Class Description:
The Tanach records the lives of heroic men and women to model for us holy behavior and inspire us in our relationship with Hashem. The stories guide us as we confront individual and national challenges and successes – whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The stories are timeless and, therefore, always relevant, guiding us through both centuries of joy living in Eretz Yisrael and through periods of Exile, marked by desperation and confusion. By the time we encounter these stories we already know their endings. Thus, the narratives include a certain inevitability and immutability. This deprives us of the ability to understand the real emotions – fear, hope, courage, and self-sacrifice – that our extraordinary but still all-so-human ancestors experienced and harnessed as they faced the challenges of their lives. Of course, they had no foreknowledge of the end of the story, whether for good or for bad. We often forget that our heroes and heroines were living these events in real time. All too often, we relate to them as two-dimensional characters trapped on a page, but our ancestors actually lived through these historic moments. In order to truly integrate the lessons available to us, we must step into their lives, understand their motivations and relate to their situations. For example, consider the struggle of Sarah who desperately waited for a child to continue the Torah legacy of Avraham’s house, only to watch as her maidservant stepped into the role of mother; or of Rus who, after suddenly losing her husband, abandoned a life of regality and prosperity for a life of poverty within a foreign nation. Consider the Jewish people who, during the Purim story, faced the decree - in this world and in the heavenly realm - of complete annihilation; and Mordechai, the last hope for the Jewish people during this difficult time, appeared to be the cause of the looming destruction!