Welcome to Lishma: a community of learners in our 20s and 30s
Whether you're a seasoned scholar or brand new to Jewish learning, we value the perspectives and experience you bring to the class.
In grateful recognition of J.B. and Dora Salsberg Fund for their support.
Semester 1
In-person @ Miles Nadal JCC
Nov 5 - Dec 10
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
In-person @ Miles Nadal JCC
Nov 5 - Dec 10
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Toratah: The Regendered Bible with Daphna Jackson
What if the Bible centred the stories of women? In this course, we will study Toratah, a project of Yael Kanarek and Tamar Biala, to reconsider the Tanakh through a matriarchal structure by changing the genders of Biblical characters. Toratah unsettles and surprises the reader, creating opportunities to examine our spiritual ancestors in new ways. Through havruta (partnered study) and group discussions, we will explore themes of gender, power, and divinity while challenging assumptions and revealing new possibilities for people of all gender identities to relate to sacred texts. Opportunities to explore the music and visual art of Toratah will add further depth to our text-based study.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Daphna Jackson (she/her) is a lay educator with Beit Toratah, an online community, where she leads study sessions and contributes to the English translation of the Toratah text as a co-editor. Daphna is a graduate of McMaster University and the University of Toronto. You can usually find her riding her bike around the Annex, where she now lives a few blocks away from her bubby's childhood home.
What if the Bible centred the stories of women? In this course, we will study Toratah, a project of Yael Kanarek and Tamar Biala, to reconsider the Tanakh through a matriarchal structure by changing the genders of Biblical characters. Toratah unsettles and surprises the reader, creating opportunities to examine our spiritual ancestors in new ways. Through havruta (partnered study) and group discussions, we will explore themes of gender, power, and divinity while challenging assumptions and revealing new possibilities for people of all gender identities to relate to sacred texts. Opportunities to explore the music and visual art of Toratah will add further depth to our text-based study.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Daphna Jackson (she/her) is a lay educator with Beit Toratah, an online community, where she leads study sessions and contributes to the English translation of the Toratah text as a co-editor. Daphna is a graduate of McMaster University and the University of Toronto. You can usually find her riding her bike around the Annex, where she now lives a few blocks away from her bubby's childhood home.
Pirkei Avot: Words to Live By with Ellie Bass
Pirkei Avot is one of the most beloved texts in the Jewish tradition. Unlike much of the Talmud, which focuses on law, Pirkei Avot is the biographical heart of our sages. Each Mishnah preserves a teaching and reveals something of the person behind it, what they valued most, what they believed was essential to a life well-lived, and how they hoped to shape future generations. In this six-week course, we will delve into this text, exploring the wisdom of their words and the character of the sages who spoke them. Together, we will uncover how these teachings speak directly to our own lives, practices, and self-work.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Ellie Bass is a Jewish educator, wellness coach, and meditation guide who has been teaching Torah and self-development for over twenty-five years. With a unique ability to weave together Jewish text, psychology, and wellness, Ellie guides students to uncover how the timeless wisdom of our sages speaks directly to the challenges of modern life and building our own practice. Her classes are known for being both deeply rooted in Torah sources, meditation frameworks, modern psychology and at the same time being profoundly practical and open, creating space for learning, reflection, and personal growth.
Pirkei Avot is one of the most beloved texts in the Jewish tradition. Unlike much of the Talmud, which focuses on law, Pirkei Avot is the biographical heart of our sages. Each Mishnah preserves a teaching and reveals something of the person behind it, what they valued most, what they believed was essential to a life well-lived, and how they hoped to shape future generations. In this six-week course, we will delve into this text, exploring the wisdom of their words and the character of the sages who spoke them. Together, we will uncover how these teachings speak directly to our own lives, practices, and self-work.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Ellie Bass is a Jewish educator, wellness coach, and meditation guide who has been teaching Torah and self-development for over twenty-five years. With a unique ability to weave together Jewish text, psychology, and wellness, Ellie guides students to uncover how the timeless wisdom of our sages speaks directly to the challenges of modern life and building our own practice. Her classes are known for being both deeply rooted in Torah sources, meditation frameworks, modern psychology and at the same time being profoundly practical and open, creating space for learning, reflection, and personal growth.
Excavating the Jewish Imaginal with Avi Craimer
This 6-week course seeks to retrieve the mythic, magical and visionary themes in the Jewish tradition. From the Torah's stories of talking bushes and poison-curing serpents, to Kabbalistic journeys to other dimensions, we will seek to uncover symbolic resonances and super-mundane meaning in the texts. As a secondary theme we'll also examine the dynamics of suppression and resurgence of the Jewish imaginal within Jewish history.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Avi Craimer is a philosopher, cognitive scientist and imaginal-visionary spiritual practitioner and guide. He is a founding board member of the Consciousness Explorer's Club where his writings and guided practices can be found. He offers one-on-one spiritual mentoring sessions with a focus on helping clients craft a personalized synthesis of beliefs and practices across traditions.
This 6-week course seeks to retrieve the mythic, magical and visionary themes in the Jewish tradition. From the Torah's stories of talking bushes and poison-curing serpents, to Kabbalistic journeys to other dimensions, we will seek to uncover symbolic resonances and super-mundane meaning in the texts. As a secondary theme we'll also examine the dynamics of suppression and resurgence of the Jewish imaginal within Jewish history.
Lishma is generously supported by the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Avi Craimer is a philosopher, cognitive scientist and imaginal-visionary spiritual practitioner and guide. He is a founding board member of the Consciousness Explorer's Club where his writings and guided practices can be found. He offers one-on-one spiritual mentoring sessions with a focus on helping clients craft a personalized synthesis of beliefs and practices across traditions.
Costs and Funding
Lishma is funded by student contributions and partnering organizations, providing us with coordination, teachers, facilitators and space.
Lishma is presented with support from the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Our partners are Annex Shul, Beth Tzedec Congregation, Darchei Noam, and Miles Nadal JCC, and we We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale.
We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale.
The suggested contribution is $72 ($12/night). There is a minimum of $36 for the semester ($6/night).
If you are unable to contribute at this time, please be in touch in confidence with Emunah Woolf at [email protected].
Lishma is funded by student contributions and partnering organizations, providing us with coordination, teachers, facilitators and space.
Lishma is presented with support from the J.B and Dora Salsberg Fund.
Our partners are Annex Shul, Beth Tzedec Congregation, Darchei Noam, and Miles Nadal JCC, and we We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale.
We strive to keep costs accessible and we use a sliding scale.
The suggested contribution is $72 ($12/night). There is a minimum of $36 for the semester ($6/night).
If you are unable to contribute at this time, please be in touch in confidence with Emunah Woolf at [email protected].
Previous Classes
2024/25:
Semester 1:
Gender and Judaism with Simon Hart
When You Get What You Pray For with Rabbi Ryan Leszner
Semester 2:
Deviant Drash: Drawing out of the Margins with Cliel Shdaimah and Sof Kreidstein
Dreams: The Torah of The Unconscious with Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg
Censoring the Jewish Library with Maxine Lee Ewaschuk
Semester 3:
Riding the Chariot: Psychedelic Jewish Mysticism and the Fringes of Consciousness with Izzy Waxman
Colourful Kabbalah of Sefirat Ha'Omer with Rabbi Jordan Shaner
Blasphemy in Jewish Poetry After Catastrophe with Jordan Paul
2023/24:
Semester 1:
Women Haunted: Yiddish Literature from Folklore to Modernism: with Julia Sharff
If These Walls Could Talk: Archaeology as Source Material: with Amit Rozenblum
Semester 2:
The Behemoth in the Wild: Compassion, Uncertainty, and the Quest for Meaning in the Book of Job with Benjamin Hackman
Revisiting Israel from the Dawn of Modernity to Our Time with Dr. Meirav Jones
Semester 3:
Shabbat Lab Presented in partnership with Jewish& + OneTable
Are You There, God?: Exploring Theology through the lens of Torah and Commentary with Lara Rodin
2022/23:
Semester 1:
Tools for Ending Antisemitism: Understanding Ourselves and the Canadian Context of Antisemitism with Aaron Rotenberg
The Jewish View on Reproductive Rights with Cantor Cheryl Wunch
Semester 2:
Tikkun-ing this Shattered Olam: Kabbalah 101 with Izzy Waxman
Jewish Fabulous: Queer and Subversive Figures from Across Jewish Sacred Text with Toby King
Semester 3:
Controversy and the Jewish Tradition with Dr. Ori Werdiger
Tending the Jewish Garden with Elena Potter
Marking Time: Creating a Jewish Calendar Together with Leah Gold, A Printmaking Course for Artists of All Levels and Experience
2021/22:
Semester 1:
ONLINE
Shmita: Release, Rest, and Reset with Risa Alyson Cooper
Spoken Word Poetry: Resistance and Resilience with Ayla Lefkowitz
Semester 2:
ONLINE
North African Jewish Storytelling: Miracles, Folk Tales, and Histories with Chaim Grafstein
Diaspora Judaism & Reconciliation: Locating Ourselves in the Conversation with Sterling Stutz
Tackling Talmud: Leadership and Society with Rabbi Jordan Shaner
2020/21:
Summer mini-mester:
ONLINE
Learning and Unlearning: Exploring the Experiences of Jewish People of Colour and Inequality in Canada with Sara Yacobi-Harris
Semester 1:
ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Middle Eastern Cooking with Ronnie Abraham
Judaism +Modernity Track: Finding Our Place: Jews in the Struggle for Racial Equity with Tema Smith
Text and Context Track: Exploring Sephardi Jewry through Rabbinic Texts with Chaim Grafstein
Semester 2:
ONLINE @ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
Multigenerational Trauma and Resilience with Carmelle Wolfson, MSW, RSW and Adrianna LeBlanc, MSW
Punishment and Prisons: the Polemics and Politics with Dyanoosh Youssefi
Homesteading the Holidays with Rabbi Becca Walker
Semester 3:
ONLINE @ Holy Blossom
Klezmer Crash Course with Lorie Wolf, Toronto Klezmer Society
Hands-on History: The Early Years of the Toronto Jewish Community with Sharoni Sibony
The Illustrated Pirke Avot with Rabbi Zachary Goodman and special guest, Jessica Tamar Deutsch
2019/20:
Semester 1:
@ CSI Annex
Tzedakah (Hands-On Track): Dyeing & Doykheit: An exploration of natural dyeing, connection to land and Jewish diaspora with Sarit Cantor
T’shuvah (Judaism +Modernity Track): Returning, Repenting & Reconnecting with Yacov Fruchter
T’fillah (Text and Context Track): Learning to Live Whole-Heartedly with Rabbi Julia Appel
Semester 2:
@ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
Hands-On Track: Jewish Self-Care through the Arts with Or Har-Gil
Judaism + Modernity: Faith Based Social Justice with the Lishma Team
Text and Context: 6 Amazing Texts with Rabbi Zachary Goodman
Semester 3:
@ Holy Blossom Temple
Hands-On Track: New Jewish Film with Aaron Rotenberg
Judaism + Modernity: Bad@$$ Sheroes with Rabbi Becca Walker
Text and Context: Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter
Semester 4:
ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Creative Writing with Tikva Hecht
Judaism + Modernity: Medical Ethics with Rabbi Steven Wernick
Text and Context: Queer Apocalypse in the Jewish Imagination with Rabbi Andrea Myers
2018/19:
Semester 1:
@ Miles Nadal JCC
Hands-On Track: Hebrew Calligraphy as Jewish Art with Baruch Sienna
Judaism +Modernity Track: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text with Jenny Isaacs
Text and Context Track: Weekly Torah for Beginners with Rabbi Jordan Helfman
Semester 2:
@ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Tachles! Learning (Beginner) Conversational Hebrew with Lior Sagi
Judaism + Modernity: PJ Library/Melton Foundations of Jewish Living with Daniel Silverman
Text and Context: People of the Book, People of the Land with Risa Alyson Cooper
Semester 3:
@ CSI Annex
Hands-On Track: Mindfulness in Silence and Song with Aviva Chernick / Jewish Music for the Healing of the Soul with Aaron Lightstone (split course)
Judaism + Modernity: Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter
Text and Context: Feminist Torah with Rabbi Denise Handlarski
Semester 4:
@ Holy Blossom Temple
Hands-On Track: Starting an Indigenous/Jewish Conversation with Leah Mauer
Judaism + Modernity: Refugees, Judaism and Asylum with Howard Adelman
Text and Context: Judaism and Happiness with Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl
Semester 1:
Gender and Judaism with Simon Hart
When You Get What You Pray For with Rabbi Ryan Leszner
Semester 2:
Deviant Drash: Drawing out of the Margins with Cliel Shdaimah and Sof Kreidstein
Dreams: The Torah of The Unconscious with Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg
Censoring the Jewish Library with Maxine Lee Ewaschuk
Semester 3:
Riding the Chariot: Psychedelic Jewish Mysticism and the Fringes of Consciousness with Izzy Waxman
Colourful Kabbalah of Sefirat Ha'Omer with Rabbi Jordan Shaner
Blasphemy in Jewish Poetry After Catastrophe with Jordan Paul
2023/24:
Semester 1:
Women Haunted: Yiddish Literature from Folklore to Modernism: with Julia Sharff
If These Walls Could Talk: Archaeology as Source Material: with Amit Rozenblum
Semester 2:
The Behemoth in the Wild: Compassion, Uncertainty, and the Quest for Meaning in the Book of Job with Benjamin Hackman
Revisiting Israel from the Dawn of Modernity to Our Time with Dr. Meirav Jones
Semester 3:
Shabbat Lab Presented in partnership with Jewish& + OneTable
Are You There, God?: Exploring Theology through the lens of Torah and Commentary with Lara Rodin
2022/23:
Semester 1:
Tools for Ending Antisemitism: Understanding Ourselves and the Canadian Context of Antisemitism with Aaron Rotenberg
The Jewish View on Reproductive Rights with Cantor Cheryl Wunch
Semester 2:
Tikkun-ing this Shattered Olam: Kabbalah 101 with Izzy Waxman
Jewish Fabulous: Queer and Subversive Figures from Across Jewish Sacred Text with Toby King
Semester 3:
Controversy and the Jewish Tradition with Dr. Ori Werdiger
Tending the Jewish Garden with Elena Potter
Marking Time: Creating a Jewish Calendar Together with Leah Gold, A Printmaking Course for Artists of All Levels and Experience
2021/22:
Semester 1:
ONLINE
Shmita: Release, Rest, and Reset with Risa Alyson Cooper
Spoken Word Poetry: Resistance and Resilience with Ayla Lefkowitz
Semester 2:
ONLINE
North African Jewish Storytelling: Miracles, Folk Tales, and Histories with Chaim Grafstein
Diaspora Judaism & Reconciliation: Locating Ourselves in the Conversation with Sterling Stutz
Tackling Talmud: Leadership and Society with Rabbi Jordan Shaner
2020/21:
Summer mini-mester:
ONLINE
Learning and Unlearning: Exploring the Experiences of Jewish People of Colour and Inequality in Canada with Sara Yacobi-Harris
Semester 1:
ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Middle Eastern Cooking with Ronnie Abraham
Judaism +Modernity Track: Finding Our Place: Jews in the Struggle for Racial Equity with Tema Smith
Text and Context Track: Exploring Sephardi Jewry through Rabbinic Texts with Chaim Grafstein
Semester 2:
ONLINE @ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
Multigenerational Trauma and Resilience with Carmelle Wolfson, MSW, RSW and Adrianna LeBlanc, MSW
Punishment and Prisons: the Polemics and Politics with Dyanoosh Youssefi
Homesteading the Holidays with Rabbi Becca Walker
Semester 3:
ONLINE @ Holy Blossom
Klezmer Crash Course with Lorie Wolf, Toronto Klezmer Society
Hands-on History: The Early Years of the Toronto Jewish Community with Sharoni Sibony
The Illustrated Pirke Avot with Rabbi Zachary Goodman and special guest, Jessica Tamar Deutsch
2019/20:
Semester 1:
@ CSI Annex
Tzedakah (Hands-On Track): Dyeing & Doykheit: An exploration of natural dyeing, connection to land and Jewish diaspora with Sarit Cantor
T’shuvah (Judaism +Modernity Track): Returning, Repenting & Reconnecting with Yacov Fruchter
T’fillah (Text and Context Track): Learning to Live Whole-Heartedly with Rabbi Julia Appel
Semester 2:
@ Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
Hands-On Track: Jewish Self-Care through the Arts with Or Har-Gil
Judaism + Modernity: Faith Based Social Justice with the Lishma Team
Text and Context: 6 Amazing Texts with Rabbi Zachary Goodman
Semester 3:
@ Holy Blossom Temple
Hands-On Track: New Jewish Film with Aaron Rotenberg
Judaism + Modernity: Bad@$$ Sheroes with Rabbi Becca Walker
Text and Context: Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter
Semester 4:
ONLINE @ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Creative Writing with Tikva Hecht
Judaism + Modernity: Medical Ethics with Rabbi Steven Wernick
Text and Context: Queer Apocalypse in the Jewish Imagination with Rabbi Andrea Myers
2018/19:
Semester 1:
@ Miles Nadal JCC
Hands-On Track: Hebrew Calligraphy as Jewish Art with Baruch Sienna
Judaism +Modernity Track: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text with Jenny Isaacs
Text and Context Track: Weekly Torah for Beginners with Rabbi Jordan Helfman
Semester 2:
@ Beth Tzedec
Hands-On Track: Tachles! Learning (Beginner) Conversational Hebrew with Lior Sagi
Judaism + Modernity: PJ Library/Melton Foundations of Jewish Living with Daniel Silverman
Text and Context: People of the Book, People of the Land with Risa Alyson Cooper
Semester 3:
@ CSI Annex
Hands-On Track: Mindfulness in Silence and Song with Aviva Chernick / Jewish Music for the Healing of the Soul with Aaron Lightstone (split course)
Judaism + Modernity: Jewish Couplehood with Yacov Fruchter
Text and Context: Feminist Torah with Rabbi Denise Handlarski
Semester 4:
@ Holy Blossom Temple
Hands-On Track: Starting an Indigenous/Jewish Conversation with Leah Mauer
Judaism + Modernity: Refugees, Judaism and Asylum with Howard Adelman
Text and Context: Judaism and Happiness with Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl
