Online Course: Passover Journeys—From the Torah to Your Seder

An Online Course with Dr. Robert Harris

Six Tuesdays: February 22, March 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29
7:00–8:30 p.m. ET  
Online

Why do we drink four cups of wine at the seder? Are the Four Questions ever “answered” in the Haggadah? Why do we end our celebration with the afikoman, an unexciting fragment of matzah? Many elements of our seder today can seem mysterious and even contradictory.

This course provides a literary and historical introduction to the Passover Haggadah. By examining biblical and ancient rabbinic texts as well as medieval versions of the Haggadah, participants will come to appreciate the Haggadah as not simply a rag-tag collection of difficult passages, but rather as a creative text that seeks to tell the Passover story in a uniquely rabbinic way.

Students should have access to a complete Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the traditional text of the Haggadah (accessible online here) during class. Additional reading will be provided. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required, although references to the original language will be included where relevant.

Cost: $180 for six sessions.

Dr. Robert Harris is professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at JTS.