Avivah Zornberg

This is Avivah Zornberg's website.  To contact her or invite her to speak, write to zornberg@netvision.net.il. 
Avivah Zornberg's next lecture tour will be in April-May 2012. See her itinerary below.

Order her new DVDs from http://www.imjl.com/ 

You will find here her teaching schedules in Israel and abroad, book reviews, videos and audios.

To order Avivah's new book  THE MURMURING DEEP: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious (Schocken) Now in paperback:
 http://www.amazon.com/Murmuring-Deep-Reflections-Biblical-Unconscious/dp/080521206X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316319716&sr=1-1

See all her books on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_6?field-keywords=avivah+zornberg&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&sprefix=Avivah

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/avivah-zornberg?keyword=avivah+zornberg&store=book

Her next book, on the Book of Numbers,  will be published by Schocken in 2014.

See BOOK REVIEWS page (click above) for reviews of Avivah's first two books on Genesis and Exodus.
:The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, (Schocken)
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Desire-Avivah-Gottlieb-Zornberg/dp/0385483376

The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus (Schocken)
http://www.amazon.com/Particulars-Rapture-Reflections-Exodus/dp/0385491530/ref=pd_sim_b_1

See her BIO page for a list of further publications.

Avivah’s teaching schedule:

In Israel:
Mondays 7:30pm Israel Center 22 Keren HaYesod, Jerusalem 02-5667787

Wednesdays 9am Israel Center 22 Keren HaYesod

Wednesdays  8:15pm  Yakar in Tel Aviv, Yericho 6  02-5612310
Yakar-Ateret Zvi             6 Yericho st                 Tel Aviv
03-5463555
yakar.telaviv@gmail.com
www.yakar.org

Thursdays  Matan 10:15am  30 Rashbag Street tel 5944555.
Classes are 90 minutes.

Avivah will not teach in Israel from March 25 to May 24. Classes end June 21.
February 20-March 1 She will be teaching in Russia.

Spring 2012 Lecture Tour April 19 to May 21
See lecture topics below
April 19, JCC Manhattan
April 20-21  Cong. B'nai Avraham, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
April 22  NYC Columbia University Yavne
Kraft Center, Columbia/Barnard's Hillel: 606 W. 115th St. in Manhattan. 
April 23 TLC, Northbrook, Chicago www.torahlearningcenter.com
April 24-25 Augustana College, Rock Island, IL
April 26 San Jose APJCC Center for Jewish Life and Learning
April 27-28 Palo Alto, Congregation Emek Beracha
April 29  JCC East Bay, Berkeley
April 30 Berkeley GTU Graduate Theological Union
April 30 JCCSF
May 1, LA Sinai Temple
May 2  UCLA Hillel
May 5 HIR Riverdale, Bronx
May 7 Boston Ma'ayan http://www.maayan.org/
May 8 Boston CJP
May 12   Mt. Kisco
May 16  Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, NJ
May 17  Skirball Adult Education, Temple Emanuel http://www.adultjewishlearning.org/
May 18-20 Cleveland, B'nai Jeshurun Congregation, Pepper Pike, Ohio
May 22 Return to Israel

May 2012 Lecture Tour Topics: 

1. 'She was what he had missed:' On the Loss of Women

We will discuss Jacob's relations to the women in his life: Rachel, Deborah, Dinah and – most significantly – Rebekah. Tragedy befalls all of them, soon after Jacob returns home after a long absence. The midrash detects a repressed theme of delay underlying these narratives. Jacob's wish for peace or wholeness may constitute a wish rather than a reality in his inner world.

2.      'And I am a stranger:' Becoming Ruth

Ruth is a stranger in more senses than one. Who is this unknown woman who is destined to become mother of royalty? What is the process by which she finds her way into a foreign and unwelcoming culture and religious tradition?How does destiny come about?

3.'Let me see that good land:' The Story of a Human Life

'Moses fails to enter Canaan not because his life is too short but because it is a human life.' (Kafka) 
   Moses' fundamental sense of himself as 'not a man of words' comes to a poignant consummation in the long speeches he makes to the people before he dies. What is his purpose in these speeches, and particularly in his narrative about his desire to 'cross over to the other side'(of the Jordan)? We will read midrashic and hassidic material that raises questions about the movement of desire - about transitions, transmissions, and transferences. What does it mean to learn to speak?

4.   Letter from an Unknown Woman: Joseph's Dream

Joseph dreams provocative dreams; his brothers' hatred grows because of them; Jacob apparently dismisses them. But according to Freud, all dreams contain a 'navel,' a spot that defies understanding, that 'reaches into the unknown.' In the midrash, that unfathomable element in the lives of Jacob and Joseph is represented by Rachel, the 'unknown woman' in their narrative. Literature, film, and psychoanalytic thought will enrich our study.

5. 'Why did Sarah laugh?'

We will discuss the theme of feasting and laughter in the narrative of Abraham and Sarah. Are their responses to the promise of miraculous birth essentially different? Material from midrashic, literary and psychoanalytic sources will enrich our exploration. 

6. Through the Looking Glass: Women and Redemption

We will explore the far-ranging implications of an extraordinary midrash about a woman, a man, and a mirror in the killing fields of Egypt.

Reviews of The Murmuring Deep:
The Forward
Interview with Jake Marmur: http://www.forward.com/articles/104035/

Review by Ilana M. Blumberg  The Other Side of Silence: Listening Into the Bible  http://www.forward.com/articles/104049/   See BOOK REVIEWS page. 

See also http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/144626/


Tikkun
Review by David Shasha PLUMBING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DEPTHS OF HUMANITY
http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/nov_dec_09_shasha

Jewish Journal
Zornberg Shines Light on Biblical Silences by  Rabbi David Wolpe
http://www.jewishjournal.com/books/article/zornberg_shines_light_on_biblical_silences_20091208/

Jerusalem Post feature article about Avivah
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1245184865773&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

JBOOKS   by Jill Hammer
http://www.jbooks.com/nonfiction/index/NF_Hammer_Zornberg.htm

See BOOK REVIEWS page by clicking at the top of this page.