Ken Cohen’s “Beyond the Torah” class at Lehrhaus Judaica will certainly live up to its name next year when students have the opportunity to take a field trip to Israel.
As part of the class’ mission to examine post-Torah writings on a historical basis, Lehrhaus is sponsoring a tour of Biblical archaeological sites in Israel, slated for October 1999.
“This is no tour of the Knesset or Yad Vashem,” Cohen said. “If it is less than 2,000 years old, we’re not interested.”
He added that the unique — though not yet finalized — agenda of the learning expedition will avoid the typical missionary and tourist sites.
For the past two years, the students in Cohen’s class have been meeting on Thursday evenings to study the Torah writings following the initial five books. The continuing-education class, which hovers around an enrollment of 25, has students of all ages and from all walks of life.
It was the students themselves who took a particular interest in the physical and geographical reality of biblical history and who first broached the idea of the trip.
Sanne Dewitt, a molecular biologist taking Cohen’s class, sees the tour as another way of moving “beyond the Torah,” from the textual history to the actual places inhabited by the people of biblical histories. “I’d like to go back in those areas, step in those shoes, walk around where they walked, and get their history,” Dewitt said.
The tour will bring students to archaeological sites relevant to the period of the Bible they have been studying — the writings of the prophets. The trip will climax in a one-week residency on an archaeological digging site.
Adding to the excitement of the trip is the potential that the group will unearth an artifact.
“The new archaeological data makes it even more fascinating to look at the sites of the first temples, shrines and altars,” Dewitt said. “Maybe we will even make a little discovery.”
The trip, which will be open to the public, will last approximately 17 days.
During the three years of study, the group has grown from a class into a special community. Many of the milestones that mark a community also have left an imprint on the class.
“We’ve celebrated and lamented the joyous and sad events that of course arose in our years together: marriages, births, b’nai mitzvah, illnesses and the death of one treasured student,” Cohen said.
Rosemary Levenson attended the class from its beginning until she passed away from cancer. During her final weeks, when she was too sick to attend, she had her son take notes in her absence.
“I’d like to think that she was touched at some elemental level,” Cohen said. “It does not get any rootier than going back to King David. I think Rosemary wanted to place herself in the larger swirl of the universe as an active Jewish person.”
The class also survived a couple who established a relationship, and then broke up. They then bickered over who got “custody” to continue attending the sessions, since neither wanted to spend every Thursday with the other. The woman eventually won the rights.
Cohen has guided his students through a close reading of the biblical writings after the Torah, steering clear of the mythology which accumulated during 2,000 years of traditions. Looking solely at the texts, students have sought to understand the perspective of the writers of the Bible, as well as the drama of the characters.
“The Bible did not want us to idolize people like Solomon and David,” Cohen said. “Instead, they are presented as real characters with weaknesses who succeed despite their flaws, not because they had flaws.”
Currently recessed for the summer, the class will continue in September. Members will be studying the literary prophets for the next two years, in an attempt to finish the Bible within the decade.
Commitment to the class drives the educational stamina of the students. Even the final Seinfeld episode presented no match to the loyal students.
“It was a tug-of-war,” Cohen joked. “Those who attended the class were rewarded with their faithfulness when Berkeley’s cable was wiped out that night, proving God’s sense of humor!”
For more information and an application for the archaeological tour and class, call Lehrhaus Judaica at (510) 845-6420.