Tamar Kamionkowski
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Telephone: 215-576-0800
Email:
Tamar Kamionkowski is the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), the seminary of the Reconstructionist movement. Under her leadership, RRC has come to be known both for its rigorous approach to Jewish texts and its lively classroom discussions. She also leads RRC’s Department of Biblical Civilization, and she is the author of Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies on the Book of Ezekiel (Sheffield Academic Press, 2003) and a range of publications on biblical studies. As a scholar, she is interested in Jewish biblical theology, prophetic literature, ancient Near Eastern mythology and gender studies. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. She is the proud mother of Tali and feels blessed each day for the gift of learning and teaching Torah.
Kol HaNeshamah: Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday Night Service with a Twist!
Ritual & Prayer
- Friday 4:35PM–6:10PM Embassy Room 2
An engaging and thought-provoking Kabbalat Shabbat service that strives to make every participant feel welcome, truly included, and in touch with the Divine, whatever each person perceives that to be. Kol HaNeshamah, the siddur used, is known for its gender-neutral language, its transliteration of all communal prayers, and its liberal use of commentary. This service maintains the core of the traditional liturgy while infusing it with a mix of familiar and new niggunim, spirited singing, inspiring teachings, and general ruach (liveliness and spirit). (There will be mixed gender seating, and musical instruments will be used.)
Blood and Guts
What Are We To Do with All Those Biblical Sacrifices
Torah & Text
- Saturday 1:00PM–2:15PM Congressional Room 2
The Book of Leviticus is one of the bloodiest and most alien of our sacred books. Animal sacrifices, blood slinging, genital emissions, skin diseases, and strange libations! Families often cringe when their children are assigned a parashah (Torah portion) from this book for their bat or bar mitzvah. Come study a few of these texts to find ways that we might reinterpret and reclaim these texts as having spiritual and even political value for a modern reader.
Tanakh: A Well Spring of Conversations
Where Can God be Found?
Torah & Text
- Sunday 11:30AM–12:45PM Cousin Brucie
Ask 3 Jews a question and get 10 answers. The Tanakh (Bible) presents a variety of opinions on almost every fundamental life question. “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard.” The compilers of the Tanakh knew that we can never comprehend the “truth” of Torah, but we can aspire to it through our conversations and debates. Join us for a session on one of those ancient debates: where can God be found? The opinions about God in antiquity were as diverse as they are today!
Reading Torah
A Tool Toward Self-Understanding
Torah & Text
- Sunday 9:15PM–10:30PM Embassy Room 2
Every time we interpret Torah, we are engaged in a political act. We see what we want to see and we suppress what we are not ready to face. Most texts have the potential to teach us about race, class, gender, the environment … In this workshop, we will study one biblical text through five different lenses. Then we will engage in a process of self-reflection to better understand ourselves and the text. Which interpretations grate on us? Which readings nurture us? Which inspire us, and why?
What's in THE Name?
HaShem in the Bible
Advanced, Torah & Text
- Monday 8:15AM–9:30AM Empire Room 3 South
The Bible contains many names for God. In this shiur (class), we will engage in text study around the term HaShem in the Holiness Code of the Book of Leviticus. The authors of this work used the term HaShem to convey highly sophisticated theological premises. We will explore these premises, noting the ways in which these writers modified and radicalized some of the dominant theologies of their time. We will engage in study using the original Hebrew text in this session.
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