I believe that Jewish literacy is essential to living an engaged and meaningful Jewish life. The chain of tradition is stronger and Judaism more vibrant the more its core texts and ideas are studied, explored, pondered, loved, and brought to bear upon the present.
I have taught courses and lectured in the New York and Los Angeles areas, in university, conference, museum, and informal settings, in person and online. I’ve been designing online learning environments since 2013. My pedagogical approach emphasizes access to primary sources by building textual skills, contextual knowledge, and personal engagement with the material.
Topics include:
- Medieval Jewish history – Ashkenaz, Sefarad, and beyond
- Jewish philosophy
- Parshanut – classical commentaries on Tanakh
- The development of Kabbalah
- Heresy and Orthodoxy
- Rambam and Maimonideanism
Courses
Classics of the Jewish Tradition – Introduction to the Jewish Bookshelf
This foundational course, taught to graduate students in Jewish Studies, Jewish Education, and the rabbinate, encompasses the Jewish bookshelf after the close of the Talmud and into modernity. Emphasizing genre as opposed to authors or works, it includes philosophy, commentary, halakhic codes, responsa, and piyyut.
Classical commentaries on Tanakh (Parshanut)
Teaching parshanut has been a pedagogical evolution; in its current iteration, I teach this course using Sefer Bamidbar. We begin by studying each major commentator separately, including Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, and Ramban. Parashat Balak serves as the first time we bring all four voices together on the page, by which time students are conversant with the commentarial styles of each. Time permitting, we then look at other commentaries as well, such as Se’adyah, Chizkuni, Bekhor Shor, Kli Yakar, and others, along with supercommentaries on Rashi and Ibn Ezra.
- Mikraot Gedolot — Course syllabus and website
- Peshat, Derash, and Beyond — Course syllabus and website
Philosophers and Mystics – Medieval Jewish intellectual history
This course examines the crisis of meaning encountered by medieval Jews and their creative responses to finding renewed meaning in classical texts, whether through rationalist and mystical lenses.
- Course syllabus
Jews and Judaism in the Medieval Period
Spanning three formative periods of Jewish history, this wide-ranging socio-cultural overview covers the Sefardic world, the Ashkenazi sphere, and the later Middle Ages when the two worlds collide.
- Part 1: The Sefardi World – Geonim to the “Golden Age,” 500-1200 — source sheet (PDF download)
- Part 2: The Formation of Ashkenazi Culture, 800-1200 — source sheet (PDF download)
- Part 3: Synthesis and Dissolution – Ashkenaz and Sefarad at the Crossroads, 1200-1500 — source sheet (PDF download)