How do traditional Jewish texts encourage us to confront our mortality and add meaning to our lives today? And what’s milk got to do with it?

In this text-based learning session, we will explore classic Jewish stories about death and dying, from the death of Sarah our matriarch in the Torah, through the Talmud, in which the rabbis imagine what it might feel like to die, to modern thinkers’ attempts to make sense of the finality of bodily life. 

Teacher:

Rabbi Melanie Levav BCC, LMSW

Rabbi Melanie Levav is the Executive Director of the Shomer Collective. Previously, Melanie served as Director of PJ Library in New York, a Jewish family literacy and engagement program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Melanie has also served as the Assistant Executive Director, Financial Resource Development, and Director of Pastoral Care at the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, a JCC serving the Russian-speaking Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. She has held positions at JCC Association, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and UJA-Federation of New York, in the areas of Jewish education, volunteer management, and fundraising. Melanie was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, is board certified as a chaplain through Neshama: The National Association of Jewish Chaplains, and is a licensed social worker.