Teacher: Mark Long
Description: After the Torah come the books of the Nevii'm (Prophets), although actual prophets appear only with the start of I Samuel. In between, we find the books of Joshua and Judges. Whereas the first of these reads very much like a continuation of Devarim (Deuteronomy), showing how meticulously that book's instructions for the conquest were carried out, the Book of Judges brings with it a major disconnect. We seem suddenly to be in a more primitive world, where individual tribes or small groups of tribes struggle to gain or keep control of the lands that had once seemed firmly in their grasp. Do these misfortunes result from the Israelites' recurrent infidelity to the religion handed down to them, or are we perhaps glimpsing here a reality that was much more chaotic (and more like secular history) than the ordered process which the preceding narratives imply? These are issues which we will try to address by studying 10 excerpts (in English translation) from these two often neglected books. Acquaintance with Hebrew (though always an advantage) is not required.
Time: Sundays, 9:30am-11am
Dates: 10/22, 10/29, 11/5, 11/12, 11/19, 12/3, 12/10, 12/17, 1/7, 1/14 (NO CLASS 11/26, 12/24, 12/31)
Location: Online
Investment: Donation suggested
Teacher Bio:Mark Long and his wife Roberta Yankiver Long (a”h) moved to Austin in 1974 from Bloomington, Indiana. A few years later they joined Congregation Agudas Achim, where their sons Howard and Steven attended Hebrew School and celebrated their bar mitzvahs. Roberta (a”h) was deeply committed to adult education at CAA, and Mark took part in a number of her classes. After retiring in 2015 from his IT position at UT Austin, Mark began teaching CAA classes on his own, most of them involving Biblical Hebrew and texts written in it.
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