ALEPH Ordination Program Smicha Week 5784/2024
WELCOME, MUSMACHIMOT!
We’re so glad you’re considering joining us for Smicha Week this summer. Whether you’re interested in sitting in on a class or two or davvening with old friends, stepping back into Smicha Week as a musmach is unique and exciting experience. Registration is discounted for musmachimot (full info available on the Pricing tab,) and we’d love to have you!
We’re thrilled to share that we will have a special MUSMACH-ONLY course offered in the morning! This course will meet for 2.5 hours of learning during the mornings of Monday through Friday.
In the afternoon (while students are in their afternoon courses) you’ll be welcome to hang out and relax, get some work done, explore the beautiful nature-filled property, or visit with other musmachimot and faculty.
If you have other questions about involvement in Smicha Week as a musmach, please reach out to smichaweek@aleph.org.
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MUSMACH-ONLY COURSE
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Emergent Judaism: Weaving Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Consciousness to Heal Our World
Rabbi Natan Margalit, Ph.D.
This class will take us on a profound exploration of how we can catalyze personal, communal, and cultural transformation to heal our fractured world. Drawing from the text “The Pearl and the Flame: A Journey into Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Thinking” alongside other resources, we will delve into vital topics like:
- Fostering civil and respectful dialogue amidst disagreement
- Transcending cultures of addiction and overconsumption
- Confronting the existential climate crisis with wisdom
- And more emergent issues facing humanity and our planet
Our journey will be guided by Jewish sources and contemporary writings that illuminate paths forward. However, this will be an emergent learning circle where our own experiences and perspectives converge to organically generate new insights.
Together, we will aim to develop capacities for ushering in a new paradigm – a culture of wholeness that honors the inherent holiness and interdependence of all life. By embodying values of healing and restoring balance, we can position ourselves at the leading edge of this vital shift in human consciousness.
This class is not just a study of texts, but a dynamic exploration of how we can become the change we wish to see in our communities and on Earth. An opportunity to transform ourselves as we transform our world.
Rabbi Natan Margalit, Ph.D. (he/him) was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a young adult he lived for twelve years in Israel and received rabbinic ordination at The Jerusalem Seminary in 1990. He earned a Ph.D. in Talmud from UC Berkeley in 2001. Natan has taught at Bard College, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College.
Natan is the author of The Pearl and the Flame: A Journey into Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Thinking. He is Interim Dean of Faculty and a member of the Va’ad (steering committee and core faculty) of the ALEPH Ordination Program, and serves as chair of their Rabbinic Texts department. He is also the Director of the AOP’s Earth-Based Judaism Program.
Natan is Founder of Organic Torah, fostering holistic thinking about Judaism, environment and society, which is a program of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. He lives with his wife, two sons and their dog, Pele (named for the Hebrew word for wonder, and also the Hawaiian goddess, not the soccer player) in Newton, MA.
P.O. Box 35118
Philadelphia, PA 19128
ph. 215.247.9700