Adas Israel Congregation
1pm-MakomDC-Dr. Deborah Barer: Going Off Script: Rabbinic Improvisation and the Art of Meeting the Moment
- When
- Saturday, November 21 · 1:00 pm
- Where
- Biran Beit Midrash
Patriotic Disappointment: A Jewish Approach to American Commitment What does it mean to love a country that disappoints us? Drawing on classical sources from the Tanakh and rabbinic literature, this talk explores how the Sinai covenant models a form of love that can withstand deep disappointment. Rather than undermining our commitments, moments of disillusionment and loss can become opportunities to deepen and refine them. Through an exploration of what the covenant both offers and demands, we will consider what it can teach us about sustaining commitment to the American project in uncertain times. Deborah Barer is Senior Faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Prior to joining the team at Hartman, she was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Towson University, and she has also taught at Oberlin College and for the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (North America). She holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Deborah is the author of Going Off Script: Improvisational Judgment in the Talmud (Oxford University Press, 2026), which explores how the Talmud develops the idea of acting lifnim mi-shurat ha-din (lit., “within the line of the law”) and its implications for how we think about decision-making, Jewish law, and ethics.
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