With a touch of whimsy, Rabbi Joseph Leibowitz likens himself to Benjamin of Tudela, a medieval Jewish traveler and gem merchant who documented Jewish towns in the course of his business.
But when he comes to Berkeley in June, Leibowitz won’t be unveiling rubies or emeralds. Rather, he’ll be showing off the qualities of an early Jewish gem — the Torah.
Leibowitz, a faculty member of Jerusalem’s Pardes Institute, will hold “A Week of Torah Learning” from June 13 to 19 in Berkeley. Joining him will be Rabbi Ben Hollander, who teaches at Hebrew University and a beit midrash in Jerusalem.
Though American Jews’ interest in the Torah has spiked in recent years, they are often unable to develop it, Leibowitz said. Few venues in the country offer a one-week, intensive course in Torah study.
“People want more than a single lecture; they want to read the texts themselves,” said Leibowitz during a recent visit to Berkeley.
“For all too long, people have spoken about the texts, but that’s not the same as studying them. We want to teach people how to access the intellectual excitement and spiritual messages hidden in the Torah.”
In recent years, he said, those attracted to Torah study have been “highly educated people whose Western education is far beyond their Jewish education in sophistication. They feel that if they’re going to be Jewish they’d rather be informed, intelligent Jews.”
If the Berkeley course is successful, Leibowitz plans to make it a yearly event and to replicate the program in other American cities.
The rabbi is no stranger to Berkeley, having served as spiritual leader of Berkeley’s Congregation Beth Israel from 1969 to 1984. Nowadays, in addition to his Pardes teaching post, he leads an Orthodox congregation in the Israeli town of Kfar Saba.
In 1997, as scholar-in-residence at the Center for Jewish Living and Learning of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, he offered a three-day course on Genesis titled “The Soul’s Journey.”
But Genesis is only the beginning. This summer’s study session will offer students a chance to explore more of the Torah along with other Jewish texts and themes.
In the mornings, students will choose between Genesis and the Tractate Berachot, a portion of the Mishnah that deals with the laws of prayer. Afternoons will feature a session on Pesach and a class on Exodus, and each day will end with a lecture that relates biblical teachings to contemporary Israeli statehood.
“In the lectures we’ll discuss things like the chosenness of Israel, and political models for a Jewish state in the Bible,” said Leibowitz. “We examine the groundwork set there, and people can apply it in whatever way they want.”
Classes will be open to Jews of all denominations, as well as the unaffiliated. “We don’t separate religious ideologies; all we ask is that you’re serious about study,” said Leibowitz.
The course is sponsored by Pardes and the Berkeley-based Yad Yaakov Fund. Co-sponsors are Ahavat Israel, Beth Israel, and Congregations Beth El and Netivot Shalom. Other sponsors are Lehrhaus Judaica and the Center for Jewish Living and Learning.
“We’re nondenominational, so they see a group which they can all back,” said Leibowitz.
Pardes, the first coeducational yeshiva in Jerusalem, seeks to “combine the spiritual intensity of the traditional yeshiva with the intellectual openness of the Western university.”
The Berkeley course will “bring the Pardes approach to people who can’t make it to Israel to study with us there,” said Leibowitz.
Likening himself once again to Benjamin of Tudela, he commented, “you fly around the country, go to airports and cities and hotels, and there are people who want to study Torah.
“Something’s happening here. It’s uplifting; it’s a real joy for me.”