מָה־אָהַבְתִּי תוֹרָתֶךָ
How I love your Torah (Ps. 119:97)
For four decades, Rabbi Roly Matalon has helped nurture a deep and expansive love of Torah at BJ—affirming learning as a spiritual practice that shapes how we live, pray, and show up in the world.
In celebration of Roly’s 40 years of service, we are excited to present a seven-week learning series featuring beloved teachers, colleagues, and friends who have walked alongside him on the path of Torah. Together, they offer teachings that reflect the depth, curiosity, and spiritual seriousness that have animated Roly’s rabbinate and shaped Torah learning at BJ.
This week, we will welcome Rabbi Arthur Green.
Rabbi Arthur Green is the retired founding dean and rector emeritus of the Rabbinical School and Irving Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College, and Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at Brandeis University, where he held the Philip W. Lown Professorship. A historian of Jewish religion and a theologian, his work bridges scholarship and contemporary spiritual thought, and he is widely regarded as a leading voice of Neo-Hasidism, seeking to articulate a modern Jewish mysticism rooted in the Hasidic tradition. Ordained at Jewish Theological Seminary and educated at Brandeis, he has taught generations of students at the University of Pennsylvania, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (where he served as dean and president), Brandeis, and Hebrew College. In 1968 he founded Havurat Shalom, helping launch the American havurah movement. Dr. Green is the author, editor, or translator of more than twenty books, including Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism, and Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love (winner of the National Jewish Book Award), as well as Well of Living Insight, his commentary on the Hebrew prayerbook; though retired, he continues to teach and lecture widely.
Across the series, distinguished teachers and friends of Roly – including Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein, Rabbi Jan Urbach, Rabbi Irwin Kula, Rabbi Michael Paley, Dr. Nathaniel Berman, Rabbi Joy Levitt, and Rabbi Michael Strassfeld – offer Torah in celebration of Roly’s 40 years of service and the vibrant culture of learning he has helped cultivate at BJ.
The series culminates on Tikkun Leil Shavuot, when our community gathers for a night of learning dedicated to Roly’s 40 years of service, featuring Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, followed by learning with the BJ rabbis and rabbinic fellows.
