make a dramatic return.
Source sheet hereL'ilui nishmat Itay Chen, Hadar Goldin and Sivan Tzimmerman and for a refuah sheleima for Gershon Hayim ben Tova TsofiaTHINK is generously sponsored by Dr Alan Wecker and family in loving memory of his dear uncle and  aunt, Yechiel and Chaya Kleinman z"l

THINK Lech Lecha: How Does Avram Become Avraham? Four Scenes

God's choice of Avram is given at the start of the parsha. But the journey to becoming Avraham - the knight of faith - is slow, arduous, challenging, at times mundane, and in so many ways relatable to any one of us on our own journeys of becoming. This shiur focuses on four points in the parsha where Avraham struggles to understand how he is to become the person that God has told him he is destined to become (if you haven't got time to listen to all of it don't miss the gorgeous Sfat Emet at the end)Source sheet hereTHINK is sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory of his dear uncle and aunt, Yechiel and Chaya Kleinman, ז״ל. 
 
 

THINK Noah: Noah & Avraham Confront The Day After

After witnessing violence, pain and suffering, how does one pick oneself up and carry on? That is the question that we confront today - and it is one that Noah and Avraham themselves confronted after the flood and the destruction of Sedom
The different paths they took - one tragic the other heroic - highlight the difference between their two personalities and provide us with us insights into our own response today.
Source sheet hereThe shiur is to be a refuah sheleima for Gershon Hayim ben Tova Tsofia and is generously sponsored by Dr. Alan Wecker and family, in loving memory of his dear uncle and aunt, Yechiel and Chaya Kleinman, ז״ל.

THINK: The Parallels Of Noach & Yonah - Two Takes On Their Centrality To The Yamim Noraim

Noach and Yonah are two of the central figures of rosh hashana and yom kippur - and their stories seem to have an awful lot in common with one another: boats surrounded dangerous waters, corrupt populations, decrees of destruction and much more.
What is the meaning behind these many parallels? We present two very different takes of two great contemporary Tanakh teachers - Judy Klitsner and Yonatan Grossman - and their relevance for the Yamim Nora'im.
Source sheet here

THINK: Nehemia, or, How Did Teshuva Become A Theme Of Rosh Hashana

The words Rosh Hashana do not appear anywhere in the Torah. The verses that do describe the first day of the seventh month are enigmatic to say the least. So how did Rosh Hashana come to be what we know it as today? 
In today's class we follow the clues and spend time on an exceptional but not particularly well known episode in the book of Nehemia - which describes arguably the most important event ever to on Rosh Hashana (other than creation itself!)The final ten minutes features a beautiful piece of Rav Hutner's Pahad Yitzchak based on the passage in NehemiaSource sheet here

THINK: Ki Tetze, Shooing Away The Mother Bird & The (In)justice Of This World

This episode of THINK focuses on a particular story that the Sages told in multiple versions of an individual who strove to fulfill the mitzva of shiluach haken (shooing away the mother bird) but rather than receiving the reward for a good and long life as the Torah promises, instead fell off the tree and died.
This mitzva and accompanying story became one of the great moments in which the Sages of the Talmud considered the relationship between what we receive in return for our deeds, and the nature of mitzvot more generally.
Based on an essay in the recently published Shiurim B'Agaddah of Rav Shagar. Source sheet here
 
 

THINK: Pinchas Of Peace & Power, Kana’ut & Kehuna

The story of Pinchas and his zealotry is rich and multi-layered - and it is full of ideas deeply relevant to our own moment. 
An act of violence to forcefully stop a desecration of God's name brings an end to the plague and clearly receives God's praise and gratitude. Yet below the surface there is more that meets the eye with much to say about the relationship of peace and power and the complimentary opposition of kana'ut (zealotry) and kehuna (priesthood)
Source sheet here

THINK Balak: Was Bilam Actually A Good Guy? (No, he wasn't but...)

In our parsha Balak, the king of Mo'av, hires the services of the pagan prophet Bilam. What are Bilam's motives? Does he really want to curse Israel, is he in it for the money or is he actually an obedient servant of God?
Source sheet here

THINK Hukkat: The Midbar As Romance

In honour of the sheva brachot of our dear community members, Sam Simons and Leah Seiff, we take inspiration from Yirmiyahu's description of the desert as the setting of God and Israel's early romance to explore themes of love and relationship in the parsha
Source sheet here

THINK: Beha'alotcha - Moshe's Crisis

In this week's class on Parshat Beha'alotcha we begin by looking at one of the turning points in the book of Bamidbar - the move from the dream and vision to the harsh reality of the journey to the Promised LandWe then turn to Moshe's apparent breakdown as he says that leading the people after their complaints is a burden too great to carry. The class is based on Bamidbar (Numbers) chapter 12.Source sheet hereThese shiurim have been generously sponsored by Yaacov & Monique Ginsburg ilui nishmat Yaacov ben Bessi