In this class that was recorded live at Pardes for Yom Hashoah 2017, Nechama Goldman Barash looks at the rabbinic responses in Vaykira Rabbah to the tragic and unexpected deaths of Nadav and Avihu. The midrash brings multiple voices to try and understand the circumstances that led to the deaths and use the story to open up questions around the fragility of life and the closeness of death. From the inability to fathom God’s ways, to God questioning His own theodicy, to possible transgressions that led to the deaths to the idea that death achieves atonement, the midrash invites us to engage in a never ending conversation around suffering and righteousness and the mingling of laughter and tears.
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About Nechama Goldman Barash
Nechama Goldman Barash made aliyah from Philadelphia over 20 years ago after graduating from Stern College. She studied for three years in Matan’s Advanced Talmud Institute and finished a master’s degree in Talmud at Bar-Ilan University. She is a graduate of Nishmat’s Yoetzet Halacha program and has been certified to teach brides before their weddings, as well as qualifying as a sex educator through Yahel and the Eden Center. She also studied for three years in Matan's advanced halakha program, Hilkhata.
Nechama is the Director of the Pardes Learning Seminar. She teaches contemporary halakha and Talmud at Matan and Pardes, as well as Talmud and women and halakha in Torah V'Avodah (TVA), a Bnei Akiva gap year program based in Matan. She is an active member of Beit Hillel and participates in interfaith dialogue through Roots, based in Gush Etzion, close to where she lives with her family. She is currently working on a book dealing with matters of gender and halakha.
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