summer classes

[cellio]

I'm going to go to the National Havurah Committee's summer institute this year. I have to choose classes at registration time, so I'm trying to decide. (The registration form calls for me to rank my top three choices in each time slot.) Input welcome. Classes meet every day for the week and I can take two. The full list is here.

For the morning, I'm leaning toward:

1. Speaking the World into Being: Jewish Ethics of What We Say and How We Say It (Regina Sandler-Phillips) -- ethics, lashon hara, mussar... what's not to like?
2. Joseph’s Multi-Colored Hellenistic Coat (Aaron Kachuck) -- Hellenistic historical context, it sounds like, which is something I don't have much opportunity to study elsewhere.
3. The Essential Prayer: A Deep Investigation into the Amidah (Elie Kaunfer) -- I note that this is in the "text for everyone" category, which I infer means "beginners welcome", which might mean I alerady know a lot of what they'll teach. On the other hand, it's foundation-level, important stuff.

For the afternoon I'm a little more conflicted, so these aren't ordered yet:

• The Art and Spirit of Prayer Leading (Julia Appel) -- runs the risk of being too basic, but the prerequisites are promising. This is an area I'm very interested in improving, but also one where I know a fair bit already.
• What is Oral About “Oral Torah”? (Bob Goldenberg) -- interesting area; I note that it is labelled "advanced", so I might not have sufficient background. I can (demonstrably) handle rabbinic texts in the original languages with a more-knowledgable chevruta (study partner), so I'd probably be ok in this class. I think. I certainly wouldn't be bored. :-)
• Law and The Law (Stephen Eisdorfer) -- torah in conflict with American law can lead to interesting discussions, if it's more about the legal issues and how people dealt with it than about the "raw history" of discrimination and what-not.
• What Words Can Do! (Bob Freedman) -- text study on creation stories (other topics?), and the beit-midrash style worked well for me last year at Hebrew College.

They seem interested in encouraging first-time attendees to dive in. (Well, others too...) There's a space on the form for indicating interest in leading workshops, leading services, etc. Would it be cheeky for a first-timer to offer to chant torah?

I also need to figure out transportation, though not urgently. The closest airport is Manchester, but flights there are $100+ more than flights to Boston. On the other hand, that difference might be swallowed by getting from whichever airport to the site; don't know yet. I don't have a good handle on the options yet.

Comments

[cellio]

Good idea!