Class Lists

Not only is this first year of Rabbinic School about being in Israel and experiencing everything that there is to see here, but it is also part of an academic program. As such, we have a pretty full course load and I love it so far.

For anyone from HUC reading my blog, this is going to be all about school. Thanks for reading, but if you want to know my schedule, I'll see you tomorrow morning.

Sunday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Liturgy Lecture
1130 Liturgy Discussion
1330 Biblical History

Monday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Shachrit
1130 Rabbinic Texts
1400 2nd Temple History
1545 All Student Forum or HaEmek D'var

Tuesday
0830 Modern Hebrew
1015 Modern Hebrew
1200 Biblical Grammar
1330 Book of Legends Elective
1430 Mincha
1645 History of the Zionist Movement

Wednesday
Israel Seminar Day

Thursday
0830 Shachrit
1000 Modern Hebrew
1145 Bible
1330 History Tiyyul (as needed)

Modern Hebrew
This is just a class that we study Modern Hebrew. My class got to keep the fantastic teacher we had for summer ulpan and it's great.

Liturgy Lecture and Discussion
The lecture portion of this class we study the history of prayer and look into how liturgy was developed. Aside from the location of the class (we're having lectures in the synagogue on campus) this is really interesting to me. We also have an hour long discussion section immediately after the lecture which helps us work out some of the trick parts we're studying.

Biblical History
This will be a fascinating class for me. We are looking at the history of the Bible. The story, not the written Bible itself. From what I understand, we are going to examine Jewish history through time using the bible as the jumping off point. We haven't gotten too much beyond the intro and a brief discovery of Biblical Geography. I'm pumped to be learning more about this though.

Rabbinic Texts
Just as it sounds, this class is the analysis, translation and understanding of Rabbinic texts. Mishnah, Talmud and things of that sort.

2nd Temple History
Aptly named, we are going to study Jewish history in the 2nd Temple Period. Hey, I majored in history, for some reason I think I will like this class!

All Student Forum
We actually haven't had one of these yet, so I'm not really sure what this as all about.

HaEmek D'var
So far this class was a discussion about the class. From what I understand, we will work in smaller groups to talk about big issues relating to Israel. The group I'm in will be facilitated by the dean, so I'm excited about that. We also get off campus for this class and get to have our discussions in people's homes.

Biblical Grammar
Not only does this class make a lot of sense to me because it's logical, but our professor is amazing. She's hilarious, she's excited. She pronounces the guttural letters exactly as they are supposed to be. I didn't think it was possible to be this fired up to learn Biblical Grammar, but I look forward to this class every week.

Book of Legends Elective
This is an elective with the Director of our Program, Mah Tovu's Rabbi Josh Zweiback. We are looking at legendary stories from a book called, Sefer Aggadah. It's another opportunity to learn text and work on my Hebrew Skills.

History of the Zionist Movement
Another aptly titled class. This is the history of the modern Zionist Movement. Not much else to be said about it.

Israel Seminar
Wednesdays are dedicated to learning about Israel through a variety of lenses. Every week will be different, but this is the formal way we will be learning about Israel and Israeli culture. Sweet!

Bible
Last time we had this class, we spent the whole day studying the first chapter of Genesis. Through the rest of the course, we will be looking at the Bible and focusing on women and their role. I have the same teacher for this as I do for Biblical History. This is really exciting to learn.

So as you can see, I have a pretty full schedule. All of the classes are really interesting and I'm really excited to be learning about all of these topics this year.

I need to run though. Choir rehearsal...

G'mar Chatimah Tovah!