YITH Scholar in Residence Rabbi Ezra Schwartz

Over Shabbat Parshat Shemot, January 5-6, Young Israel of Toco Hills is pleased to welcome Scholar in Residence Rabbi Ezra Schwartz. Rabbi Schwartz serves as a Rosh Yeshiva at  Yeshiva University and is the Assistant Director of RIETS at YU.  He is also the Rabbi of Mt. Sinai Jewish Center on Washington Heights. Rabbi Schwartz will speak Friday night following communal meal at 8:00pm on the topic, “Openness vs Concealment.” Are we better off airing our issues in public or keeping them quiet? The central issue in today’s modern Orthodoxy is not whether or not to engage with the world, as we proudly engage in all aspects of American life, but whether or not to openly engage with the questions that emerge from engaging with the world. Do we shy away from thorny issues like for fear that opening them up may create problems we can’t address, or do we fully engage the issues?

On Shabbat morning Rabbi Schwartz will deliver a Drasha at approximately 10:45 a.m.

Rabbi Schwartz will give a shiur before Mincha at 4:15 p.m. on the topic, “How Should Halacha work?” To what extent is precedent and minhag the binding factor in halacha, and to what extent is/should halacha be based on the original sources in the gemara?

He also will speak at Seudah Shlishit at 5:45 p.m. on the topic, “New Directions in Women’s Learning: Reflections on Rabbi Schwartz’s experience teaching gemara at Stern College for Women.”