Pardes In the Press
Torah on the Go
By Rebecca Zimmerman
The Internet is revolutionizing the way we disseminate and acquire Jewish knowledge. Never before has so much information been so readily available to people, who can acquire it without even leaving their homes.
The podcast is one medium where we can see this revolution unfolding. Enter the term “Jewish” or “Judaism” on iTunes, and you’ll find podcasts running the gamut from a rabbi’s lecture on the weekly Torah portion, to a class on Jewish meditation, to the dozens of courses offered by the Orthodox Union.
With so many of us on the web, organizations and individuals have come to use podcasts as a tool for outreach. “We created the podcast to reach more constituents and to enhance service to our existing audience of congregations, their members, Reform Jews who may not be affiliated with a congregation, and anyone who is just interested in the Reform perspective on Torah,” said Toni Kamins, Communication Manager of the Union for Reform Judaism.
The podcast provides a chance to build new relationships as well as maintain old ones. “The podcast has brought us new listeners and participants in Pardes Torah study who would not have come our way,” said Rosh Yeshiva of the Pardes Institute, Rabbi Daniel Landes. “It has proven to be a wonderful way of reconnecting with Pardes learning for alumni, who really miss the Pardes Beit Midrash.”
As Kamins of URJ and Landes of Pardes suggested, podcasts can provide Jewish learning possibilities for people who originally may not have attended a shiur (Jewish study class). In our time-pressed society, we might find the prospect of downloading a Torah lesson and listening to it on the ride to work an easy way to integrate learning into our lives. Moreover, those of us intimidated and overwhelmed by the prospect of learning on our own might feel that a podcast provides focus and direction.
People who create podcasts also view them as an opportunity to share knowledge about topics not typically covered. “I found that most ‘Ask the Rabbi’ sites on the Internet do not answer interesting questions," said Rabbi Eli Garfinkel, a Conservative rabbi who created “The Ask My Rabbi Show.” “I wanted to answer the questions that people are too embarrassed to ask a rabbi face to face. The site is totally anonymous, so people feel free to ask the questions they really want answered.”
Additionally, podcasts, like other Internet content about Judaism, don’t make the listener feel like he or she has to commit to a specific organization or ideology, which might appeal to Jews unaffiliated with a specific movement. The listener is free to choose amongst a large variety of learning options and find something that fits his or her belief system.
What is so revolutionary about this, then? Podcasts, and the Internet in general, provide people with the ability to learn without going to a physical space or meeting people, to pick and choose amongst different movements and modes of thought, and to remain anonymous. In order to learn, in other words, a Jew doesn’t need to belong to a community. This mode of thinking, which one could argue has arisen as a result of our living in a post-industrialist, on-the-go, individualistic society, stands in marked contrast to traditional Jewish learning, which emphasizes human interaction and community.
“Modern technologies are changing Judaism in the same way that the printing press changed Judaism,” said Rabbi Garfinkel. “Technology is changing Jewish culture in the same way that it's changing American culture. We are in the process of redefining what the words ‘community’ and ‘friend’ mean. In this interconnected world, it is becoming more difficult to instill in our young a tribal, ethnic identity.”
The dialogue between ancient tradition and new ideas and technologies is certainly nothing new to Judaism (remember the Greeks and the Enlightenment?). Still, it is interesting to see how the Jewish community is responding this time.
“A Pardes shiur through a Podcast presents a challenge,” noted Rabbi Landes. “The chavruta style [where students study texts in pairs] dominates every shiur at Pardes. The challenge is to imagine and to replicate a speech which normally takes place in a study partnership – leading questions, offering possible alternatives and viewpoints as if engaging the listener – this is part of the success at Pardes. Finally, the teacher needs to break through and demonstrate that this is a fun and exciting endeavor. Just like a real-time chavruta.”
“Making Jewish learning, texts, opinions, and information available to a wider audience in a less structured time frame is a good thing and the Internet is a wonderful outreach tool in that regard,” argued Kamins of URJ.
A podcast does not necessarily replace the face-to-face learning experience where the student is challenged to think for him or herself about the texts. However, it can provide new and complementary ways to access knowledge, and give the uninitiated a taste of Jewish learning.
As Kamins says, “the prospect of enhancing the engagement of younger Jews through these media is part of the future of the Jewish community and if Jewish institutions don’t make good use of it, it will be a missed opportunity that may not come again. We can’t afford not to use these tools.”