Rabbinical Program
Los Angeles

Academic Information

The Los Angeles School of Rabbinical Studies now offers the four-year program of study culminating in ordination, following the successful completion of the Year-in-Israel Program. The first rabbinical ordination at the Los Angeles School is scheduled to occur in the spring of 2002.

An additional one-year program (not counted toward the normal five-year rabbinical course) is available to rabbinical students who wish to specialize in Jewish education or Jewish communal service.

The Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters Degree

The normal sequence of courses during the second and third years is as follows:

SECOND YEAR

THIRD YEAR

POST M.A. PROGRAM LEADING TO ORDINATION

FOURTH YEAR

FIFTH YEAR

Fall Semester	Spring Semester
PD VII(Senior Seminar)	Issues Facing Reform Judaism
Integrative Seminar	Advanced Rabbinic Literature
Transforming of Religious Institutions	Elective
Elective	Elective
Elective	Elective
Thesis	Sermon
Sermon
*Thesis due in February
Rabbinical Ordination in May/June

Students may supplement their program with elective courses. Second-year students are strongly encouraged to take the Liturgical Music elective.

Students who believe they are competent in the subject matter of a required course should refer to the regulations specified in the Student Handbook of Academic Procedures.

Public Speaking

A student is required to enroll in Communication/Homiletics for two semesters. The student will also deliver a synagogue sermon in the fourth and fifth years. The sermon is to be prepared in consultation with a faculty advisor and the communication instructor.

Synagogue Skills

Services, conducted by students, are held four times a week in the synagogue. Students are encouraged to introduce a blend of traditional and creative elements into the worship they lead. The assignment of student responsibilities (reader, Torah reader, preacher) is made in advance of each semester by the Registrar and the Director of the School of Rabbinical Studies. It includes the list of faculty with whom each participant must consult in advance of the service(s) for which the student is responsible.

Clinical Placements

Students must serve as student rabbis in monthly or biweekly pulpits, Hillels, or other placements as part of the Supervised Fieldwork (second-year) and Pastoral Counseling (third-year) programs. In the fourth-year Rabbinic Leadership program, students are assigned to internships with senior rabbinic mentors.

Mentorship

In the second year, students work with seasoned congregational rabbis in group discussions about experiences arising in their placements, as well as meeting bi-monthly with the Director of the School of Rabbinical Studies. In the third year, as part of the Pastoral Counseling program, students are paired with rabbis who have done advanced work in areas of pastoral counseling or spiritual direction. In the fourth year, each student has an internship with a senior rabbi whose supervision of the student is keyed to topics discussed in the Rabbinic Leadership practicum. In the fifth year, students will work with seasoned rabbinic mentors in the community.

Faculty Advisors

The advisement program enables every student to develop a close relationship with a different member of the rabbinical faculty during each year on campus.

Ordination

After successful completion of all rabbinical program requirements and upon recommendation of the faculty, a student qualifies for ordination as a rabbi.

Course Offerings

Please consult the course bulletins distributed prior to each semester for a list of available courses during the term, since not all courses listed below are offered each year.

Jewish History 400
400A History I
An examination of the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel as reflected in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern documents.
400B History II
Jewish history from the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. through the medieval period in 1000 CE
400C History III
The social and political history of the European Jewish community from the 12th through the 20th centuries. Emphasis on the relation of the Jew to changing European political and social patterns.

Introduction to Jewish Education 401
Philosophical, sociological, and instructional concerns will be explored as they relate to the Jewish educational setting. Topics include: instructional processes and objectives; motivation; presentation of subject matter; participation techniques; group processes; classroom management; school structure.

Pastoral Counseling I, II 430A/B
This course will provide the rabbinical student with the tools for understanding his/her role as a rabbi and pastoral counselor, and an integrated approach to pastoral counseling that incorporates both the psychosocial and spiritual assessment of the congregant/client.

Communication/Homiletics 450A/B
The purpose of this course is to sharpen public speaking, oral reading skills, and writing as they pertain to spoken language and the crafting of a variety of sermons.

Medieval Jewish Philosophy 465
Foundations of medieval Jewish thought in the Western philosophical tradition.

Modern Jewish Thought 466
An introduction to the major Jewish philosophers of the modern period.

Bible Texts 501
501A
As an introduction to the study of the Torah, this course explores familiar texts (primarily in Genesis and Deuteronomy) with special emphasis on developing critical tools of analysis. Students examine both text and context through historical criticism, modern literary analysis, and some traditional Jewish perspectives.
501B
The prophets of Ancient Israel have stirred the hearts and minds of ancient hearers and modern readers. In this course students become intimately acquainted with know the literature of the latter prophets intimately through close reading of prophetic writings and by developing critical tools and skills that can help them discern their meanings.
501C
This course, focusing on Ketuvim, places special emphasis on the Megilot. Students will become familiar with the texts themselves, explore what the books might have meant in their own time and place, and develop appropriate hermeneutics through which they can assess ongoing meanings of the texts through the ages. In addition to standard historical and literary methods, the course will explore such approaches as rabbinic exegesis, comparative religion and literature, canonical and feminist criticism.

Midrash I 502B
The method, structure, language, history, and theology of ancient rabbinic homiletical literature, including selected texts in homiletical and exegetical midrashim.

Midrash II 502C
The homiletic midrashim; selected readings from Leviticus and Deuteronomy Rabbah, Pesiktot, and Tanhuma;familiarization with ethical, historic, and mystic midrashim, anthologies, and bibliographic aids.

Commentaries 503
The sources and techniques of medieval Jewish Biblical Commentary, its history and purpose: selected texts of such major commentators as Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides.

Modern Hebrew Literature 504-1 and 504-2
Reading of unvocalized texts primarily from modern Hebrew literature. A survey of the development of modern Hebrew literature, with an emphasis on short story and poetry.

Liturgy 505
An examination of Jewish liturgy in Hebrew including the comparison of traditional liturgical expression with contemporary liturgical development. Daily, Sabbath, Festival, and High Holy Day services are studied.

Liturgical Music 506 A/B
The system of cantillation of the Pentateuch and study of the varied categories of music for the synagogue. This course introduces students to the study of Mishnah, focusing on the structure, content, and historical and religious context of selections from various portions of the work. Students are also introduced to pre-modern and modern approach to the study of Mishnah.

Codes 508
An introduction to the Shulchan Arukh and related literature.

Talmud I, II 510A/B
An examination of representative texts from the Babylonian Talmud illustrative of the structure, content, terminology, style of arguementations, and historical context of the material.

Talmud III, IV, V 641 A/B
Selection of Talmudic portions offered in the Beit Midrash.

Tannaitic Literature 512A
This course is designed to introduce the student to Tannaitic legal texts. The student makes the transition during this course from merely decoding a text, on the basis of grammatical knowledge and dictionary resources, to translation of the text as communication of ideas, gaining a progressively increasing recall of vocabulary and idiom. Using supervised oral reading and drill, the student develops a familiarity with the phrasing and syntax of the Mishnah.

Rabbinic Texts 512B
The student is introduced to various forms of rabbinic language of the Amoraic period with a concentration on Jewish Aramaic, providing experience in reading and tools for further study of later Jewish Aramaic texts as found in various Targumim, the Talmud, and Midrashim.

Practical Rabbinics 560A/B
This seminar is designed to expose rabbinical students to a variety of issues that confront the modern rabbi, to help the students formulate and sharpen their own personal vision of the rabbinate, and to help them gain an understanding of some of the practicalities involved in the rabbi's work.


Supervised Fieldwork 582A/B
For students serving in monthly and biweekly congregations, internships, and other community placements. Regular conferences with a fieldwork supervisor.

Rabbinic Leadership in Religious Institutions 615 A/B
This practicum, introducing some of the disciplines of the School of Jewish Communal Service, provides background for such issues as supervision, rabbinic-lay relationships, budgeting, fund raising, and social activism which students will face in the rabbinate. Open to fourth-year students in mentored internships with senior rabbis.

Integrative Seminar 616
This seminar brings together faculty from various disciplines to look at aspects of a selected subject through the lens for the many genres of Jewish literature and different periods of history. The subject of the seminar varies from year to year.

The Transformation of Jewish Institutions: Yesterday and Today
An introduction to the current movement of "transformation" in Jewish communal life. The course first examines past movements of institutional change, and then analyzes, in depth, contemporary trends in synagogue an community transformation. Student have the opportunity to meet some of the key players in the field and gain firsthand experience of various settings of transformation.

Advanced Bible: Ezra and Nehemiah 621
A study of the pivotal postexilic period (538-333 BCE) with special emphasis on Ezra and Nehemiah.

Advanced Bible: Studies in Shmot 621A
An in-depth study of the key Torah portions in Shemot/Exodus through three lenses: 1) scholarly historical; 2) traditional Jewish sources; 3) contemporary appropriations of earlier traditions.

Advanced Bible: The Books of Samuel I and Samuel II 621B

The "Torah" of American Reform Judaism 639
A survey of the history , ideology, and institutions of Reform Judaism in America. The primary documents studied - the "Torah" of Reform - are the binic platforms, liturgies, and responsa which reflect the changes in both religious thought and social experience inherent in the history of the movement.

Advanced Rabbinic Literature: Talmud 641B
This course deals with some philosophical and spiritual aspects of Jewish prayer. The test for Advanced Rabbinic Literature in the ninth perek of Masekhet Berakhot, which deals with blessing to be said on various special occasions and has some very rich aggadot. This is a Bet Midrash class with students working in chevruta.

Advanced Bible: The Book of Numbers 622
Beginning with the composition and larger structure of Numbers, students learn to read the text as a narrative in multiple voices in dialogue with one another.

Intermediate Talmud in the Bet Midrah 628A/B
This course is part of the Bet Midrash program instituted in the 2000/2001 academic year. Students meet twice per week to prepare and recite on a variety of Talmudic texts which the choose from a list provided by the instructor. Both the commentary of Rahi and selected Tosafot are included in the preparation.

Electives

Liturgical Music 506A/B
The system of cantillation of the Torah and a study of the varied categories of music for the synagogue.

Nonprofit Management Skills Cluster I 519A
This course provides an introduction and overview to basic management and organizational skill areas.

Fund Raising and Financial Resource Development 531
Practice-oriented seminar on fundraising and financial resource development for nonprofit Jewish organizations.

High Art and Lowbrow 601
An introduction to a variety of analytical tools for interpreting Jewish culture and cultural history from the late nineteenth century through the present.

Recovering the Machzor 631
This course explores the process of writing and translating liturgy by focusing on selections from the Machzor for the High Holy Days and Festivals.

Capital Punishment and the Jewish Tradition 634
This course is an advanced seminar which examines a variety of Jewish texts, ancient, medieval and modern, on the complex topic of capital punishment.

The Rabbi in the Hospital 636
Hospital visitations with patients, counseling with their families; and an evaluation of classical Jewish and contemporary social science movements.

Constructing Modern Jewish Identities 640
This course will explore the construction of modern Jewish identities as a central theme in a variety of analytical perspectives developed for the study of ethnic and national identities. It will focus of how modern Jewish self-definition is embedded within other self-psychology.

Praying Psalms 647
The Book of Psalms includes a variety of genres of song and poetry, some of which accompanied the ancient Israelites as they made their passage from their homes to the holy precincts of the Temple in Jerusalem. As the Psalms became incorporated into the Siddur, the served to accompany a temporal rather than a spatial journey - from ordinary weekdays to the holiness of Shabbat and festivals, and back again. This course examines the roles the Psalms play in the Siddur and, through close readings of the text, sees how their language helps us articulate the presence of God at particular times in our communal and personal lives.

Introduction to Feminist Jewish Theology 648
Feminist theologians recognize gender as a powerful and usually unanalyzed factor affecting the shape of Jewish texts, history and beliefs. This course explores the methods and core issues of Feminist Jewish theologies. Topics addressed include halakha, the enactment and language of ritual and prayer, the construction of body, sexuality, and gender, and feminist approached to canon and the interpretations of texts.

Synagogue Management 650
A course in both the art and science of managing complex religious institutions. Central issues include executive and lay decision-making, working with the Board, the "business" of synagogue life, and facilities management.

Modern Israeli Sephardic Responsa 651
This course in both the art and science of managing complex religious institutions. Central issues include executive and lay decision-making, working with the Board, the "business" of synagogue life, and facilities management.

Memories of a Lost World: Jewish Life in Eastern Europes 653
This course explores the religious, cultural and political life of Eastern European Jewry from the sixteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. Using diverse sources (tests, films, music), the students explore various themes and issues of concern to future rabbis, educators and scholars such as the rise of modern Jewsih politics, transformation of traditional rabbinic and communal authority and the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddish culture.

Jewish Mysticism 654
Commonly referred to as Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism is the product of thousands of years of esoteric speculation, revelatory experience, scholasticism, pietism and risk. This course analyzes the role of mysticism in Jewish history though analysis of the major theological ideas of classical Kabbalah. The tradition is examined in terms of its historical development, its relationship to mystical experiences and its sacred literature.

Intergenerational Respect and Jewish Law 659
This course explores a specific block of halakhic material relating to traditional Jewish views on the relations between parents and children, particularly grown children.

Approaches and Responses to Pain, Suffering, and Loss 668
Using texts from diverse historical periods, students examine how Jewish tradition has used narrative, poetry, theology, law, and liturgy to confront and frame the universal human experiences of pain, suffering, and loss.

Advanced Modern Hebrew Literature: Amichai and His Generation 670
This course covers twenty-five major poems of Yehuda Amichai: ten drawn from his earliest work, ten from his middle period, and selections from his recent work, "Patuah, Sagur, Patuah."