1. Many New Years

An overview of the multiple interlocking cycles of the Jewish year and their development through time. Together we will apply our detective skills to what the Torah itself tells us about the calendar.

2. Pagan Roots

Here we will investigate the Canaanite influences woven into Judaism’s fixation upon harvests, elements and cycles of the moon. Where did Rabbinic Judaism preserve the past, and where did it try to occlude it?

3. Days of Awe, Days of Joy

The High Holy Days’ themes of mortality bring us into contact with questions of life’s meaning transmitted across time. Meanwhile, Chanukah, Purim and Tisha b’Av wrestle with historicity, assimilation, cultural adaptation and an evolving diasporic identity.

4. Features of the Future

The calendar has continued to evolve and adapt over the past several hundred years - with increasing interest in periods for personal growth and introspection, and several new holidays enshrining the last century of our history. How have these added to our lives? And what holidays might we need now - and in the future.

This series is lead by Rabbi Sarah Bracha Gershuny

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