Torah Class Archive

Torah Class from December 13, 2012

David has a chance to kill Saul but lets him live. Nabal dies. David marries Abigail.

This morning we talked about David’s adventures, including feigning madness, as he tried to escape Saul.

This morning we examined the relationships between David, Jonathan, and Saul.

Today we discussed the gradual ending of Saul’s kingship and his repeated attempts to kill David.

Today we studied Samuel I, Chapter 18 — how does David begin to replace Saul as King?

We reviewed the story of David and Goliath.

We began the story of David’s ascent to the Kingship with Samuel’s visit to the house of Jesse to anoint the new King.

We began the background for the study of the Book of Samuel, the story of David. Next week, we start with Samuel Book 1, chapter 15.

In today’s class we talked about the recent AIPAC conference and the situation in Iran.

In today’s class we decided to proceed studying the books of Samuel and David’s story. We learned some of the background of the story to enable us to begin.

Today we recapped the themes of the book of Genesis from Creation to Jacob’s blessing in preparation for beginning the book of Exodus next session.

This morning we concluded our study of the book of Genesis.

This class was about burying Jacob, but also included several personal stories about my father, and other life events.

Special Torah Class with Leon Wieseltier: “God of the Hand and God of the Heart”

We concluded the blessings of Jacob, and talked about his death and request for burial in Israel.

We discussed whether there are twelve or thirteen tribes.

Why do we bless our sons by the names Ephraim and Menasseh? In this morning’s Torah class we examined many ideas on the subject.

In this class we talked about the ending of Jacob’s life and the concept of blessing. Why did he Jacob make Joseph swear to bring him back to Israel – why wasn’t Joseph’s word good enough?