Turn it and Turn it

Heschel’s Transformative Hasidism (1/3) with Dr. Dror Bondi

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut"
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) is well known as one of the greatest Jewish-American thinkers and social activists. It is much less widely known that he had been destined to become a Hasidic rebbe, a fate eliminated by circumstance, but revisited in his final work, A Passion for Truth, which explored the relevance of Hasidism in modernity. In this online class we will read passages from this work in order to understand Heschel's interpretation of Hasidism as the source of his own philosophy and activism.
This audio was originally captured from Zoom on 09/01/2022

Broken Vessels Become Bricks: Rav Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl with Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut"
Together we will explore key teachings from Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, Ukraine, a teacher of Torah and author of the Me'or Einayim. We will approach these texts with an eye to the theme of spiritual growth and collective change amid brokenness and fracture.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet. 
This audio was originally captured from Zoom on 03/07/2021 as part of Drisha's Spring Zman. 

Seek Me and Live: Hasidism and the Spiritual Journey (3/3) with Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
In the final session of this series we'll explore the spiritual quest as a journey undertaken as both individuals and in community, recognizing that each person has a unique path in this world but that in this quest we are supported, shaped and transformed by our friends and fellow-travelers.
This audio was originally captured from Zoom on 09/10/2020

Seek Me and Live: Hasidism and the Spiritual Journey (2/3) with Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut"
In this session we'll explore a glowing Hasidic interpretation of the Selihot liturgy as a petition that God to be revealed in the process of prayer, and a reinterpretation of Psalm 27, the Psalm of Elul, that addresses the ever-higher vistas of religious seeking. We'll then read a sermon about  the infinite journey to grasp new interpretations of Torah, and, finally, we'll close by thinking together about  the importance of accepting the natural ups and downs -- or ebb and flow -- of spiritual energy while still continuing along the path.
This audio was originally captured from Zoom 09/03/2020

Seek Me and Live Hasidism and the Spiritual Journey (1/3) with Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
These three sessions explore the endless search for God as a key theme in medieval and early-modern Judaism, with a particular emphasis on Hasidism and Jewish mysticism. The sources with which we engage portray religious life as an unceasing quest toward the Divine, an endless journey in which exegesis, self-discovery and sacred community are braided and richly intertwined. They present a thrilling religious sensibility in which the intellectual, spiritual and existential journey toward God is far more than a means to an end.
Hasidic sources put stock in the quest itself as both personally transformative and cosmically significant. Rather than religious uprush being born only in the successful devekut, or communion with the Divine, for the Hasidic masters God may be revealed with potency and majesty along the path itself.
Session 1 explores the idea of the spiritual quest in the Zohar and the writings of Maimonides, finishing up with a brief but powerful teachings preserved in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. We will consider how each of these works describe the journey to know God as infinite and unattainable, and yet, worth undertaking because the spiritual richness is found in the process rather than in some imagined goal.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet. 
This audio was originally captured from Zoom on 08/27/2020 

Great Chassidic Schools and Masters (3/3) — Intensity and Embrace: The Mystical Life in the Sfat Emet & the School of Ger with Rabbi Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, better known by the title of his classic work Sfat Emet, was one of the greatest and most creative chassidic masters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At once highly traditional and strikingly modern, the Sfat Emet articulated a powerful mystical theology that speaks to the spiritual needs of the individual seeker situated within the community as a whole. His teachings reflect a careful synthesis between the mystical beckonings of the Infinite, on one hand, and the mandate that humankind perform their primary spiritual work here, in the realm of the mundane and corporeal. In addition to exploring these core ideas, we will touch upon some of the salient processes involved in the creation of chassidic books, such as the relationship between Hebrew and Yiddish and between oral and textual traditions as well as the transmission of ideas from teachers to students. We will see how the recent discovery of new manuscripts of Rabbi Alter’s teachings has changed the way we study chassidic texts.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet. 
This audio was originally recorded on 06/22/2016.

Great Chassidic Schools and Masters (2/3) — The Founding of Polish Chassidut: Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk with Dr. Zeev Kitsis

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk, a founder of Polish chassidut, is also one of the most original and complex of the early chassidic thinkers. Among the tensions explored in his thought – and embodied in his life – is that between love and criticism. He was, in a sense, a “specialist in rebuke,” and yet his prescription of this form of spiritual guidance coexists in his thought alongside an expansive notion of love. In this session, we will explore this interplay between love and rebuke as well as Rav Elimelech’s conception of the “tzadik,” which he describes in his work Noam Elimelech, and for which he is perhaps best known. Finally, we will touch upon the deep influence of Rav Elimelech on his successors in Polish chassidut, in particular the Kotzker Rebbi.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet. 
This audio was originally recorded on 06/15/2016

Great Chassidic Schools and Masters (1/3) — A Yearning for Unity: The Fulcrum of Chabad Chassidut with Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
Throughout the literature of the Chabad movement, from its first written expression in the Likutei Amarim of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi to the writings of the most recent rebbe, a singular vision remains constant: the essential unity of God within the chaotic multiplicity that characterize our limited perception of reality. The teaching of Chabad emphasizes that even what appear to us as fragmentation and darkness is, in its essence, unity and light. Ein od milvado—“there is nothing but God.” We are called upon to transmute our experiences to reflect this reality. In this session, we will explore this calling, focusing on texts from the first Rebbe of Chabad, the Baal haTanya, with commentary from the subsequent six generations.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet.
This audio was originally recorded on 06/08/2016. 

Cultivating Holiness: Insights and Challenges from the Chassidic Tradition with Rabbi Ariel Evan Mayse

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut"
Through study of selected Chassidic texts, we will explore the contemporary relevance of several models of sacred living found in the writings of Chassidic masters, with an eye to conceptions of holy time and space and the ways in which the sacred is expressed through human deeds.
This audio was originally recorded on 10/28/2015 as part of Drish'a Dirshu: Holiness series

A Student’s Obligation: The Legacy of the Piaseczno Rebbe with Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler

This season of Turn it & Turn it is on the topic of: "Chassidut" 
What does it mean to be a good person and a good Jew in 2015? How can we educate ourselves and our community in an attempt to enact that vision? We will explore answers to these questions from Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Rebbe of Piaseczno and the Warsaw Ghetto and author of several works including Derech Hamelech, Chovat Hatalmidim, and Aish Kodesh.
Click here to view the accompanying source sheet. 
This audio was originally recorded on 06/10/2015.