Friday Morning Rashi Study

Do you want to understand and become familiar with Jewish sources but do not know where to start?

Join our Friday morning group as we study Rashi's commentary on the weekly parashah. We meet from 7:30 - 8:30 am each week in the Beth Immanuel library. If you can only come to a part of the class, that's just fine.

You can also join the class live online by visiting our hangout on Google+. See instructions at the end of this post.

Rashi, an 11th century rabbi, is one of the most prolific authors in Judaism. His commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures and on the Talmud are considered foundational. Learning Rashi's commentary on the Torah is an essential part of a basic Jewish education.

Rashi primarily focuses on the plain meaning of the text rather than midrashic or esoteric interpretations. He culls his information from a wide variety of Jewish sources.

The goal of a Rashi study is not to accept all of his interpretations as definitive fact, but to learn to think, analyze, and ask questions about the text the way that he did. Studying Rashi will help bring the text of the Torah down to earth. It will also give you a new appreciation for the word of God.

In this Rashi study, we use the series entitled What's Bothering Rashi? by Avigodor Bonchek as the basis for our discussion. These books do a great job guiding readers through study, and they help to make Rashi's fascinating commentary very accessible.

How to join the live, interactive Rashi study online:

The first three steps are probably best done well beforehand so that you are ready to join the class right away when it starts.

1. Sign up for Google+. If you already have a Google account (such as Gmail) you can use that to sign into Google+. To sign up for Google+, visit http://plus.google.com.
2. Add Beth Immanuel to your circles. To do this, visit Beth Immanuel's Google+ page and move your mouse over the red "Add to circles" button in the upper right. Check any one of the boxes in your list of circles.
3. Make sure you have installed the Google Talk plugin. You can test this yourself and install it if necessary by starting your own hangout. To do this, go back to your main Google+ stream (just click the Google+ logo), and then look for the "Start a hangout" button in the far right column. Click that, and if everything works, you have the Google Talk plugin.
4. Be on Google+ when the class begins. The class starts on Fridays at 7:30 am in the Central time zone, so make sure to adjust based on your location and Daylight Saving Time.
5. When the Beth Immanuel hangout appears, join! Watch your stream or look on Beth Immanuel's page for a post that says, "Beth Immanuel is hanging out right now!" Click the blue button underneath it that says, "Join this hangout." Note: Do not click the words "hang out" that appear underneath normal posts, otherwise you will create your own hangout instead of joining the study. (If you see a drawing of a sad robot, you did not join the right hangout.)