About the Class
What does it mean to learn Torah as feminists? Loving Torah – or wanting to love Torah – when our holy texts are so saturated with men’s experiences and perspectives to the exclusion of all others is painful, but can also be generative. In this Intensive, we'll explore 8 different ways of learning Torah with a feminist lens. We'll practice reading with a skeptical lens toward the feminist potential of Torah, we'll read closely in conversation with our own life experiences, and we'll seek out the experiences of the women behind the text. Over the course of our learning, we'll learn how to identify different feminist methods of Torah learning. By the end of the quarter you'll be able to stand in your own approach to feminist Torah learning.
Your Teacher
Rabbi Avigayil Halpern
Rabbi Avigayil Halpern is an educator and writer who is passionate about the Torah that emerges in the conversation between our own lives and traditional texts. Avigayil is recognized internationally as a teacher of thoughtful and accessible Torah, with a focus on queer and feminist thought. She has brought her compelling and original teaching to communities across and beyond denominations, and has experience teaching groups of all ages and backgrounds. She is at work on a book about queer niddah.
Avigayil was ordained by the Hadar Institute in 2023. She has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and was recognized as one of the New York Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36,”, among other fellowships and awards. She is a co-host of the “Can’t Stop Scrolling” podcast, and lives in Washington, DC.
