Dear SVARA’niks,
Wow, y’all! What a really full night of learning! That was a lot, right?! Please don’t worry if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed–everything that I’m throwing out there is going to come back around, again and again, each time we learn together. It’ll get easier, I promise! So breathe…and let it all “rise up and pass away”! All you need to hold onto is what sticks. Let the rest go. Trust that more and more will stick each week. And thank you all for bringing your open hearts and minds to our learning space and for sharing your laughter, wisdom, courage, and brilliance! I love you all!
Here are recordings of the text we covered last night. We’ll send these to you after each session. One recording will be Hebrew only. The other will be the phrase-by-phrase reading-and-translating (“read, inside, outside; read, inside, outside”) done just like we do in shiur. There’s no homework in this program! Listening to recordings is optional. But if you’re excited to and have time, they will help you make the most of your time in chevruta in the coming week. In addition, you can find the video recording of last night’s session here (password: talmud2020!). All of these recordings are also available in the Queer Talmud for Beginner’s Mind Portal (password: talmud2020)
There are 37 tractates of the Babylonian Talmud. However, there are 63 tractates of the Mishnah.
If you let it happen, it does something to you. It definitely changes and uplifts you, the act of looking up a word.
We found differences between Jastrow online on Sefaria (which I’m using) and the book (which my chevruta is using)
This is an online version that looks exactly like the Jastrow Dictionary.
,Who’s Who in the Talmud — by Shulamit Frieman
Would be even more radical if it were just a minor scratchy throat..
During the after-party, Benay made some recommendations for reference books for learning Hebrew and Aramaic grammar. Please note that these are not required at all, but might be helpful for those of you who want to work on your Hebrew even more!
Recommendations for Hebrew grammar:
Recommendations for Aramaic grammar:
Did you see something in the text that made you go ‘huh?!’ Did you leave shiur last night and think, “WHAT?!” or “Wow, I would love to have a session with my very own bet midrash fairy about this whole thing!”? Not feelin’ it with your chevruta? [Chevruta matching is an art, not a science; we totally expect chevruta swaps, so don’t hesitate to check in with a fairy about your chevruta situation.] They’re here for you! I encourage you to grab time with a fairy (they’re just waiting by the phone waiting for you to call!), during scheduled Open Hours to dig in deeper about our text, the whole process of learning, chevruta dynamics, or anything else!
We will not be meeting next week, November 3rd, 2020. Our next session will be on November 10th.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please reach out to your fairy!
Sending so much SVARA love,
Benay, James, Julie, Noah & The Whole SVARA Team