Dr. Elana Stein Hain, of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, will be the featured speaker at a Zoom presentation sponsored by the Center for Community Education (CCE) at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut on Wednesday evening, May 12, 2021 at 8 p.m.

The subject of her talk will be “How Do We Know This? How Our Sages’ Interpretation of Torah Changed Jewish Thought.”

“Our sages interpreted the Torah in a very idiosyncratic way,” said Dr. Hain. “On the one hand, they view each word and even letter as significant. On the other hand, they often attribute meaning to words, letters and phrases that are different from—and even contradict the plain meaning of—the Torah’s text. In my talk, I’ll discuss how this version of interpreting the Torah emerged and why it has made such an indelible impact on all Torah study since.”

The class will be available on Zoom, and recorded for those who cannot hear it live.

“We are very fortunate to host Dr. Hain for this program,” said Michael Feldstein, the co-chair of the CCE. “She is a superb teacher, who always engages with her audience members and makes them think more about her subject.”

Dr. Hain is the director of faculty and a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. A widely well-regarded teacher and scholar, she earned her doctorate in Religion from Columbia University and is an alumna of the Yeshiva University Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) as well as the Consortium in Jewish Studies and Legal Theory Graduate Fellowship at Cardozo School of Law.

In order to attend the class, you must register at www.bchaupperschool.org/cce before the date of the program.