Valley Beit Midrash

Professor Ra‘anan Boustan, Research Scholar in the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University, presents his Valley Beit Midrash lecture "Collective Sin and Vicarious Atonement in Rabbinic Martyrology" before an audience at Temple Chai (www.templechai.com/) in Phoenix, AZ. ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: What makes Jews different from Christians, and Christians different from Jews? What elements (if any) made Jewish and Christian identities irreconcilable with one another, already in the ancient world? The Story of the Ten Martyr from Byzantine Palestine (fifth to seventh centuries CE) presents a narrative in which the blood of the rabbinic martyrs executed by Rome is presented as a medium of vicarious atonement for the sins of the Jewish people. The martyrology challenges conventional assumptions about Jewish attitudes toward atoning human blood and thereby illuminates the dynamics of Jewish self-definition in a Christian world. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For more info, please visit: www.facebook.com/valleybe

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Co-Founder and President - Yeshivat Maharat, on the topic of "When Being Right is Being Wrong: Living our Values While Building Diverse Communities!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Professor Marc Gopin, the Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University (https://scar.gmu.edu/) on the topic of "Resolving Conflicts In Our Hyper-Polarized Time!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland, on the topic of "Journeys & Discoveries Within Polish Jewry Today!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Yakov Nagen, senior educator at Yeshivat Otniel (https://otniel.org/) on the topic of "Torah-Rooted Interfaith Activism!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Dr. Alan Yuter, a teacher at Torat Reva Yerushalayim, on the topic of "The Need for Relevant, Honest Psak Today!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Professor Mara Benjamin, the Irene Kaplan Leiwant Associate Professor of Jewish Studies; Chair of Jewish Studies - Mount Holyoke College (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/jewish), on the topic of "Jewish Feminist Thought Today!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Professor Mara Benjamin, Irene Kaplan Leiwant Associate Professor of Jewish Studies; Chair of Jewish Studies - Mount Holyoke College, presents her Valley Beit Midrash lecture, “And You Shall Teach Your Children”: Teachers as Parents, Parents as Teachers, before an audience at Congregation Beth Israel (www.cbiaz.org/) in Scottsdale, AZ. ABOUT THIS LECTURE: Jewish tradition honors teachers and cultivates respect for the act of teaching. But they don’t always recognize parents and other caregivers as teachers. This session will explore what we can learn from the rabbinic sources and how considering child-rearing as teaching challenges and expands our understanding of this central act of religious life. DONATE: bit.ly/1NmpbsP For more info, please visit:
www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash/
www.facebook.com/cbiaz 
twitter.com/VBMTorah 
www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz/ Music: "They Say" by WowaMusik, a public domain track from the YouTube Audio Library.

Professor Mara Benjamin, Irene Kaplan Leiwant Associate Professor of Jewish Studies; Chair of Jewish Studies - Mount Holyoke College, presents her Valley Beit Midrash lecture, "Obligation as the Human Condition" before an audience at Temple Chai (www.templechai.com/) in Phoenix, AZ. ABOUT THIS LECTURE: In the classical Jewish tradition, to be Jewish is to be born into a covenant and the mitzvot. In this workshop, we consider how twentieth-century Jewish philosophers reworked rabbinic understandings of obligation to speak to the realities of life in the modern era. We then build on these more recent ideas to help us reflect on the relationship between our own experiences of being obligated in daily life, on the one hand, and the meaning of a life driven by mitzvah, on the other. DONATE: www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP LEARNING MATERIALS: https://bit.ly/2FVTLZt For more info, please visit: www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash/ www.facebook.com/temple.chai twitter.com/VBMTorah www.facebook.com/RabbiShmulyYanklowitz/ Mus

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Mary Zamore, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of The Women’s Rab­binic Net­work, on the topic of "Coveting & Contentment!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP BUY RABBI ZAMORE'S BOOK: amzn.to/2FNpeNh For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Mary Zamore, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Women’s Rab­binic Net­work, presents her Valley Beit Midrash lecture "The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic" before an audience at Congregation Or Tzion (www.congregationortzion.org) in Scottsdale, AZ. ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: Rab­bi Mary L. Zamore is the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Women’s Rab­binic Net­work. The WRN supports and advo­cat­es for Reform women rab­bis, and works to nar­row the wage gap and cre­ate safer Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties. She is the edi­tor of and contributing author to several publications, including The Sacred Table: Cre­at­ing a Jew­ish Food Eth­ic (CCAR Press 2011), which was des­ig­nat­ed a final­ist by the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards. Rabbi Zamore was ordained by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1997 and serves as the Executive Director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, an affiliate of the CCAR. She is the co-leader of the Reform Pay Equity Initiative. DONATE: bit.ly/1NmpbsP BUY THE BOOK:

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Professor Lisa Guenther, Queen’s National Scholar in Political Philosophy and Critical Prison Studies at Queen's University (https://www.queensu.ca/), on the topic of "Confinement As a Unique Form of Oppression." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs - American Jewish Committee and the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, on the topic of "Orthodox (Chief) Rabbi & Interfaith Peacemaker." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich, Professor emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, distinguished global professor at New York University and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution,.on the topic of "Occupation, Zionism, Universalism." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Ysoscher Katz, the Chair in the Talmud Department at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (https://www.yctorah.org/) on the topic of "LGBTQ+ Halacha & Acceptance in Orthodoxy." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Justin F. Marceau, Professor of Law and the Brooks Institute Faculty Research Scholar of Animal Law and Policy at the University of Denver (https://thebrooksinstitute.org/), on the topic of "Human Prisons & Animal Cages." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP BUY THE BOOK: https://amzn.to/36sIJ9W For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Zelig Golden, Executive Director of Wilderness Torah (https://wildernesstorah.org/) on the topic of "Wildnerness Torah: Jewish Encounters with Nature!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, President and CEO of the Hadar Institute (https://www.hadar.org/) on the topic of "Jewish Prayer & Independent Minyanim." DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Professor Hindy Najman, Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oriel College, University of Oxford, on the topic of "Learning Tanach in the 21st Century!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP Learn about the Centre for the Study of the Bible in the Humanities: https://www.oriel.ox.ac.uk/cbh For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash interviews Professor Nathaniel Berman, Rahel Varnhagen Professor of International Affairs, Law, and Modern Culture at Brown University, on the topic of "From International Law to Kabbalah!" DONATE: http://www.bit.ly/1NmpbsP For podcasts of VBM lectures, GO HERE: https://www.valleybeitmidrash.org/learning-library https://www.facebook.com/valleybeitmidrash