There shouldn’t be much ambiguity about why 17 Tammuz is a fast day; the Mishnah relates five tragic events that took place on this date.

The Song of Songs (2:4) imagines a boundless love between two lovers in which one lover says of the other, “his flag of love was upon me.” That’s how I felt at Pride this month—surrounded by flags of love.

The most insidious part of Korach’s claim is that it is a lie we desperately want to believe.

The Talmud is notoriously complex, and its stories are no exception. In this class, we will learn strategies for how to understand these texts such as structural analysis, to explore the narrative flow and construction; interiority, to uncover the unstated emotions and motivations of the sages; and contextual analysis, to place each story within the broader tapestry of Talmudic and rabbinic literature. Through these and other tools, we’ll gain a richer understanding of the inner worlds of the sages, the ethical questions they grappled with, and how these tales continue to speak powerfully to our lives today.

Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/PassowReadingRabbis2025Part2.pdf

To be a Jew is to believe in impossible dreams.

To be a Jew is to believe that slaves can become free. It is to believe that the senselessness of this world can be disrupted by divine words that break through the barrier between heaven and earth.

It is trust, even on our darkest days, that we are part of God’s dream.

The Talmud is notoriously complex, and its stories are no exception. In this class, we will learn strategies for how to understand these texts such as structural analysis, to explore the narrative flow and construction; interiority, to uncover the unstated emotions and motivations of the sages; and contextual analysis, to place each story within the broader tapestry of Talmudic and rabbinic literature. Through these and other tools, we’ll gain a richer understanding of the inner worlds of the sages, the ethical questions they grappled with, and how these tales continue to speak powerfully to our lives today.

Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/PassowReadingRabbis2025Part1.pdf

The tragedy of Moshe’s final conversation with his father-in-law are the words that he leaves unsaid.