Thursday, May 18
7:00pm to 10:30pm4745 17th Ave NE
Seattle WA 98105
Get ready to celebrate Shavuot, the holiday when we mark the revelation of Torah, with a beit midrash led by current Svara Teaching Kollel Fellow Betzalel Rosser!
SVARA is a traditionally radical yeshiva focused on recognizing the insights of people on the margins, particularly individuals from the queer community and people of color. SVARA empowers them to have a sense of ownership over Jewish texts and traditions. We will use the SVARA method in our beit midrash (house of study) to look at a section of Talmud in chevruta - a traditional Jewish style of paired learning.
This session is great for people just dipping their toe into Talmud study or people who have been studying for years! All levels are welcome - all you need to know is the aleph-bet, the Hebrew alphabet. (Duolingo is a great free resource for learning the aleph-bet if you want to get up to speed in just a few weeks, and a lot of other great options also exist online!) Jconnect will provide the text and reference materials - just bring yourself! But if you do have your own Jastrow and Frank, you should bring those too. We especially welcome and encourage queer and trans people, Jews of color, and disabled people between the ages of 21-39 to join our beit midrash.
We'll be led by current Svara Teaching Kollel Fellow Betzalel Rosser. Betzalel is an anarchist folk/punk/country musician living on the shores of the Salish Sea in so-called Seattle. They love Talmud for the same reason they love folk music – both are oral traditions containing tall tales, horrifying prejudice, and wisdom, all blended together and iterated on for hundreds of years. In these beautiful amalgams that emerge is a spark of something with so much radical potential waiting for us to harness it. And what a joy it is to do so!!
Financial capacity should never be a barrier to participation in a Jconnect program - if the registration fee would prevent you from participating, please reach out to ashley@hilleluw.org.
This event is generously funded by an Ignition Grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.