MARBIM BESIMCHA: Permission to Celebrate

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Rabbi Avi Spodek
LOCATION: Temple Emanuel

The Mishnah in Tractate Taanit teaches that “Mishenichnas Adar, marbim b’simcha”, when the month of Adar arrives we increase our joy. The focus on joy seems ironic; Adar is, after all, the month of Purim, the first diaspora holiday. While the holiday is celebratory, the story is troubling; the tropes that fill the Purim story are tropes with which we become familiar over the following millenia, our powerlessness as residents in lands not our own. Yet Purim is not a time for sadness, it is a time for joy. Why? Join us to find out!

Avi Spodek is a lifelong learner and master educator. He is a graduate of the Pardes Educators’ Program (Cohort 12) and is currently the Recruitment Professional for the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. Avi holds a BA in History from Bar Ilan University, an MJEd from Hebrew College (Boston) and he is a mushmach of Rav Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg zt’l and Rav Daniel Landes shlit’a. He lives in Baltimore, MD with his wife and three children.

The New Haven Beit Midrash is presented in partnership with Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, Congregation B’nai Jacob, Ezra Academy, Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI), Congregation Mishkan Israel, Temple Beth David, Temple Emanuel, Temple Beth Tikvah, Or Shalom and Westville Synagogue.