Learning With Your Own Havruta
Course Details
Brit milah, the covenant of circumcision, is one of the most enduring and distinctive rituals in Jewish life. For thousands of years, Jews have entered baby boys into the covenant between God and the Jewish people through this act, marking the body itself as part of a relationship that stretches back to Avraham and Sarah. But brit milah is more than a familiar, one-time ritual; it also opens basic questions about what it means to belong to a covenant. Why does the Torah mark this relationship on the body? What does it mean to enter a covenant before one is old enough to choose it? And how might a ritual performed in infancy shape a person’s identity, belonging, and responsibility over a lifetime? Through Torah, rabbinic and mystical texts, this course explores the values and tensions surrounding brit milah, inviting learners to think more deeply about belonging to a covenant and entering our children into the Jewish story.
Registration for this course opens May 4. Course materials open May 25!
Rabbi Tali Adler is faculty at Hadar, where she teaches Talmud, Tanakh, and parshanut. Tali earned a BA in Jewish Studies and Political Science at Yeshiva University, and received semikhah from Yeshiva Maharat. Tali has taught at a number of institutions including Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim, BBYO, and Harvard Hillel. She lives in Washington Heights with her husband and two children.
