Beginning Tuesday, Oct. 8, Grist and the authors will lead courses about the books in two East Bay locations.
The series opens at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street in Berkeley, at 7:30 p.m. with Daniel Matt, professor at the Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Jewish Studies in Berkeley.
In “God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science and Spirituality,” his second book in two years, Matt will address the question of the universe’s beginning, debating whether God created the heaven and earth in six days or whether it began with an explosion.
“A lot of people enjoy the topic of the book and go take a class with him,” said Grist of Matt, who has taught at Lehrhaus for 10 years.
The class will repeat at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16 at Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mount Diablo Blvd., Lafayette.
The following week U.C. Berkeley assistant professor and new Lehrhaus teacher Carol Redmount will speak on “An Egyptologist’s View of the Exodus,” which is based on her chapter on Exodus in the new Oxford Companion to the Bible, due to be published in January.
“She’s taking a look at Exodus from a [scholarly], secular Egyptologist perspective,” said Grist, “rather than a traditional approach of trying to defend the Bible.”
Her approach is, “Let the chips fall where they may, based on textural and archeological research,” he added.
Redmount’s class will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15 at BRJCC, and again at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30 at Temple Isaiah.
Third-year Lehrhaus teacher Rachel Havrelock will address the topic of the book she co-authored with Mishael Caspi, “Women on the Biblical Road,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22 at BRJCC, and again at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Temple Isaiah.
“The book is building a following,” said Grist. It offers a “new perspective on the role of women in the biblical world, and how to compare it to women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, today.”
Grist himself will teach a class on Richard Elliott Friedman’s “The Disappearance of God” at 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27 at Lehrhaus Judaica, Reutlinger Center, 2736 Bancroft Way, Berkeley; and again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 at Congregation Beth El, 2301 Vine St., Berkeley.
“The underlying notion of the book,” said Grist, “is that the biblical text tells an almost subconscious story.
“In the beginning, God is all-powerful, and humankind is in its infancy with no power.
“As you read through the books of the Hebrew Bible, a slow evolution in the relationship occurs. Slowly God becomes more distant and influential. Man takes on a more responsible role in his affairs. It’s almost as if the receding of God from human affairs was part of the Biblical design.
“It’s one of the most intriguing and challenging concepts that Friedman has proposed,” Grist said of the recent best-seller.
San Francisco clinical psychologist Joel Crohn will address the topic “Mixed Matches: Creating Successful Interfaith Relationships” at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Temple Isaiah and at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29 at BRJCC.
Lehrhaus Judaica will be the setting of a 7 p.m. class Monday, Oct. 7 on “The Trial of Jesus,” a forthcoming translation by attorney Nitzhia Shaked.
Shaked wrote an analysis of the trial in the Christian Bible that refers both to Jewish and Roman law.
And the next night — at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8 at Lehrhaus — Rebecca Fromer will teach from her book “The Holocaust and the Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando.”
That class will focus on the extent to which the Holocaust affected the Sephardim, and how their experience differed from that of the Ashkenazi. Students will learn about the Jews of the Balkans, and the course will concentrate on events in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece.
The “Great Writers, Great Books” series also will take place at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St.
Avram Davis, director of Berkeley’s Chochmat HaLev, will instruct from his book “The Way of Flame: The Mystical Tradition of Jewish Mediation” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Crohn will speak at the same time Wednesday, Oct. 16; Redmount on Oct. 23; and Matt on Oct. 30. Cost for the four-session series is $35 for JCC members, $45 for nonmembers.
Grist said Lehrhaus also will expand the series in the “South Bay Professors’ Forum” with Matt at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7 at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills.
The series may also continue in Sonoma and the Peninsula next spring, he added.
For information, and a catalog of the more than 125 courses and workshops, call Lehrhaus Judaica at (510) 845-6420.