Rabbi Richard Hirsh Decoding the Concept of "Revelation" in Modern Jewish Thought-May 2015

Jewish tradition makes a variety of claims about the nature of the Revelation of Torah with coordinate implications for the degree to which Jewish law, commandments and beliefs are obligatory or optional.
At one end of the spectrum is the claim of orthodoxy that the Torah as we have it is verbatim transmission from God through Moses. At the other end is the contemporary historical perspective (embraced by Reconstructionism) that the Torah is a composite collection of texts of human origin. Across the spectrum are various attempts to root Torah in revelation while acknowledging the human hands that have shaped the Torah.
As we prepare for Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah (which the Torah itself seems not to know about -- one curiosity among others that we will examine), we will look at contemporary approaches to the problem of revelation and how the Torah tradition might remain sacred even if secular.

First Session-May 7, 2015
Second Session-May 14, 2015
Third Session-May 21, 2015