#YourTorah – Details, episodes & analysis

Rabba Dina Brawer wraps up the YourTorah journey, and shares an overview of the project.

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This episode is sponsored by Yeshivat Maharat, the first institution to ordain women as Orthodox clergy, and where JOFA UK's founder, Dina Brawer, recently received semikha. Dina joins a cohort of 26 graduates who are currently leading communities and organizations across North America, Europe and Israel.

Rabba Dina Brawer studied Torah in Jerusalem, New York and London. Dina’s life journey led her to do things she never dreamed of, including launching an Orthodox feminist movement in the UK and studying for Orthodox semikha (rabbinic ordination) at Yeshivat Maharat in NY - she received semikha earlier this year.

Cecilia Haendler introduces masekhet Parah, unpacking the ritual of the red heifer and exploring how it creates a mysterious and powerful bridge to Oral Torah.

Cecilia Haendler, born in Florence, Italy, lives in Paris with her husband Yair and is doing a PhD on gendered metaphorical language in Tannaitic literature at the Freie Universität Berlin. For the series A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud she is writing about Hallah, Orlah and Bikkurim. She has worked as a research associate in the project A Digital Synopsis of the Mishnah and Tosefta and she has learned at the Nishmat Center for Advanced Torah Study.

Devorah Zlochower unpacks masekhet Negaim, examining its categorisation of afflictions, and their corresponding symptoms and purification rituals, as well as drawing out its insights into human behaviour.

Devorah Zlochower is Executive Editor of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School's Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies and a rebbe at YCT. She has taught Gemara and halakhah for over two decades at YCT, Mechon Hadar, SAR High School and Drisha Institute where she was Rosh Beit Midrash. She lives in Riverdale.

Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham looks into masekhet Ohalot, reflecting on end of life experiences and inviting us to see the taharah (purity) behind the tumah (impurity).

This YourTorah episode is dedicated by Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham in memory of her mother Livana bat David ve'Batsheva z"l.

With a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and semikha (ordination) from Yeshivat Maharat, Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham brings her background as a physician to her study of Jewish texts and practice. While at Yeshivat Maharat, she developed and co-taught the Women’s Health and Niddah curriculum, as well as interned at the Hillels of Westchester, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Chaplaincy Program and served as a Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Created Equal Seminar Fellowship. As a member of the Women’s Health Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, she held a dual appointment in Internal Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Rabba Dr. Carmella currently serves as Community Educator in Westchester and works in Oncology Medical Affairs for the pharmaceutical industry. She lives in White Plains, New York with her husband, Dr. Steven Kubersky, and their three children.

Leah Rosenthal presents masekhet Kelim, exploring its discussion of the purity of objects and noting the way physical objects act as a portal into daily life in Mishnaic times.

Leah Rosenthal has been teaching Talmud at the Pelech High School for Girls and at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem for over thirty years. She has a BA in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy, and an MA in Jewish Education, both from the Hebrew University.

Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz introduces Seder Tohorot, looking into its exploration of the purity system, and noting the way it marks the boundaries between life and death.

Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz studied archaeology at Cambridge and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and recently completed a PhD at University College London on the religious lives of Orthodox Jewish women, which will be published as a book. She is a Teaching Fellow at London School of Jewish Studies, an occasional lecturer at Cambridge and Oxford, edits academic books, is involved in Scriptural Reasoning and interfaith activity, and has taught young & old in the Jewish community for the past 15 years.

Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham introduces masekhet Kinnim, encouraging listeners to work through its complex mishnayot using logic and reasoning.

With a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and semikha (ordination) from Yeshivat Maharat, Rabba Dr. Carmella Abraham brings her background as a physician to her study of Jewish texts and practice. While at Yeshivat Maharat, she developed and co-taught the Women’s Health and Niddah curriculum, as well as interned at the Hillels of Westchester, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Chaplaincy Program and served as a Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Created Equal Seminar Fellowship. As a member of the Women’s Health Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, she held a dual appointment in Internal Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Rabba Dr. Carmella currently serves as Community Educator in Westchester and works in Oncology Medical Affairs for the pharmaceutical industry. She lives in White Plains, New York with her husband, Dr. Steven Kubersky, and their three children.

Shira Eliassian opens up masekhet Middot, taking us on an audio-visual tour of the Temple, and exploring how studying this masekhet serves as a psychological surrogate for making our pilgrimage there.

• Entry on Temple in Rabbinic Literature on JewishEncyclopedia.com - This article includes an overview of Har HaBayit and the Azarah with labels in English.

• Overview of the Azarah with labels in Hebrew.

• Virtual Tour of Temple on YouTube - There's sappy music in the background and doesn't include labels, but helps to visualize the entire Har HaBayit.

• BONUS: Digitized version of Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah, courtesy of the Polonsky Foundation and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. This is a manuscript authored by Maimonides himself, and is the first recorded attempt to translate the text of Middot into diagrams. The link will direct you to the beginning of his commentary on Middot.

Shira Eliassian is currently pursuing a Masters in Religion at University of Chicago's Divinity School. Her studies focus on how religion is expressed through literature and visual culture. Shira has created programming and online education for JOFA and is currently editor of The JOFA Blog. This March she visited the UK as JOFA UK's Be'er Miriam scholar.

Leah Shakdiel introduces masekhet Tamid, opening up its account of daily Temple worship, and noting the importance of continually striving to link our ancestors' spirituality with our own.

Leah Shakdiel was born in Jerusalem in 1951 to a family of Modern Orthodox pioneers. She moved to Yeruham, a small development town in the Negev Desert, in 1978, with a group committed to Halacha, social responsibility, peace, and ecology. She is married to psychologist Dr. Moshe Landsman, and is mother of Rachel (36), Tzvi (34), and Pinchas (32), and grandmother of Toviya (13), Channah (11), Miriam (10), and Batya (6).

Leah has a BA from Bar Ilan University in English and French Literatures. Her other studies include Bible and Oral Law, Jewish Thought, Jewish History, and Education. She taught Hebrew and Jewish studies, developed teaching materials, trained teachers, coordinated and directed projects and institutions in the areas of education and community. She has taught courses on Jewish feminism, state and religion, and Israeli society, at the Schechter Institute and at Sapir College.

Leah is socially and politically active on behalf of peace, empowering the disadvantaged, civil and human rights, and feminism. She has published academic and popular articles in all these areas. She served as the first Yeruham town council female member ever (1983-8), and in 1988 became Israel’s first female member of a local Religious Council, following a successful struggle that ended with a landmark Supreme Court decision. As a School for Educational Leadership Fellow (1994-6) she developed a model for feminist pedagogy for Israel. She is the recipient of the Yig'al Alon Prize for Lifework as Pioneer (2009), the Israeli Parliament Distinction for Women Leading Change (twice, 1999, 2015), and the New Israel Fund UK Prize for Human Rights (2014). She currently teaches in various post-high school pre-military programmes, and is studying towards Orthodox rabbinical ordination in Beit Midrash Har'el, Jerusalem.