Adult Education Blog

Below is the list of all the texts considered to be Jewish Apocrypha. That is, they are ancient writings believed to have been written by and for Jews, but for various reasons were not canonized into our Tanakh.

Each title links to their Wikipedia article. For Rabbi Lizz's summaries and links to someplace you can read the text online (where such links could be found), go to this Google Doc.

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Our Book Club meets at 10:30 am on Zoom the last Wednesday of each month. This month we are reading The Family Man by Elinor Lipman.

The Amazon summary says:

A hysterical phone call from his ex-wife upends Henry Archer's well-ordered life - and brings him back into contact with the child he adored: Thalia, now 29, an aspiring actress. Hoping it will lead to better things for her career, Thalia agrees to pose as the...Read more...

This week we'll be reading some Midrash stories about Biblical characters who never died, according to tradition.

This week we will be looking at some of these most famous Midrash stories and discussing how they are functioning.

Midrash Aggadah about Abraham and Sarah

Sefaria Source Sheet of Midrashim

Some brief examples and explanations of Midrash Halakha

We will discuss our next book on April 28, 2021 through Zoom at 10:30 a.m. The book is Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. 

One of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular and influential works, “Ivanhoe” is the story of one of the last remaining Saxon noble families. At the beginning of the novel we find its titular character, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who has been disinherited by his father for his allegiance to the Norman king, Richard...Read more...

This Sunday, our adult ed time will be devoted to hearing from Bradley Caro Cook and Cameron Vanore about the book Choosing Judaism: 36 Stories. We also hope to incorporate opportunity for Ner Shalom members who are Jews by Choice to share their stories about journeying into and through Judaism.

A bit about our presenters:

Bradley Caro Cook, Ed.D. was born in Atlanta Georgia, where he lived until moving to Israel in 2012....Read more...

The Book of Esther

BimBam's "Go Esther"

HaYehudim Baim's "K'mo Zona"

Esther vs. Vashti

Confronting Megillat Esther's Violent Ending

The Book of Esther is meant to be a Farce

Persian Jews

Source Sheet on Esther and her comparisons with Joseph and Daniel

The Book of Ruth

Summary of the Book of Ruth (but it's only four chapters!)

The Power of Names in the Book of Ruth

Brief analysis of the Book of Ruth

The Ner Shalom Book Club is reading Apeirogon by Colum McCann this month and trying to get back on track with our last Wednesday of the month meetings!

Join us at 10:30 am on January 27th via Zoom to discuss this book.

From Goodreads:

Colum McCann's most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon--named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides--is a tour de force concerning friendship, love, loss, and...Read more...

This month we will be having a guest teacher for Adult Ed!

Geoffrey Dennis is rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, TX. He is a popular professor in Rabbinics at the University of North Texas, where he teaches Kabbalah, Biblical Literature, and the History of Messianism. He received his M.HL and was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He also has degrees in Education and Nursing. Prior to his...Read more...

The Book of Job (Full Text)

What is the Book of Job?

Introduction to Job through the Classical Rabbinic Lens

What is the Point of this Book?

Theodicy and Linguistic Structure of Job

What's the deal with Satan here?

Psalms is a collection of poetry. There's no narrative or decisive author, but we will look at the book of 150 poems as deeply as we can in one hour!

Since there isn't as much room for the sort of literary-historical look we often employ for understanding a whole book of TaNaKh in one hour, instead I suggest everyone bring a Psalm for us to discuss.

The Book of Psalms

What is Psalms?