The Root and Branch Association, Ltd. (established 1981)
Summer 2020 English Language Zoom Lecture Series

Currently scheduled programs |  Past programs |  About speakers |  Zoom Guide

The Root and Branch Association, Ltd. has been holding English language lectures and conferences sometimes on a weekly basis as a public service
at the Jerusalem Orthodox Union (OU) Israel Center for over two decades.

Due to the virus the lecture series is for the time being held on Zoom.

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPFDATED IF THERE WILL BE LAST MINUTE CHANGES

For all talks MC is Mr. Lowell Gallin, Root and Branch Founder, Director and Chairman is Dr. Les Glassman

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Guide to using Zoom for the Root and Branch Summer 2020 Zoom Lecture Series
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PAST ZOOM EVENTS

Rabbi Professor Hillel Weiss: Shai Agnon: Between Shoa and Redemption
Monday, July 23rd, 2020, 9:00 PM (Israel Time)
About Shai Agnon

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Zevi Trenk: The Golem and other creations by mystics
Monday, August 3rd, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Professor Hillel Weiss: Aharon Appelfeld - A great Jewish writer in the State of Israel
Monday, August 10rd, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)
About Aharon Appelfeld

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz: Teachings of the Kotzker Rebbe about rugged individualism and relentless search for truth
Monday, August 17th, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)
About Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

YouTube recording


Some of the Kotzker Rebbe's sayings about individualism:


"If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you.
But if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!
"

"Just as it is the way of an ape to imitate humans, so too, a person, when he has become old, imitates himself, and does what was his manner previously."

Man must "guard himself and his uniqueness, and not imitate his fellow ... for initially man was created 'in his own image', and only afterwards in the image of God."

"A person must renew himself, and his world with him, each and every day.
But one who does not do so, and rather performs his deeds as a mechanical function, does nothing other than the actions of a monkey.
"

"Just as this monkey has no personality of his own, but rather copies his own actions and his fellow, so too this person."

"There is nothing so whole as a broken heart."

About those who can bring the dead alive: "It is much more difficult to bring the living alive"

"It is one thing if you think that you are a grasshopper - but what do you care what other people think?"

The Kotzker Rebbe about making compromises: "The middle of the road is for the horse"

At a Shabbat dinner, a chassid once told the Rebbe of Kotzk, "I love fish."
The Rebbe responded, "You don't love fish. If you loved the fish, you would not have killed it and cooked it on a fire."

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Rabbi Dr. David Fox (California): Jewish teachings about psychology and therapy
Monday, August 24th, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording

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Professor Itta Shedletzky: Franz Kafka's Parable "Before the Law" - A Key-Text to Understanding his World and Writings
About Franz Kafka
Suggest reading before the viewing the presentation Kafka's famous brief story "Before the Law" (English Translation)
or the orginal text in German "Vor dem Gesetz"

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Zevi Trenk: Controversial episodes in the Tanach
Monday, August 31st, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Naftali Moshe Kassorla: The Mussar Movement: A Movement of the Hearts and Minds, Some of its Teachings and the Personalities that Led It.
About the Mussar Movement
About Rabbi Israel Salanter - founder of the Mussar Movement
About Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok - a student of Rabbi Salanter
On the Parsha with an ethical perspective by Rabbi Kassorla
Hundreds of recordings that study the Parsha with a Mussar perspective. Search with "mussar" as a keyword
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020, 8:30 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording

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Rabbi Yehuda Lave: How Rabbis and Halacha have been affected by the Corona Epidemic
Thursday, September 3rd, 2020, 7 PM (Israel Time)

YouTube recording


SCHEDULED ZOOM EVENTS THROUGH SEPTEMBER

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPFDATED IF THERE WILL BE LAST MINUTE CHANGES

The following talks have been scheduled and more are in the works.

Marcelle Juliet Saul Sheiman: The situation in Africa
(lack of potable water, food, sanitation, energy, basic medical support, education - resulting in illnesses and deaths)
and the potential to help

***POSTPONED TO AFTER THE HOLIDAYS***

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Rabbi Yehuda Lave: Ten Great Stories from the Talmud
About the Talmud
About the Mishnah
About the Gemara
***POSTPONED TO AFTER THE HOLIDAYS***

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Dr. Alal Eran (Harvard Medical School and Ben Gurion University): Research regarding the molecular basis of autism
***POSTPONED TO AFTER THE HOLIDAYS***

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Roseanne Cherrie Barr (Hawaii): My Lithuanian Jewish Lineage and My Jewish Name: Shayna Rifka bat Zvi
Thursday, September 17, 2020, 10 PM (Israel Time), 9AM (Hawaii Time)
About Roseanne
Roseanne's Web page
Roseanne's Family Tree

YouTube recording


ABOUT SPEAKERS

ROSEANNE CHERRIE BARR
About Roseanne

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RABBI DR. YITZCHAK BREITOWITZ
His scope of knowledge, brilliance, as well as a unique ability to grasp complicated material
and communicate it clearly to others is legendary.
Rabbi Breitowitz received his bachelor of arts from Johns Hopkins University
and obtained semicha from Ner Israel Rabbinical College.
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
and shortly thereafter became the Rav of the Silver Spring Woodside Shule in Silver Spring Maryland
while maintaining status as a tenured professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.
Rabbi Breitowitz and his wife currently reside in Israel
and is a rav in Oh Sameach in Jerusalem.
He has published widely on Jewish law and ethics.
From YIBONEH Web page

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DR. ALAL ERAN
is a computational biologist (Ben Gurion University, Harvard Medical School) studying the molecular basis of autism.
She is fascinated by the clinical and molecular complexity of neurodevelopmental disorders,
and enthusiastic about the possibilities of deciphering their underlying gene-environment interactions
by integrating large datasets of functional genomic measurements and clinical information.
Harvard Medical School Web Page

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RABBI DR. DOVID FOX (America)
Director of Interventions and Community EducationProject Chai:
the Crisis Intervention, Trauma and Bereavement Department of Chai Lifeline

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RABBI NAFTALI MOSHE KASSORLA
studied in the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem and after marriage in Brisk under the tutelage of Rav Meir Soloveitchik zt"l.
Currently he is a Maggid Shiur in Yeshivas Tiferes Yisroel in Beis Yisroel
and also serves as the Director of the Halachic Guidance program of Kollel Toras Chaim in Jerusalem.

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RABBI YEHUDA LAVE
Writes a daily (except on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays) motivational Torah blog at YehudaLave.com from Jerusalem, Israel.
Possible to subscribe to the blog by sending an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com
Rabbi Lave is an Internationally Known Speaker, Lecturer and Author.
His motto: Remember, it only takes a moment to change your life. Learn to have all the joy in your life that you deserve!!!
Torah is the name of the game in Israel, with 3,500 years of mystics and scholars interpreting G-D's word.
Rabbi Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish and American Law.
He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual questions.

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PROFESSOR ITTA SHEDLETZKY
Born 1943 in Zurich (Switzerland), 1962-2016 in Jerusalem, since then in Givatayim.
Studied History, Jewish Studies and English Literature at the Hebrew University.
Until 2003 Professor of German and German-Jewish Literature
at the German Department and the Franz Rosenzweig Research Center at the Hebrew University.
Publications on German-Jewish Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Editor of Gershom Scholem's Letters (Selection) on behalf of the Leo Baeck Institute
(4 volumes, Munich, C.H. Beck 1989-1999)
Co-Editor - on behalf of the Rosenzweig Center, in cooperation with German and Swiss Universities and Archives -
of the Critical Edition of Else Lasker-Schüler's Works and Letters
(11 volumes, Frankfurt/M., Jüdischer Verlag im Suhrkamp Verlag, 1996-2010).

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MS. MARCELLE JULIET SAUL SHEIMAN
Web page

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RABBI ZEVI TRENK
Author of of Magic, Mysteries, and Mysticism
Do Demons really exist? Is there such a thing as black magic?
Did the Maharal really create the golem? What are angels?
These and many more esoteric topics, such as mazal, the afterlife, and the times of Moshiach,
are explored in a thorough, interesting, and clear manner in this fascinating book.
Drawn largely from the writings of the great mystics
and enhanced with illustrative stories spanning the gamut of Jewish history,
this book will enlighten the reader, explaining some of the most obscure subjects in the Torah,
and leaving them spellbound by the depth of thought of our greatest thinkers.
(from Amazon)

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RABBI PROFESSOR HILLEL WEISS
has been Professor Emeritus at Bar-Ilan University from October 2013.
He has published and edited numerous books and articles on Agnon's works, as well as on other authors of Hebrew and Israeli literature.
He is currently engaged in preparing the academic edition of Agnon's works.
He has developed theories and applications for storage, mapping, indexing, and analyzing texts by computer.
Hillel Weiss has also served as Head of the Rena Costa Multidisciplinary Center for Yiddish Studies at Bar-Ilan University since 2011.


CONTACT: Mr. Lowell Gallin, Root and Branch Founder (Jerusalem)
lowellgallin@gmail.com

Currently scheduled programs |  Past programs |  About speakers |  Zoom Guide

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