Lishma: Winter 2022

Lishma Jewish Learning Project launched in November 2018 in Toronto. We are a community of learners in our 20s and 30s, excited to share our desire for greater Jewish engagement. We ask questions of our tradition and explore how it informs our lives today. Whether you’re a seasoned scholar or brand new to Jewish learning, we value the perspectives and experience you bring to the class. We hope you’ll be part of it.

Each semester has 3 classes running side by side:
1) Hands-On Track; applied Jewish learning
2) Judaism and Modernity Track; Judaism through a contemporary lens
3) Text and Context Track; in-depth, expertly-led text study
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Each semester will be held at one of our satellite campuses in midtown or downtown Toronto: Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, Beth Tzedec Congregation, ​CSI Annex, Holy Blossom Temple. Lishma teachers are artists, educators, professors, rabbis and community members. They bring a variety of skills and points of view with them. We are excited for you to get to learn with them, and for them to learn from you. If you have a class idea or a dream teacher for Lishma, please let us know.
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Lishma students come from diverse Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds. Whether you’re a seasoned scholar or brand new to Jewish learning, we value the perspectives and experience you bring to the class. Each class, we’ll gather together for a snack break and an icebreaker to give you a chance to get to know students and teachers from the other two classes. Our goal is to curate a meaningful, connected, and empowering community. We welcome any ideas you have for ways to build it.

Lishma is funded by student contributions and partnering organizations, providing us with coordination, teachers, facilitators and space.  Our partners are Holy Blossom Temple, Annex Shul, BASE Pluralistic Midrash, UJA Genesis, Miles Nadal JCC and Beth Tzedec Congregation.

Wednesday evenings, Feb 2 – Mar 9 (online)
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Tackling Talmud: Leadership and Society
with Rabbi Jordan Shaner

The Talmud may be one of the most challenging texts in our tradition, but it offers essential lessons on moral reasoning, righteousness, and realism. Over six sessions, we’ll tackle some of the Talmud’s “greatest hits” and discuss the ways these passages can help us understand contemporary issues and arguments. This course is sponsored by Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto.

Rabbi Jordan Shaner is the assistant rabbi of Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto. A fan of sharing old Jewish ideas with modern Jewish people, Jordan leads Temple Sinai’s NextGen program for 20’s and 30’s.

Diaspora Judaism & Reconciliation: Locating Ourselves in the Conversation
with Sterling Stutz

This six-week course is an invitation into conversation and discussion to consider how Jewish people living on Indigenous lands are responsible for the work of reconciliation and responding to colonial violence through ongoing action and relationship with Indigenous peoples.

Through collaborative group discussions, guest speakers, and optional readings, participants will be asked to consider how we can show up in support of Indigenous peoples and communities as Jews and as individuals who benefit from ongoing colonization. This course will utilize the Transcending Jewish Trauma framework as a tool to understand how Jewish intergenerational trauma may impact our & our communities openness or discomfort in these discussions and invite participants to lean into any discomfort as we move through the curriculum. Participants will leave the course with an understanding of why we as Jews hold responsibility to respond to the Truth & Reconciliation Calls for Action and how we can begin to engage in that work both as individuals and as members of our own respective communities and organizations.

Sterling Stutz (she/her) is a community builder & educator whose work is rooted in the Jewish principles of Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam. A white settler of Ashkenazi Jewish and Irish/English ancestry, Sterling grew up attending synagogue in Thornhill and currently lives outside of Nogojiwanong (Peterborough) on Michi Saagiig Territory. One of the founders of IfNotNow Toronto, Sterling is a long-time member of the Toronto Jewish community and is passionate about building relationships and supporting anti-racist, anti-colonial spaces and futures within diaspora Judaism. Sterling is committed to participating in and facilitating complex discussions about dismantling colonialism in the Toronto Jewish community and believes in the power of communities to create meaningful and sustainable change.

North African Jewish Storytelling: Miracles, Folk Tales, and Histories
with Chaim Grafstein

The North African Jewish literary tradition includes many familiar and unique genres of Jewish literature. One of the most interesting genres are the Sifre Maasiyot, books of stories, that constitute a form of popular storytelling. These stories, written mostly in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew, include Midrashim (rabbinic stories), Sipure Tsadiqim (tales of righteous people), and some fascinating historical narratives. In this six week exploration of the genre, we will look at stories recorded by Rabbi Yosef Messas (1892-1974) in his work Naḥalat Avot. Each week will look at 1-2 stories, some parallel tales within and beyond the Jewish tradition, and look at some of the themes and values that emerge from these stories.

Chaim Grafstein is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. His current research is on the 20th Century rabbinic author Rabbi Yosef Messas. Chaim is passionate about North African Jewish culture, maintaining the Judeo-Arabic language, and developing a North African and Middle Eastern Jewish community in downtown Toronto.

Costs and Funding
Lishma is funded by student contributions and partnering organizations, providing us with coordination, teachers, facilitators and space. We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale. ​The suggested contribution is $72 ($12/night). There is a minimum of $36 for the semester ($6/night). If you are unable to contribute at this time, please be in touch in confidence with Aaron Rotenberg at aaron@annexshul.com.

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