"The Open Beit Midrash helped me to expand my spirit, deepen my knowledge, and uplift my practice as a Jew working for justice. And the full results may only unfold in the months and years to come."          Guy Austrian, Director of Social Action/Social Justice, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, New York City  Click Here to Read More Reviews.

I have worked with communities and organizations to design inclusive Open Beit Midrash programs in many locations. 

Participants in an Open Beit Midrash Program at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center

Specially prepared materials for each session make it possible for participants of all backgrounds to take part and explore together in intensive, substantive, first-hand encounters with Jewish sources in welcoming, inclusive environments. 

A Summer Beit Midrash at Hebrew College

The perspectives and insights of all participants are an essential part of the learning and exploration.

A Beit Midrash Evening At Eitz Chayim in Cambridge

The Open Beit Midrash enables everyone to be ‘on the page’ together.  All have something to contribute and to learn, from the sources and from each other.

Group conversation in an Open Beit Midrash program at Congregation Kehilath Israel in Brookline 

The Open Beit Midrash enables participants to come together across differences of generation, background, perspective, and practice. 

Participants encountering Torah and one another in an Open Beit Midrash program at the Summer Institute of the National Havurah Committee

Sources are always provided in the original languages, with interlinear English translation, introductions, and essential vocabulary.

Sharing insights in the Open Beit Midrash

Beit Midrash participants in "Be a Rabbinical Student for a Week!" at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.

Brandeis students and friends at a Beit Midrash evening

To bring the Open Beit Midrash to your community for a day, weekend, or series, contact jsteinberg@hebrewcollege.edu

I have worked with a wide range of institutions and communities to create specially designed programs for new settings, including: Harvard University Hillel; Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps; Limmud; CAJE (The Coalition for Advancement in Jewish Education); Brandeis University Hillel; Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Sprituality, and many others.

Click Here for Upcoming Programs of the Open Beit Midrash!

Descriptions of Some Past Open Beit Midrash Programs:

For millennia, Jews have wrestled with the tension between Divine or communal authority and individual autonomy. From Talmudic arguments to Hasidic tales, Jewish texts record that struggle and offer important insights for Jews defining their identities in our current world.

Jewish prayer is called "the service of the heart," but for Jews throughout the ages, prayer has also been a fixed order of liturgy. From earliest rabbinic times there has been a tension in Jewish praying between keva (fixedness) and kavana (direction of the heart). What is Jewish prayer supposed to be, and what is it supposed to accomplish? Is it a matter of duty and obedience? of spontaneous emotional expression? of rebellion? From talmudic accounts to mystical teachings, Jewish texts record a struggle with such questions and offer important insights for those who approach Jewish prayer today.

What does Judaism have to say about poverty, homelessness and other issues of social concern?  What is the relationship between classical Jewish sources and contemporary ethics?  How can a Jewish activist weave together Jewish and secular wisdom in working as an agent for Social change?

How did we get from the Torah in the ark to the Torah of the rabbinic bet midrash (house of study), and the Torah of lived Judaism?  Is it a matter of revelation, human interpretation, evolving folk custom, or the influences of history and experience?  What are the consequences of acknowledging each of those factors in the Torah of our lives?  In this first hand encounter with the sources we will explore a wide variety of rabbinic grapplings with the question, ranging from the second through the twentieth centuries.

What can human beings know of God? How is such knowledge acquired, and what difference should the learning of it make? Jewish sources from the Tanach to the 21st century affirm, in various ways, that God is beyond human knowing, but that has rarely dampened the Jewish quest to know every secret of God’s mystery. In this Beit Midrash style course, combining introductions, first-hand encounter with the sources in hevruta (study pairs), and group discussion, we will follow a trail of Jewish questing for knowledge of God from ancient times to our very own. The sessions are designed to satisfy advanced learners while supporting beginners as well.

From biblical sources to 20th Century Hasidism, these sessions explore centuries of Jewish mysticism. We will follow a thematic path through our people’s long quest to join the world of our daily lives to the realm of the divine and to know God in human life. The theme of prayer will organize our journey through a rich array of sources, ancient to recent, and will help us to compare the ideas of different thinkers and ages. Taking prayer as our topic can also furnish us with a frame of reference: our own traditions and experiences of Jewish prayer and the synagogue. Participants of all backgrounds are welcome!

There has never been a more opportune or important moment to engage the Jewish people in seeking wisdom and guidance from our heritage to face the ecological plight of our times.  From ancient days, our tradition has grown in interaction with the natural world.  There is much in the outlook, the practices, and the moral imperatives of Judaism, that can inform and inspire us as we face and address current environmental challenges and work to grow responsibly as living beings sharing in the life of this world.