Congregation Beth Aaron will host Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel on Shabbat, October 20. Rabbi Slifkin will be the scholar in residence. Following the kiddush after Musaf, Rabbi Slifkin will give his lecture, “The Animal Kingdom in Jewish Thought.” At 4:45 p.m., the lecture topic will be “The Sages and Science,” and between the 5:45 p.m. Mincha and the 6:51 p.m. Maariv, he will speak about “Rationalism vs. Mysticism: Schisms in Traditional Jewish Thought.” At 8 p.m., there will be a multimedia presentation, “Encounters with Animals.” Rabbi Dr. Slifkin’s books will be on sale at the Motzei Shabbat event.

Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin is the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel. He received rabbinic ordination from Ohr Somayach, an MA in Jewish Studies from the Lander Institute in Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Jewish History from Bar-Ilan University, with a dissertation on Rabbinic encounters with zoology in the nineteenth century. Rabbi Dr. Slifkin is the author of numerous works on the interface between Judaism and the natural sciences.

Congregation Beth Aaron is located at 950 Queen Anne Road in Teaneck.