NEW TORAH CYCLE BRINGS WITH IT NEW PROGRAMS ON OUTORAH.ORG
With the beginning of a new Torah cycle, the ever-growing collection of shiurim on the Orthodox Union’s Torah website, www.ou.org/torah, as well as www.outorah.org, continues to increase with a variety of new programs that are now available.
There are three series of lectures by the distinguished educator Rabbi Ari D. Kahn, the author of “Echoes of Eden: Sefer Bereshit,” newly published by OU Press. The series includes audio lectures on halacha (Jewish law), machshava (Jewish thought), and aggadah, the non-legal portions of the Talmud.
Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, one of the Jewish world’s best-known lecturers and educators in the area of business ethics, presents two programs in text format, “The Jewish Ethicist” and “Meaning in Mitzvot.” The ethics program has already featured subjects as varied as giving notice and bearing a grudge. The mitzvot program features articles connecting mitzvot with events in the weekly Torah portion, as well as making them relevant in one’s daily life. Both programs draw heavily from Jewish sources, as they confront issues in modern life.
Rabbi Yakov Nagen delves into spirituality with his video series “Life is a Blessing,” focusing on matters of spirituality in the weekly parsha. Rabbi Nagen is Rosh Kollel of Yeshivat Otniel, a hesder yeshiva in Israel (in which the students also serve in the IDF) in Hebron Hills.
That is not all. With NCSY | Jewish Youth Leadership, the international youth program of the Orthodox Union, having expanded to Chile and Argentina, and with a large Jewish community in Mexico, OU Torah now includes “Perlas de la Tora” (“Pearls of the Torah”), weekly lectures in Spanish on the Torah portion and other aspects of Jewish observance, by Rabbi Israel Lashak, the Mexican-born Director of NCSY’s Dallas-based Southwest Region.
Another recent addition to OU Torah is HaShoneh Halachos, in which two laws are explained each day by Rabbi Jack Abramowitz, OU Torah Content Editor, and emailed to a growing list of subscribers. On November 24, the two-year Nach Yomi cycle, drawing from the Books of the Prophets and the Writings, will begin anew, for the third time on OU Torah.
“OU Torah, with its sections on parsha, kashrut (kosher), Mishna and Gemara, Nach, tefilla (prayer), Shabbat and holidays, Jewish thought, mitzvot and halacha now comprises dozens of programs in text, audio and video format. People can subscribe to some series by email or podcast and they can also follow us via Facebook and Twitter,” declared Rabbi Abramowitz. “One can devote the greater part of the day to receiving an intensive Jewish education through OU Torah, or by choosing from this variety of shiurim, can expand one’s knowledge in particular areas of interest.”
OU Managing Director Rabbi Steven Burg said, “OU Torah is a unique compendium of Jewish learning provided by renowned rabbis and educators who have established a brilliant reputation of calling on centuries of Jewish learning to educate the Jewish people in our contemporary age.”
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