DC: Jewish Reckoning with Power: A Halachic Left Learning Series

Join HL as we learn from:
•⁠ ⁠Rabbi Avigayil Halpern: “What do we mean when we say ‘Halachic Left’?”
•⁠ ⁠Prof. Sam Shuman: “Of Mice and Hasidic Men: The Populist Revival of Reb Shayele & Its Lessons for the Left”
•⁠ ⁠Rabbi Amelia Wolf: “A Higher Governance and a Changed Nature: Freedom and Sovereignty in the Sfas Emes”

Come to our third event in Jewish Reckoning with Power: A Halachic Left Learning Series -- with future events planned in Los Angeles, Chicago, and NYC. Each event will be livestreamed/recorded in order to allow everyone to watch speakers in other cities.

Much of our recent Torah, writing, and teaching has engaged directly with the urgent realities of Israel/Palestine. In this program, we are intentionally stepping back, toward a broader and more abstract question that underlies so many of those conversations: How does Jewish tradition understand, justify, resist, and reckon with power?

Each day of learning will feature shiurim from multiple teachers exploring different dimensions of Jewish engagement with power: textual, halachic, historical, and ethical. While the sessions will not all address the same sources or case studies, together they aim to open a shared conversation and provide conceptual tools that can deepen our Torah learning and inform contemporary Jewish moral and political thinking.

Lunch from David Chu's will be provided -- please RSVP so we can estimate how much to order!

*** We believe in learning Torah from all. Speaking does not imply agreement with Halachic Left's political positions. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.

Until now, “Halachic Left” has largely functioned to describe a group of leftists (at least on Palestine) and other progressives who affiliate with halachic communities. I aim to offer an initial theory of what halachically-observant and/or -aligned people can offer to the broader left from that perspective, with the goal of sharpening our collective thinking and work. What are the unique ways of thinking and acting that the halachically-oriented person can offer to broader Left projects? We will engage both traditional Torah sources around the potential moral work that Torah and halacha does to shape our character as well as theoretical/philosophical texts on related questions.

Prof. Sam Shuman asks what we might learn about Jewish power and powerlessness from a contemporary Hasidic populist revival movement? Shuman’s talk will draw upon their fieldwork in four annual pilgrimages to the gravesite of Reb Shayele of Kerestir (1851-1925), a Hungarian Hasidic miracle-worker, who has been resurrected as the Jewish patron saint of hospitality. As the consummate host to his “guests,” Shayele performs prophylactic miracles that protect his followers from unwelcome “intruders” (rodents, auditors, police, inspectors, etc.), as well as auspicious miracles that facilitate Jewish social reproduction (children, health, and livelihood). Orphaned at a young age and lacking dynastic pedigree, Shayele is venerated as a rebbe of the people—one who provides for his followers' everyday material needs (in contrast to “elite,” dynastic Hasidic leaders) and protects them from non-Jewish “enemies.”

Why did B'nai Yisrael have to descend into Egypt and what was taught through our redemption? By whose word did we go down, by whose word were we enlsaved, and by whose words did we go free? The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter) examines questions of speech, power, and restraint in light of the Exodus and the breaking of barriers -- whether those barriers be human nature or the natural order itself.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road Northwest, Washington, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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