Open Beit Midrash at Hebrew College
There's still lots of specific content I want to write about from
my week studying at Hebrew College, but first I'm going to post a
general review before things start to fade too much.
Pico review: I'll definitely go back. :-) But you probably want to know more.
Overall, I had a really good time in the beit midrash. I completely understand how -- if someone else is taking care of your living expenses -- people can disappear into the study hall full-time. (Mind, I think it's kind of irresponsible to do so without either supporting yourself or having an end date in mind, so I wouldn't do that even if I could; I'm just saying I understand the appeal. Note that when I was in college I never grokked perpetual students, so something has changed.)
The mix of chevruta (partner) study and seminar was quite effective. We would generally study something fairly short -- a midrash of a paragraph or two, or one or two mishniyot, or the equivalent amount of gemara. We would read it line by line, in Hebrew when we could and in English, and spend, say, 20-30 minutes teasing it apart (and chasing references). We brought our own interpretations to the table as well as trying to understand those of the rabbis. We generally had some higher-level questions we were also trying to answer (of the form "what can we learn about X from this passage?"), so we were reading and interpreting and studying on several levels in parallel. Then we would come together as a group to share what we'd learned and discuss that some more. Then we'd do it again with a new passage. It was exciting.
(To put this in context: the day started with davening at 8AM, the only caffeine provided before lunch was tea and coffee and I don't drink coffee, and this non-morning person didn't mind.)
A compatable partner is important in this kind of study. We knew we were a diverse group and there were one or two popular students (most notably the fifth-year rabbinic student), so we changed around to get variety. Sometimes my partner and I really clicked and sometimes we didn't, but it was never bad -- at worst neutral. (There was one student I avoided because I thought we would be really incompatable.) I know that in their rabbinical school Hebrew College assigns partners per year (or maybe per semester); I think you need that consistency in a longer-term program of deeper study, but I do wonder how they resolve incompatabilities. But that sort of thing doesn't have a chance to come up in a short program like this.
Another key factor in my opinion is the size of the group. We had twelve students and that made discussions managable. In my first year of the Sh'liach K'hilah program we had 29 people; that was way too many without splitting into two groups, and part of the point is to create community so splitting into groups is a negative. I don't know what Hebrew College considers the maximum class size to be for this program; I heard that one year they had 20, which is probably about as high as I'd want to go.
I had to apply for this program, answering questions about my academic and Jewish background and arranging for a letter of reference from my rabbi. I'm not sure what the acceptance criteria were. Did they turn people away, or were there only a dozen applicants this year? There was no one who stood out as being too "green" to be there; everyone had basic proficiency and some had rather more. (As a gauge, I'd put my Hebrew at just about average in the group, my knowledge of torah moderately above average, my knowledge of the rest of Tanakh well below average, and my analytical skills very near the top.)
Anyway, the other critical factor is faculty, and ours were excellent. I applied to this program largely on the strength of one faculty member I'd (briefly) studied with before, and he did not disappoint. Dr. Jonah Steinberg is brilliant, engaging, learned, and a good facilitator. At the beginning of the week when I looked at his curriculum I didn't see the overall patterns, but as we worked through it I had "aha" moments where I understood just why he'd put some of these study texts together. There is an art to that. Consider the overall volume of rabbinic texts; we made but the tiniest scratch in the tiniest dent in the surface. He mined the whole body for a cohesive but wide-ranging subset.
So did the other core faculty member, Rabbi Or Rose, who I also enjoyed studying with. One of his research areas is Kedushat Levi, a Chassidic text that he is translating and analyzing, and it's clear he's passionate about it. I enjoyed learning both this and earlier midrash with him. (And when that translation is published, I'll certainly be interested in reading it.)
The overall theme of the week was leadership. Rabbi Rose focused on midrash about Moshe's life -- from before he was born (the midwives and the ones about Amram giving up and Miriam chastising him) to his birth to his flight from Egypt to the burning bush to Sinai to leading the people in the desert. I got many new insights into Moshe and God, and into leadership qualities. I would not have gotten many of those if I had just studied these texts on my own; the dialogue was essential. Dr. Steinberg focused on rabbinic Judaism; his question was how we got from the revelation at Sinai to the beit midrash of the rabbis. So we looked at talmud but we also looked at "talmud about talmud", so to speak -- about Hillel versus Shammai, and about teachers and students, and much more, all broadly related to the leaders of rabbinic Judaism. Again, many are insights I would not have gotten on my own.
There were some guest sessions, and the learning on Shabbat was different, but the bulk of the learning was what I've just described. We were also sent two articles/book chapters to read in advance, which were interesting and good background but not referred to explicitly again. (I'm not sure what happened there.)
I was attracted to this program by the style and depth of study more than the specific topic. I was looking for the beit-midrash experience; what exactly we studied was less important to me. After all, there is a lot of rich and interesting material in our texts; you can't cover it all in a lifetime. I got lucky on the theme; it's relevant to me both Jewishly and professionally, and I learned a lot that I hope I can apply. I would have been fully satisfied with study for the sake of study, but I'm pleased that I got study + application potential, because ultimately that's better. That's part of why I don't think one should just disappear into the study hall; I've experienced the appeal, but there's also a world out there. So the theme mattered after all, and it will be more of a guide to me in future years. I probably won't go to the OBM every year, so if next year's theme isn't appealing I can wait until the year after, and maybe use that vacation time and money to check out Drisha or the URJ kallah or something else.
There were some downsides. The biggest is that while I understood community-building to be a goal (i.e. getting this group of students to really bond over the week), this was hindered significantly by two factors: schedule and local students. Two-thirds of the students were local, meaning they went home at the end of the day and didn't necessarily come for Shabbat. The day formally ended at 4:00 most days, though we could stay somewhat later on our own if we wanted. This is a commuter school, so they pretty much lock the doors around 5 or 6; we couldn't gather in the beit midrash in the evenings. (I would have gone there in the evenings sometimes had I been able to, with or without classmates. After all... library!) There had been talk in advance of possible evening sessions, but that didn't happen. (I wonder if the local students would have come.) As someone coming from the outside and dedicating the whole week, I would have been happy to have them fill up my days more. As a local student with a family and other obligations, I probably wouldn't have wanted that. Hebrew College gets the task of balancing those.
So I feel like I had good experiences with my fellow students during the day, reinforced some nights by informal partial-group outings, but it was much less intense and cohesive than I had anticipated. Compare this to the Sh'liach K'hilah program, where no one was local, almost everyone stayed in the dorm, classes ran later and there were evening activities, and we basically spent a week really together as a group. I certainly didn't bond with everyone in the group (remember, 29 people the first year...), but I felt more group cohesion there than in the Open Beit Midrash. This isn't bad, just different -- and different from what I understood the plan to be, so I'm not sure how to interpret that. I have email addresses for everyone, so post-program contact is possible; it's too soon to know if that will have an effect.
A few of us were from out of town and stayed in a dorm at the school next door (Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, aka ANTS). The accommodations were low-end, but I knew that going in. I mostly didn't mind, but if most students are local and thus not staying there, next time I might look into other options. Or maybe not; anything else would involve climbing that hill way too early in the morning. :-) (Or driving around Boston.)
One good thing about the schedule was that I got to spend time with local friends I rarely see. This worked because I have local friends in Boston. If this had been in, say, Montana instead, this aspect would have been harder. I suspect it was harder for some of my out-of-town classmates.
To sum up: excellent academic program; I learned a lot and wanted more. So-so on group cohesion, which affects non-locals more than locals, so if you're not local, be prepared to entertain yourself in the evenings. If you're local and can afford to spend your days doing this for a week, I highly recommend it.
I am, of course, writing this based on my single experience with this program. This was the fourth year, and I'd love to compare notes with people who attended in other years. One of them was in my class, by the way; a repeat student speaks well of the program. I plan to be a repeat student too.
The organizers asked for feedback, so I plan to share the URL of this entry with them. (I of course have no idea if they will follow the link.) I mention this in case it affects comments any of you might leave.
Pico review: I'll definitely go back. :-) But you probably want to know more.
Overall, I had a really good time in the beit midrash. I completely understand how -- if someone else is taking care of your living expenses -- people can disappear into the study hall full-time. (Mind, I think it's kind of irresponsible to do so without either supporting yourself or having an end date in mind, so I wouldn't do that even if I could; I'm just saying I understand the appeal. Note that when I was in college I never grokked perpetual students, so something has changed.)
The mix of chevruta (partner) study and seminar was quite effective. We would generally study something fairly short -- a midrash of a paragraph or two, or one or two mishniyot, or the equivalent amount of gemara. We would read it line by line, in Hebrew when we could and in English, and spend, say, 20-30 minutes teasing it apart (and chasing references). We brought our own interpretations to the table as well as trying to understand those of the rabbis. We generally had some higher-level questions we were also trying to answer (of the form "what can we learn about X from this passage?"), so we were reading and interpreting and studying on several levels in parallel. Then we would come together as a group to share what we'd learned and discuss that some more. Then we'd do it again with a new passage. It was exciting.
(To put this in context: the day started with davening at 8AM, the only caffeine provided before lunch was tea and coffee and I don't drink coffee, and this non-morning person didn't mind.)
A compatable partner is important in this kind of study. We knew we were a diverse group and there were one or two popular students (most notably the fifth-year rabbinic student), so we changed around to get variety. Sometimes my partner and I really clicked and sometimes we didn't, but it was never bad -- at worst neutral. (There was one student I avoided because I thought we would be really incompatable.) I know that in their rabbinical school Hebrew College assigns partners per year (or maybe per semester); I think you need that consistency in a longer-term program of deeper study, but I do wonder how they resolve incompatabilities. But that sort of thing doesn't have a chance to come up in a short program like this.
Another key factor in my opinion is the size of the group. We had twelve students and that made discussions managable. In my first year of the Sh'liach K'hilah program we had 29 people; that was way too many without splitting into two groups, and part of the point is to create community so splitting into groups is a negative. I don't know what Hebrew College considers the maximum class size to be for this program; I heard that one year they had 20, which is probably about as high as I'd want to go.
I had to apply for this program, answering questions about my academic and Jewish background and arranging for a letter of reference from my rabbi. I'm not sure what the acceptance criteria were. Did they turn people away, or were there only a dozen applicants this year? There was no one who stood out as being too "green" to be there; everyone had basic proficiency and some had rather more. (As a gauge, I'd put my Hebrew at just about average in the group, my knowledge of torah moderately above average, my knowledge of the rest of Tanakh well below average, and my analytical skills very near the top.)
Anyway, the other critical factor is faculty, and ours were excellent. I applied to this program largely on the strength of one faculty member I'd (briefly) studied with before, and he did not disappoint. Dr. Jonah Steinberg is brilliant, engaging, learned, and a good facilitator. At the beginning of the week when I looked at his curriculum I didn't see the overall patterns, but as we worked through it I had "aha" moments where I understood just why he'd put some of these study texts together. There is an art to that. Consider the overall volume of rabbinic texts; we made but the tiniest scratch in the tiniest dent in the surface. He mined the whole body for a cohesive but wide-ranging subset.
So did the other core faculty member, Rabbi Or Rose, who I also enjoyed studying with. One of his research areas is Kedushat Levi, a Chassidic text that he is translating and analyzing, and it's clear he's passionate about it. I enjoyed learning both this and earlier midrash with him. (And when that translation is published, I'll certainly be interested in reading it.)
The overall theme of the week was leadership. Rabbi Rose focused on midrash about Moshe's life -- from before he was born (the midwives and the ones about Amram giving up and Miriam chastising him) to his birth to his flight from Egypt to the burning bush to Sinai to leading the people in the desert. I got many new insights into Moshe and God, and into leadership qualities. I would not have gotten many of those if I had just studied these texts on my own; the dialogue was essential. Dr. Steinberg focused on rabbinic Judaism; his question was how we got from the revelation at Sinai to the beit midrash of the rabbis. So we looked at talmud but we also looked at "talmud about talmud", so to speak -- about Hillel versus Shammai, and about teachers and students, and much more, all broadly related to the leaders of rabbinic Judaism. Again, many are insights I would not have gotten on my own.
There were some guest sessions, and the learning on Shabbat was different, but the bulk of the learning was what I've just described. We were also sent two articles/book chapters to read in advance, which were interesting and good background but not referred to explicitly again. (I'm not sure what happened there.)
I was attracted to this program by the style and depth of study more than the specific topic. I was looking for the beit-midrash experience; what exactly we studied was less important to me. After all, there is a lot of rich and interesting material in our texts; you can't cover it all in a lifetime. I got lucky on the theme; it's relevant to me both Jewishly and professionally, and I learned a lot that I hope I can apply. I would have been fully satisfied with study for the sake of study, but I'm pleased that I got study + application potential, because ultimately that's better. That's part of why I don't think one should just disappear into the study hall; I've experienced the appeal, but there's also a world out there. So the theme mattered after all, and it will be more of a guide to me in future years. I probably won't go to the OBM every year, so if next year's theme isn't appealing I can wait until the year after, and maybe use that vacation time and money to check out Drisha or the URJ kallah or something else.
There were some downsides. The biggest is that while I understood community-building to be a goal (i.e. getting this group of students to really bond over the week), this was hindered significantly by two factors: schedule and local students. Two-thirds of the students were local, meaning they went home at the end of the day and didn't necessarily come for Shabbat. The day formally ended at 4:00 most days, though we could stay somewhat later on our own if we wanted. This is a commuter school, so they pretty much lock the doors around 5 or 6; we couldn't gather in the beit midrash in the evenings. (I would have gone there in the evenings sometimes had I been able to, with or without classmates. After all... library!) There had been talk in advance of possible evening sessions, but that didn't happen. (I wonder if the local students would have come.) As someone coming from the outside and dedicating the whole week, I would have been happy to have them fill up my days more. As a local student with a family and other obligations, I probably wouldn't have wanted that. Hebrew College gets the task of balancing those.
So I feel like I had good experiences with my fellow students during the day, reinforced some nights by informal partial-group outings, but it was much less intense and cohesive than I had anticipated. Compare this to the Sh'liach K'hilah program, where no one was local, almost everyone stayed in the dorm, classes ran later and there were evening activities, and we basically spent a week really together as a group. I certainly didn't bond with everyone in the group (remember, 29 people the first year...), but I felt more group cohesion there than in the Open Beit Midrash. This isn't bad, just different -- and different from what I understood the plan to be, so I'm not sure how to interpret that. I have email addresses for everyone, so post-program contact is possible; it's too soon to know if that will have an effect.
A few of us were from out of town and stayed in a dorm at the school next door (Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, aka ANTS). The accommodations were low-end, but I knew that going in. I mostly didn't mind, but if most students are local and thus not staying there, next time I might look into other options. Or maybe not; anything else would involve climbing that hill way too early in the morning. :-) (Or driving around Boston.)
One good thing about the schedule was that I got to spend time with local friends I rarely see. This worked because I have local friends in Boston. If this had been in, say, Montana instead, this aspect would have been harder. I suspect it was harder for some of my out-of-town classmates.
To sum up: excellent academic program; I learned a lot and wanted more. So-so on group cohesion, which affects non-locals more than locals, so if you're not local, be prepared to entertain yourself in the evenings. If you're local and can afford to spend your days doing this for a week, I highly recommend it.
I am, of course, writing this based on my single experience with this program. This was the fourth year, and I'd love to compare notes with people who attended in other years. One of them was in my class, by the way; a repeat student speaks well of the program. I plan to be a repeat student too.
The organizers asked for feedback, so I plan to share the URL of this entry with them. (I of course have no idea if they will follow the link.) I mention this in case it affects comments any of you might leave.