The Adult Education Committee of Temple Concord and Temple Israel will hold a program and brunch on Sunday, December 22, from 10 am-noon, at Temple Israel, 4737 Deerfield Pl., Vestal. Rabbi Micah Friedman of Temple Israel will guide attendees through a participatory experience of learning called “Midrashic Responses to October 7th from Israeli Women.” The entire community is welcome to attend. There is a suggested donation of between $5-20 per person. For more information and to RSVP, contact Temple Israel at 607-723-7461 or Temple Concord at 607-723-7355 by Friday, December 13, so enough refreshments can be prepared.

Friedman will discuss two modern midrashim written in the immediate aftermath of October 7 by Israeli women who lived in communities near the Gaza Strip and the ancient texts on which they are based. Attendees will be able to offer their own responses to their words. 

“The shocking and horrifying events of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war have prompted so many Jews around the world to grapple with challenging questions and have unearthed layers of pain and heartache which have their roots in previous periods of Jewish suffering,” said organizers of the event. 

They added, “Among the many ways that Jews have struggled to respond to October 7 is writing new midrashim. Midrash is a foundational Jewish approach to Torah and to life in which a person seeks out meaning through interpreting a text from the Torah. Midrash is an ancient style of interpretation that plays a central role in the Talmud and other rabbinic literature. Often, midrashim engage with complex aspects of human experience and difficult passages in the Torah in “provocative and inspirational” ways that speak to people even many generations after the midrashim were composed.

“Like most ancient literature, the classical midrashim that were passed down to us were written (almost) exclusively by men,” organizers continued. “However, in recent decades, women from all different kinds of Jewish backgrounds and communities have turned to the style of midrash to bring their own experiences and perspectives into dialogue with traditional Jewish texts. Dirshuni is an effort of Rabbi Friedman’s personal friend and teacher Tamar Biale to compile midrashim written by contemporary Israeli women to share their wisdom with the larger world. Over the past 10-15 years, two volumes of Dirshuni have been published in Hebrew and one in English, and the writing and study of modern women’s midrash has become an inspiration to American and Israeli Jews alike. The two midrashim we will study are part of this larger project.”

Organizers added, “In the context of our ongoing grief as Israel continues to be at war, these midrashim invite us to recognize the tools of midrash that Israeli women have used to give voice to grief and hopes for the future, and the resources our Jewish tradition offers us for persevering through disasters with resilience, open-heartedness, and love.”