Adult Jewish Education by the JLI - The Jewish Learning Institute
Chabad of South Orlando - Orlando affiliate
Noah, in spite of his righteousness, was not able to influence others. Yet Abraham taught a world of idolworshipers to believe in G-d. Why did Abraham succeed where Noah failed? And how can we embrace the legacy of our father Abraham, leading those around us to seek goodness and truth?
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Biblical Reflections
A six week course beginning Tuesday, May 5, 2009. 7:00 pm.
2nd class to be on Wed. May 13 at 7 pm, the next 4 classes will be held on Tues.'s at 7 pm.
Located at the Chabad Center
7504 Universal Blvd
Orlando, FL 32819
Fee: $60.00
Couples Price: $108.00
Beginning May 2009
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The story of your life
Everybody loves a good story. A good story takes hold of the imagination and provides a window into the human soul.
The stories of the book of Genesis are the oldest stories in the world, yet they continue to inspire countless retellings and adaptations. They retain their power because they deal with the most powerful of human motives: the quests for love, purpose, identity, and redemption. They also explore the inner obstacles that threaten these goals: lust, greed, hatred and jealousy.
When you explore these stories, you will identify with characters who grapple with the feelings and dilemmas that are at the heart of the human experience. You will see how their stories are also the stories of YOUR life, reflecting your joy and your pain, your struggles and your victories. And you will learn how the Torah’s eternal values provide insight that helps you respond more thoughtfully as you face critical moments of your own.
COURSE SYLLABUS
Lesson One
East of Eden
All cultures have creation stories to describe how we got here. But the Torah tells us about our creation to let us know what we are here for. By examining the idyllic nature of the garden of Eden, we can better understand the special purpose for which man and woman were created.
Lesson Two
Heart of Darkness
Is it possible that being good is overrated? The serpent made the case for evil and managed to convince Eve that there were real benefits to disobeying G-d's commands. This lesson delves into the very essence of evil - its purpose, its possibilities, and its pitfalls.
Lesson Three
Paradise Lost (...and Found)
Can we ever reclaim innocence? In a few short moments, Adam and Eve destroyed a perfect world and were immediately wracked with shame and regret. Then Adam and Eve were taught about repentance and its ability to transform and redeem.
Lesson Four
Death in the Family
Cain and Abel responded to the catastrophe of the expulsion from Eden in different ways: Cain became a farmer, focusing primarily on worldly pursuits, while Abel became a shepherd, preoccupied with the spiritual. Ultimately, neither worldview was sustainable.
Lesson Five
Brave New World
The generation of the flood is a story of a wealthy, technologically advanced society that was so evil that it had to be washed away. How are we able to better guard against the evils bred by material excess? In this lesson, we consider why societies are destroyed, and how they may be rehabilitated.
Lesson Six
The Old Man and the Sea
Noah, in spite of his righteousness, was not able to influence others. Yet Abraham taught a world of idolworshipers to believe in G-d. Why did Abraham succeed where Noah failed? And how can we embrace the legacy of our father Abraham, leading those around us to seek goodness and truth?
Courses for 2008
This course is eligible for CLE credits in the following US States: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Do you enjoy puzzles and problem-solving? Do you love the give-and-take of thoughtful discussion? Can you use logic and creativity to work your way out of challenging situations? Then this course is for you.
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s groundbreaking course, You Be The Judge, presented real cases brought before the beit din, the court system of Jewish Law. We provided the primary texts from the Talmud and asked our students to grapple with the facts in order to arrive at satisfying solutions.
This February, JLI is proud to present You Be The Judge II, a collection of six totally new cases. You need no prior knowledge of the Talmud and no formal legal training. There are no prerequisites other than an open mind.
If you missed You Be The Judge I, we invite you to experience for yourself the exhilarating mental exploration that characterizes traditional Talmud study. And if you took our previous course, be sure not to miss this exciting sequel.
COURSE SYLLABUS
Lesson 1: Inheriting the Fruits of Sin
Can murderers inherit from their victims? This lesson compares the approaches of Jewish and secular law to this audacious claim.
Lesson 2: The Accidental Treasure
Your contractor demolishes a bathroom wall and discovers a rusting lockbox containing cash. Who gets to enjoy this unexpected windfall?
Lesson 3: Burden of Proof
What happens if two people lay claim to the same object but have no witnesses or documents to bolster their claim? Is possession always nine tenths of the law?
Lesson 4: The Neighbor Advantage
Jewish law dictates that when a property is sold, the neighbors must be given the first option of purchase? Must one sell to a neighbor if there is a higher bidder?
Lesson 5: The Taskmaster
Employees are accorded certain rights and protections that are not granted to independent contractors. But just who is considered an employee?
Lesson 6: The Do-Gooder
If your neighbor’s son mows your laws without asking you first, is he entitled to compensation? How about someone who decides on his own to pay your debts?
What do you owe a do-gooder?
Course Endorsements
"Everyone, whether they be a lay person or a judge, often times struggle to do what is just and right. Learning from the great writings of the ages, such as the Talmud, and in courses like the Rohr lectures serve to bring insights to our thinking and help all of us to make sounder judgments."
Alvin Weiss, Retired Judge, New Jersey Superior Court
"I found the Rohr JLI course You Be the Judge fascinating. If my first-year students had been exposed to this material before starting Law School, they would have been better prepared for the rigors of the Socratic method.
Professor Alan M. Dershowitz,
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law,
Harvard Law School
"As a Professor of Jewish Law and American Legal Theory, I often point to the way in which Jewish civil law incorporates ethics within a distinctly legal framework. JLI's course, You Be The Judge Two, offers a fascinating context for exploring the relationship of law and ethics and shows the unique contribution that the Talmudic system can make to this central issue."
Professor Suzanne Stone, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law / Yeshiva University
Previous Courses:
Soul Maps -
6 Tuesdays - beginning Nov. 11th - 7:00-8:30 PM
Ever feel like you are running around in circles?
You can feel caring and nurturing one moment,
self-centered and aggressive the next. Making
sense of your thoughts and emotions is not
easy, and you can often feel conflicted and
overwhelmed.
How can you navigate your inner complexity and
chart a clear path for yourself? Our upcoming
course, Soul Maps, introduces you to Tanya, a
200-year-old text with a revolutionary approach to
human psychology. The course is structured as a
six-session consultation with a Kabbalistic master,
to help you understand yourself and navigate
your inner conflicts. You’ll learn to resolve guilt,
conflict, and confusion, and to traverse life’s
journeys with joy, purpose, and direction.
To Learn more about J.L.I. and Soul Maps, click here:
One of the greatest of the outstanding Chassidic personalities was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, later famous as the Rav (teacher). This saintly man became the founder of Chabad Chassidism, a movement which developed into one of the strongest and most dynamic branches of Chassidism.
This movement, founded in Lithuania in 5533 (1773), grew far beyond the boundaries of this once mighty center of Jewish life, and gained enthusiastic adherents throughout the world.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman was a direct descendant of the MaHaRaL of Prague. His great-grandfather later lived in a village in Posen. The family moved eastward, wandering through Galicia and Poland and finally settled in Vitebsk, then a flourishing centre of Torah and Talmudic scholarship.
It was there that Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s father, Rabbi Baruch, was born and reared in the spirit and tradition of learning. Later he moved to Liozna, near the town of Lubavitch, which was to become famous as the seat of the dynasty of the Rav’s descendants.
Here Shneur Zalman was born. Here, too, he received his first instruction, and from his earliest youth he showed unusual brilliance, diligence and devotion to his studies.
In order to develop further his son’s scholarship, Rabbi Baruch took him to a renowned teacher of the time, Rabbi Issachar Ber of Kobilnik, who lived in Lubavitch. Under Rabbi Issachar Ber’s tutelage the young scholar traversed the “sea of the Talmud” in all directions and familiarized himself with Kabbalah, the esoteric side of traditional Torah wisdom.
In his spare time the eager boy further increased his knowledge through the study of science and mathematics. Before long, Rabbi Issachar Ber sent for Rabbi Baruch and told the overjoyed father of his student: “There is nothing more that I can teach your son; he has grown beyond me.”
Rabbi Baruch now took Shneur Zalman to Vitebsk. The twelve-year old boy won immediate recognition and fame as a genius, and he was accepted as an equal by the great scholars of the city.
In later years a wealthy man selected Shneur Zalman as a son-in-law and supported him, so that he could devote his undivided attention to the exclusive study of Torah.
Numerous tales of those years attest to the unquenchable thirst for knowledge of Rabbi Shneur Zalman. His sagacity and proficiency as a scholar won the admiration of everyone who came into contact with him.
At the age of twenty, this brilliant young man, with his wife’s consent, left his home and family to search for the fulfillment of a yearning in his soul. Despite all his knowledge, he felt that he was missing an element of Jewish religious experience which could not be captured in the solitude of the four walls of his own study.
Two centers of Jewish learning and leadership competed for his attention: Vilna, the main seat of Talmudic scholarship and the fortress of the opposition to the young yet rapidly growing Chassidic movement; and Meseritch, the seat of Rabbi Dovber, the famed Maggid of Meseritch, heir to the ideology of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov and to the leadership of the Chassidic movement.
From the very outset, Rabbi Shneur Zalman realized that the sober, rationalistic atmosphere of Vilna and its scholars, headed by the Gaon Rabbi Elijah, could not offer him that for which he was searching. Already an acclaimed Torah scholar, Rabbi Shneur Zalman felt that his need was not for Talmudic instruction but for guidance in the service of G-d (“avodah”). Therefore he decided to try Meseritch where a new world called. A world, it was said, that taught its people how to pray.
Full of hope and expectation, but with few material resources, he set out on the long journey. To pay his way the eminent scholar did any chores which came along, chopping wood and working in the fields. Yet he still had to make most of the long trek to Meseritch on foot.
There he met the Maggid of Meseritch, the second leader of the Chasidic movement. A new world now unfolded itself before the eager eyes of the scholar from Liozna as he absorbed the Maggid’s daily lectures on the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. In the company of rabbis of great renown, he delved into the realm of the holy relations that unite G-d, Israel, the Torah and the world into one insoluble system of universal scope.
Rabbi Dovber’s young son, Rabbi Abraham, who by his saintly conduct earned the title of “the Angel” (Malach), was his guide to this higher sphere of wisdom and knowledge. In return, Rabbi Shneur Zalman instructed him in the realm of Halachah – the major part of the Talmudic and Rabbinic literature dealing with Jewish law.
Thus, the young Rav absorbed the fundamentals of Chassidism and satisfied the yearning in his soul which had driven him from his home and family. He never regretted having chosen Meseritch in preference to Vilna.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman enjoyed little prestige at first among the established followers of the Maggid, until one day Rabbi Dovber disclosed the Rav’s extraordinary qualities and revealed him as a “light in Israel.” He commanded Rabbi Shneur Zalman, then at most twenty-five years old, to rewrite the Code of Jewish Law so as to include the latest decisions.
Roughly two hundred years had passed since Rabbi Joseph Caro had published his master-work, the Shulchan Aruch, and throughout this period generations of Jewish codifiers and commentators called “Acharonim” had added to and elucidated what was to have been the final word in the discussion of Jewish law.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman gave full consideration to this further two hundred years of commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, and by careful editing, he presented the Code of Jewish Law in a precise and handy form.
This was obviously a most difficult task. Yet the work was carried it out in such a masterly fashion, that Shneur Zalman was at once acclaimed as one of the truly great scholars of his time, not only by the Chassidic world, but by scholars of all ranks.
Founds Chabad-Lubavitch
After the death of Rabbi Dovber on Kislev 19, 5533 (1772) his disciples separated. Each one shouldered the task of propagating Chassidism in the country assigned to him.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman inherited the most difficult of all missions. He was to capture the stronghold of the Misnagdim – the opponents to the spreading of Chassidism in Lithuania, for the Chassidic ideology and way of life. This he was to accomplish, first, together with Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, and after the latter’s departure for the land of Israel, by himself.
A man of lesser stature as a Talmudist could not have undertaken such a mission, for the opposition included some of the most illustrious scholars of the time. But Rabbi Shneur Zalman was well equipped to meet them on their own ground.
To the surprise of his contemporaries, friends and opponents alike, he succeeded to a degree hardly thought possible.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman was not a dreamer who lived in the clouds, but a true leader who was fully alive to the material needs of his co-religionists no less than to their spiritual shortcomings. His extensive work for the economic welfare of his brethren is a chapter in itself. Space permits only a brief mention here of some of his notable efforts in this field.
The Rav’s interest in his brethren spurred him to action immediately after his wedding. He began a campaign to induce more Jews to settle on the land and engage in farming. Rabbi Shneur Zalman devoted to this cause not only a great deal of effort, but his entire dowry.
From about the year 5532 (1772), Rabbi Shneur Zalman was engaged in an extensive plan to induce large numbers of Jews living on the Russo-Polish border to move eastwards, into the interior of Russia, where the opportunities for economic existence were more promising.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman also devoted himself to fund-raising activities in order to support the newly established Chassidic settlements in the land of Israel. However, his efforts were subsequently distorted by his opponents, who slandered him and denounced him to the Russian government, accusing him of sending funds to the Turkish government. Relations were strained between the two countries at that time.
When a decree was issued in 5568 (1808) for the expulsion of Jews living in rural areas and on farms, depriving thousands of Jewish families of their means of livelihood, Rabbi Shneur Zalman undertook an extensive fund-raising journey throughout Russia, with a view to meeting the emergency and creating the means for the rehabilitation of these unfortunates.
This work was carried on in addition to advising and guiding his thousands of followers, who turned to him individually in all their complicated problems.
During the years of struggle for the betterment of the spiritual life and economic conditions of his co-religionists, the Rav developed his magnificent philosophy of Chabad Chassidism.
Of the people who flocked to him after his return to Liozna, he demanded much more than the unquestioning adherence required by the other schools of Chassidic thought. Whereas their ideology centered on the righteous “Tzaddik” as a person of supernatural powers, he posed the idea of the Tzaddik as a spiritual guide, a teacher rather than a miracle worker.
The Chassid was to train himself for a life of faith and service to G-d, which would carry him to the highest level of Chabad, the three powers of intellect: Wisdom, Understanding and Grasping (Chochmoh, Binoh and Daas), forming a bond between heaven and earth.
Upon this basic thought Rabbi Shneur Zalman built the structure of Chabad ideology. Total man serves G-d with mind, heart and deed in unison, each complementing the other. The mind understands, the heart feels and the hand performs.
The substance of Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s teachings can be found in his major contribution to Rabbinic literature, the Likutei Amarim, better known as the Tanya1, after the first word of this exposition. It contains a concise outline of his philosophical system as a way of life, and attests to his vast knowledge and the depth of his understanding and mastery of both the exoteric and esoteric teachings of our Sages.
The Tanya has been and still is a sacred text for the thousands of followers of Chabad. It is religiously studied and memorized by the youngest as well as the oldest members of the Lubavitch movement, and seems inexhaustible at every level of approach and interpretation. Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the Baal ha Tanya, known to Chabad adherents as the Alter Rebbe, was also the author of many other works which are classics of Chabad literature.
It used to be said: “In Vilna they knew how to study; in Meseritch they knew how to pray.” Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the saintly Sage of Liadi, knew how to do both. He bridged the gap between the mind and heart by his masterly synthesis of intellect and emotion within the framework of Chabad ideology.END
