The concept of Torah Min Hashamayim, that the Torah is from Heaven, is a central component of Jewish thought and constitutes one of the theological differences between different denominations in Judaism.
Despite this, there are serious disagreements as to what the concept actually means.
This week, we studied sources that suggest different meanings for what the concept could mean, as well as the discussion over what one needs to believe (or not deny) in order to be considered within the boundaries of legitimate Jewish thought.
At the beginning of June, I travelled from London to York University on behalf of the Reut Institute to give a talk about the Israeli-Palestinian political process.
Click here for the talk followed by a question and answer session.
What happens the moment before God speaks to Avraham for the first time?
What is it that Avraham sees or does that convinces God to enter into dialogue with him, to create a covenant between them?
Does it provide us with any clues as to how we can encounter the divine in our own lives?
This week we studied a Midrash about Avraham that suggests different ways in which people can hear God's voice. The Shiur included guest appearances from Jewish philosopher Maimonides, English poet Wordsworth, Talmudic heretic Elisha Ben Abuya and author of ‘The God gene’.
Both Lag Ba'Omer and Shavuot provide ideas on how we should (and should not) learn Torah.
In preparation for the festival, this week looked at some famous stories from the Gemara in order to explore questions revolving around the authority of the Rabbis to radically re-read text, how we should transfer tradition from one generation to the other, and maintaining the balance between arguing for truth on the one hand, and becoming cruel and ambivalent towards others on the other.
The final week of the mini-series on reward and punishment looked at the question of the Shoah .
It began by studying the disagreement as to whether the Shoah constituted a unique event.Following this, we looked at the views of different theologians – from those who view it as punishment for sins (such as the Satmar Rebbe) to those who claim it portends the Death of God (such as Richard Rubenstein), as well as lots of positions in between (Eliezer Berkovits, Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel and Irving Greenberg.)
Having spent the last 2 weeks looking at why bad things happen to good people, this week we focused on our response to suffering and tragedy (the what now).
Through studying and discussing a wide range of positions – from Job, to saintly Rabbi Akiva, arch-Talmudic heretic Elisha Ben Abuya, Hasidic master Levi of Berditchev and Auschwitz survivor and psychologist Victor Frankl – we tried to better understand the tapestry of opinion that makes up the Jewish tradition.
The concept of Torah Min Hashamayim, that the Torah is from Heaven, is a central component of Jewish thought and constitutes one of the theological differences between different denominations in Judaism. 
