Beit Midrash

The Kolot Beit Midrash brings together men and women from different professions, for one full day each week, to explore Jewish sources in the context of modern social issues. The Beit Midrash is a setting where several dialogues take place at once: between Jewish sources and Western culture; between theoretical study and practical application; and between the topic being studied and the personal approach of the student. Within the Beit Midrash framework, participants from the entire spectrum of different professions and backgrounds can relate the subjects being studied to their own personal experience, while simultaneously gaining exposure to the viewpoints of those in other disciplines.

Each year, the studies are devoted to an identity issue that is central to a person’s social existence. 

In the 5763 year, the students in the Bet Midrash explored issues connected to money and property, as they are dealt with by Jewish texts and Western cultural sources.  The Bet Midrash offered a multidisciplinary framework for investigating matters that intersect economic, spiritual, and ethical decision-making.  The discussions centered on the connection between economic actions or decisions and ethical or spiritual issues.  Couched in personal terms, this question becomes:  “Can financially-based activity strengthen the spiritual and ethical aspects of one’s personality, or must it be carried out at their expense?”

In 5764, the topic was “speaking of the Exodus from Egypt.”  The aim was to view the Exodus from Egypt as an ongoing journey.  The prevailing attitude toward the Exodus is as a portrayal of the process in which the Jewish people was born, grew, and came of age, and in another sense, as a concept that describes the process in which an individual matures and develops a consciousness. When dealing with the Exodus from Egypt, the students discussed and investigated one central issue:  How did the decision of a free people to willingly submit to authority differ from their experience of slavery in Egypt?  In its scope, harshness, or goals?

Requirement for implementation:  Over the course of the year, the Bet Midrash required all the students to explore their personal understanding of the Exodus from Egypt and to develop ways of applying the lessons of the Exodus to their professional or social activities.  The students spent seven or eight days during the year planning and writing their proposals.

In 5765, the Bet Midrash will deal with the subject of “Family: Man’s Home.”  The students will investigate the role of the family as the smallest unit of identity, the framework of familial relations, and the extent to which marital and parental relations have been besieged in the post-modern era.  The students will consider the connection between the family as the smallest social entity and society at large.  Beyond this specific topic, the students will discuss the essence of the modern Bet Midrash, a place which brings together people from different places and educational backgrounds and aspires to serve as the meeting ground for their personal and professional worlds.

The participants in the Bet Midrash come from a wide range of educational and personal backgrounds:  men and women; secular and religious Jews, some of whom have studied and taught at yeshivot, some of whom have been facilitators at new batei midrash; lawyers and businessmen; and people involved in literature and drama, education and philosophy.  The composition of the Bet Midrash allows each student to work within his or her discipline, but in a way that encourages mutual interaction with the other participants.

The Kolot Beit Midrash is headed by David Liberman