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Unreliable Sources: What Jewish Texts Really Say About Holidays and Practices
Dan Libenson
Thursdays - 12 Classes
8pm Eastern - Starts February 24, 2022
Course Description:
What makes something an “authentic” Jewish practice or holiday observance? How many of the things that we have been taught absolutely must be part of Jewish practice are actually grounded in ancient Jewish texts? (And does it matter whether they are or they aren’t?)
In this class, we will explore everything the Bible has to say about most of the Jewish holidays and a few other key practices (such as Shabbat and keeping kosher), as well as the key things that the Talmud has to say. How can we do all this in just 12 weeks? Because there isn’t all that much there! And a lot of what is there has to do with sacrifices and/or seems very different from the way we have been taught to think about these holidays and practices.
So, how did Jewish practices get to be the way we know them today? And if many of the best-known practices have only been around since the Middle Ages, maybe that means we have more creative license and space than we thought to re-imagine Jewish holidays and practices today and even to develop contemporary practices that are more connected, rather than less connected, to the most ancient roots of Judaism that we can find in the Bible and in the Talmud.
Be part of a 12-week adventure in diving deep into the earliest textual sources for Jewish holidays, rituals, and practices, and together we may discover and rediscover the new ideas for a more compelling Judaism of tomorrow.
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Meet Dan
Dan Libenson (he/him) is the founder and executive director of Judaism Unbound. He is also the co-host of the Judaism Unbound podcast and The Oral Talmud videocast. Dan was Executive Director of the University of Chicago Hillel for six years and Director of New Initiatives at Harvard Hillel for three years. He is a 2009 AVI CHAI Fellow and has also received the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence award, Hillel International's highest professional honor. In 2010, Dan was named a Jewish Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Jewish News. Dan attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Dan has published articles in Ha'aretz, The New York Jewish Week, Zeek, eJewishPhilanthropy, and elsewhere, and he is the translator of The Orchard by Israeli novelist Yochi Brandes and the translation editor of The Secret Book of Kings by the same author. Dan spent five years as a law professor after clerking for Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, two children, and two dogs. Contact Dan at Dan@JudaismUnbound.com.