[Avodah] Administrivia: The Kloiz -- notification of my latest project

[Micha Berger]

I am excited to announce the launch of a new project I'm calling
"Zelmele's Kloiz", starting with a shiur on Thursday evenings.

First, about the shiur: We will be looking at a series of texts that
relate to fundamental questions of our purpose in life, the nature of our
souls, and practical ways to get from where we are now to where Hashem
wants us to be and where our souls would be happiest being. Needless
to say to anyone who knows me, these texts will all present answers in
terms of wholeness, relationship and Widening our Tents.

The first shiur is scheduled for Thursday, February 24th, at 7pm Eastern.
It will be on Zoom at the handy URL <http://thekloiz.aishdas.org>. (Yes,
it will be recorded with shiurim on shiurim.aishdas.org, but the shiur
will be much more engaging for all of us if you're there to ask
questions!) We start by looking at the Maharal's commentary on Pirkei Avos
1:2, and see how his thought gives us hints as to what the Mishkan really
was about, and why so much of the Torah is spent going over its details.

Feel free to forward this email to someone you think might want this
kind of shiur!

<Image: 1890 Holman Bible illustration, The Tabernacle in the Wilderness>

			     Bilvati Mishken Evneh
				      or:
			    Is so much of the Torah
			  really just about a building
			  that lasted only 440 years?

    A look at the Maharal's Derech Chaim on Avos 1:2 and how it provides
    hints about what the Mishkan was really about, and what these
    parshiyos are telling us about how to live our lives.

    Part of a weekly series of shiurim
    about Widening our Tents
    the purpose of our lives
    and the nature of being human
    Thursday nights at 7pm Eastern Time.

			    Zelemele's Kloiz: http://thekloiz.aishdas.org
			    Thursday, February 24th 2022
			    7:00 pm Eastern Time
<End Image>

Now, just what is The Kloiz? "Kloiz" is a Yiddish term for a house where
scholars would assemble. (For example, the Hebrew term "Beis Mussar"
is a translation of the Yiddish idiom "Mussar Kloiz".) In Lithuania,
where Torah study was so emphasized as the central worship, it was their
parallel to davening at a Chassidishe shteibl. A place of Torah study
and of fellowship.

"Zelmele" refers to my great-great-grandfather, Rav Shlomo Zalmen
Birger. He lived in Suvalk (Polish: Suwalki) a city in Northern Poland,
so that its Jews' minhagim, Hebrew accent, and attitude toward life were
Lithuanian. Our family owned a textile dying plant, which freed up time
each day for the men to study Torah as the women equally ran much of the
day-to-day business. Rav Dovid Lifshitz, who was still considered the
Suvalke Rav decades after the Shoah when he became my rebbe, recalled
the Birger home as hosting "Zelmele's Kloiz", where they, friends and
students exchanged ideas.

And so, as we gather "here" in our way, studying sefarim as they did,
and hopefully building camaraderie too, I thought it would be nice to
think of this enterprise as a continuation of the past. Zelemele's Kloiz.


Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

PS: If I cannot flout list rules every few years, what's the point of
being its sole moderator?

-- 
Micha Berger                 There's only one corner of the universe
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   you can be certain of improving,
Author: Widen Your Tent      and that's your own self.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    	    - Aldous Huxley