Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/669073
Your recovery after a hospital stay should begin with a knowledgeable, interdisciplinary team that understands your health care goals. Working with state-of-the-art equipment, we have the expertise and experience to treat patients recovering from a variety of conditions, including: If you need help with any of these conditions, you may benefit from an inpatient skilled nursing and rehabilitation stay. heartland-manorcare.com Neurological Cardiac Complex Medical Pulmonary Orthopedic Cancer ĚAllen Park ĚAnn Arbor ĚBloomfield Hills ĚCanton ĚDearborn Heights ĚGrosse Pointe Woods ĚLivonia & Livonia NE ĚOakland ĚPlymouth ĚSterling Heights ĚWest Bloomfield ĚMarvin & Betty Danto Health Care Center 13 locations in the Greater Detroit area 1996190 D r. Joshua Kulp, a founder and head of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, recently returned to Michigan to serve as visit- ing scholar at Congregation Shaarey Zedek as part of an extended speaking tour. A native of southern New Jersey, Kulp graduated from the University of Michigan and went on to earn his Ph.D. at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Kulp eagerly discusses the many opportunities for students in America and elsewhere to benefit from the Conservative Yeshiva through its Shiurim Online Beit Midrash. Students who take part in his online Mishnah-a-day project complete the entire Mishnah in 12 years. In teaching the online course, Kulp completed an English language commentary on the entire Mishnah from 2001-2013. Teaching online, he doesn't get to meet his students in person. During this trip, Kulp met for the first time a student who has faithfully studied with him for more than a decade. In 2013, Kulp began another online yeshivah project, Daf Shevui ("Weekly Page"), inviting students to study the Babylonian Talmud with him one page at time, which will take about 50 years to finish the entire Talmud. In the near future, the Conservative Yeshiva plans to roll out interactive Skype classes, enabling students to meet virtually with their teachers and fellow students around the world in real time. Another initiative: On your next trip to Israel, you can spend a week study- ing at the Conservative Yeshiva. Kulp believes that taking history into account when studying Jewish texts goes hand-in-hand with gaining spiritual depth. For example, he notes, a large percentage of the discussions in the Talmud take place on a theoreti- cal plane. The Talmud has extensive discussion of the rules for sacrifices, nearly all collected after we had ceased to bring sacrifices. It discusses rules for behavior in the Temple, nearly all collected when the Temple did not exist. It has extensive discussion of criminal law; but when later rab- bis had power to enforce criminal law, they did not actually follow the Talmud's procedures. We see the discussion dif- ferently if we appreciate what the teachers meant. Passages in Tractate Ketubot discussing marital finances seem (appro- priately) medieval to a modern reader; Kulp notes that the rab- bis devote care to protecting the weaker party. Kulp co-authored two books, both based on his work at the yeshivah. During his first decade there, each year he would teach the 10th chapter of Talmud Pesahim, on how to run a Passover seder. Each spring, his students would ask for copies of his notes. Eventually, his own teacher, Rabbi David Golinkin, suggested combining those notes with Golinkin's own annotated collection of historical Haggadah illustrations and turning them into a book. Published as The Schechter Haggadah in 2008, the book gives readers insight into the history of the seder. Parts of the seder go back to antiquity, others have short histories. In Temple times, participants ate a vegetable early in the seder; but Kulp could find no source for the idea that the salt water dip symbolizes tears earlier than the 1930s. In addition to teaching Talmud, Kulp has followed developments in the academic study of Talmud. University researchers who separate historical layers of Talmudic text or examine the Persian milieu of the rabbis, publish in obscure journals and in technical language. Together with Jason Rogoff, Kulp wrote Reconstructing the Talmud, aimed at making Talmud accessible to ordinary readers. Some readers say "this is the book they wish they had when they were in yeshivah." Other readers have found the book helpful as they begin their study of the Babylonian Talmud. Kulp lives in Modiin, Israel, with his wife and four children. As a hobby, he has competed in Ironman competi- tions. * spirituality » 36 April 21 • 2016 Rabbi Joshua Kulp Accessible Learning Head of Conservative Yeshiva in Israel touts classes available to all online. Louis Finkelman | Contributing Writer