parsha bit: B'har - B'chukotai

Parshat B'chukotai contains the tochecha, or rebuke: a long list of bad things that will happen if Israel does not follow God's commandments. The torah describes our potential sin in seven ways -- if you will not listen, if you will not perform the mitzvot, if you will reject my rules, and so on. Rashi, commenting on this, sees seven corresponding stages of sin: not trying to understand torah, which leads to not performing the mitzvot, which leads to being disgusted by those who do, which leads to hating the wise, which leads to preventing others from keeping the torah, which leads to denying God's commandments, which leads to denying God's existence.

(Yeah, I got exciting stuff for my "birthday" portion. :-) )

Hebrew College summer program?

Do you know anything about the Open Beit Midrash at Hebrew College, a one-week summer program?

I've been in Hebrew College's beit midrash, studying talmud in chevruta. It was exciting for a day; a week could be really nifty. And I was very impressed by Dr. Jonah Steinberg, based on two class sessions.

I've sent off email asking for more information about what will be studied. They request a letter of reference as part of the application, so I also asked what points they want such a letter to address. I mean, I understood that in the context of HUC's para-rabbinic program, but I'm unclear on how it fits into this.