by Rabbi Professor Reuven Kimelman
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
Join us for a three-part webinar series with Rabbi Kimelman titled “Making Sense of the Weekday Amidah.”
Co-sponsored with the Orange County Community Scholar Program and the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades.
Three Mondays Starting 2/9/26 | 8:00 PM Eastern / 5:00 PM Pacific | Via Zoom
Register and get more information at https://www.utj.org/events/amidah. In case you miss the live event, find video at https://utj.org/viewpoints/utj-events/.
This video is part of a series of videos with brief divrei Torah inspired by “Divrei Halev: Thoughts of Rabbi Professor David Weiss Halivni on the Torah Portion” by Rabbi Ronald Price.
All videos in this series will be available here and in our Youtube playlist “Divrei Halev.”
For more material by and produced in memory of Rabbi Halivni visit “Remembering Rabbi Halivni” on the UTJ Viewpoints website.
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One of the founding members of the UTJ, Reuven Kimelman is a professor of classical rabbinic literature at Brandeis University, specializing in the history and meaning of Jewish liturgy.
Prior, Professor Kimelman was Joseph Shier Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, and Five College Professor of Judaic Studies at Amherst College.
He also has taught courses at numerous other educational institutions, including: Mt. Holyoke Smith, Trinity and Williams Colleges, as well as the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Yeshiva University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
A recognized scholar of Talmud, Midrash and liturgy, Professor Kimelman has written on the interaction between Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and modernity. His interest further expands to the thematic connections between Greek and Biblical literature from Homer to Plato and from Genesis to Matthew. In the field of Jewish ethics, his focus is on the ethics of war, statecraft, conflict, and genocide.
Professor Kimelman is a prolific writer whose works have been published in scholarly and popular journals. He is author of the Hebrew work, The Mystical Meaning of “Lekhah Dodi’ and ‘Kabbalat Shabbat’ (Hebrew University Press) and the forthcoming, “The Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Prayerbook.”
He also has authored two audio course books:
He also wrote the introduction to Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Mystical Element in Judaism. A list of Professor Kimelman's courses and publications can be found here.
Professional Kimelman lectures frequently at academic conferences, synagogues and national Jewish organizations. He has served as scholar in-residence for many groups, including the former UJA Young Leadership Cabinet, the Wexner Heritage Foundation, and the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.