Tzedakah and community building play significant roles in the lives of both Ruth and Esther. For Esther, the focus is on communal fasting and gifts to the poor; for Ruth, there is gleaning and levirate marriage. In this class that was given at Pardes during the Winter Executive Learning Seminar, Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy explores how each of these personalities, in her own way, helped to create a more cohesive and vibrant community.
This podcast was generously sponsored by Falynn Schmidt in memory of her parents Toby Rieders and Charles Schmidt, who instilled in her a love of learning, words, tradition, community and Judaism.
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Meesh is the Director of the Pardes Year Program, where she has been making her professional home since 1999. Originally from Washington, D.C., Meesh has a B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. Her dissertation explored the courageous manner in which the rabbis of the Talmud created a new criminal punishment system. In 2015, Meesh completed her studies at Beit Midrash Har'el and received ordination from Rabbi Herzl Hefter and Rabbi Daniel Sperber. Click here to read more.
