Considering that Shavuot is my favorite holiday, and I relate to Ruth on so many levels, simply have to share this amazing shiur from Rabbi Joe Wolfson who I had the privilege to study with. Do listen to the whole lesson, you will appreciate his beautiful Torah. Chag Shavuot sameach!
Shavuot is the festival of the Jewish people’s conversion. The gemara in Masechet Keritut (9a) derives from the Torah’s description of Mount Sinai the necessary steps that a potential candidate for conversion needs to take. Shavuot is also the festival on which we read Megillat Rut – Rut, also represents an ideal model of geirut – yet seemingly a very different one from the model of Sinai.
This shiur (the introductory class to the course on conversion I gave earlier this semester, which I plan to upload the rest of soon) examines these various Biblical paradigms of conversion, examining how each of them contributed to Chazal’s understanding (and our own) of what the core nature of being Jewish is, and what the potential candidate for conversion needs to do in order to become a member of the Jewish people.
Audio is here and source sheet is here.
And in the spirit of…
View original post 34 more words
Noshing Across the Nation 