Otmuna

Beit Avi Chai presents "Otmuna": Art and Torah in the beit Midrash. The subject of this series is "Human life."

In study groups, Rabbi Tamar Duvdevani (lecturer in rabbinic literature) and Ela Arazi (lecturer in biblical art) explain ancient texts and works of art related to the human and Jewish life cycles. A unique beit midrash experience featuring study, observation, and innovation in ancient words and new works.

Musical accompaniment: Orit Perlman, singer of Jewish liturgical and folk music

Part 1: Birth
• Monday, October 11, 7:30 PM

When a child comes into the world, expectations and hopes, fears and worries are born. On birth and the anxiety that goes along with it through the eyes of commentators and artists.
Musical accompaniment: songs about birthing mothers and their special situation, as well as lullabies that reflect the anguish and hopes engendered by and for the newborn

Part 2: Circumcision
• Monday, October 18, 7:30 PM

Circumcision is one of the most ancient and hardest-to-digest rituals in the contemporary Jewish world. On the pain, the anxiety, the joy, and the spiritual elevation that go along with the circumcision ceremony.
Musical accompaniment: circumcision ceremony songs that reflect encouragement and joy now that the high-risk period between birth and circumcision is over

Part 3: Blessed Is He Who Has Freed Us of Responsibility
• Monday, October 25, 7:30 PM

The bar mitzvah ceremony originated in Central Europe in the sixteenth century and has undergone many changes. On the history of the ceremony, the absence of a coming-of-age ceremony for girls in Jewish tradition, and works of art about coming of age and the associated Jewish rituals.
Musical accompaniment: songs describing the bar mitzvah boy bathing, depicting his outfit, and full of images of his good looks

Part 4: Wrap and Tie
• Monday, November 1, 7:30 PM

On tallit and tefillin in Jewish law and art, and on the manifold significance of these two sacred objects from antiquity until today
Musical accompaniment: songs about the bar mitzvah boy's desire to study Torah, his future as a member of the community, and his new adult responsibilities

Part 5: Searching for a Soulmate
• Monday, November 8, 7:30 PM

On matchmaking, love, seeking, and finding, and about the difficulties and obstacles on the way to the wedding canopy through the eyes and hearts of thinkers, commentators, and artists
Musical accompaniment: women's songs about attraction between the sexes, which mitigate fear of couplehood and married life

Part 6: An Eternal Edifice
• Monday, November 15, 7:30 PM

On the wedding ceremony, related customs, objects used in the wedding, and the evil spirits that regularly visit during transition stages in Jewish tradition and in art
Musical accompaniment: songs of the ritual bath, dowry, and Chuppah that emphasize the element of joy

Part 7: And All Is Valid, Clear, and Lasting
• Monday, November 22, 7:30 PM

What is it about the ketubah, worded as a legal contract, that evokes such a wonderful outburst of creativity in artists? On halakhah, ethics, values, and art.
Musical accompaniment: songs about complex family matters, such as the relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law and the bride's parting from her mother

Part 8: From Dust You Come and to Dust You Shall Return
• Monday, November 29, 7:30 PM

On funerals and mourning customs as documented in works of art and in halakhic and philosophical texts
Musical accompaniment: songs of mourning and dirges that express a sense of loneliness and futility in view of the death that awaits us all