JSLI’s rabbinical curriculum covers what a working rabbi actually needs: Torah and text, Jewish history and thought, rabbinics and pastoral care, liturgy, and the practical craft of leading lifecycle events. It’s taught in two semesters of live weekly classes, and each weekly module covers ground that a traditional seminary would spread across a semester.
A typical week
Course materials and assignments are posted in our online learning system a week before each class: readings from JSLI’s required texts, downloadable documents and online resources. You prepare during the week, usually four to eight hours, and write a d’var Torah on the week’s parasha. Class meets live by Zoom for about two and a half hours. It opens with prayer, moves into the Torah portion and students’ divrei Torah, and then a lecture and discussion on the week’s topic led by Rabbi Blane or a member of our faculty.
What you’ll study
- Torah study: the weekly Torah portion, the Prophets, Kings, Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) and Jewish angelology
- Jewish history: Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, medieval Jewish thinkers, Israel, Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), the Holocaust, and forgiveness
- Rabbinics: pastoral counseling, Shabbat, kashrut, brit milah and brit shalom, eschatology, Jewish conversion, and the Jewish movements (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal and Jewish Universalism)
- Liturgy and ritual: prayer liturgy and melodies for weekdays, Shabbat, the festivals and the High Holidays, and the priestly blessing (duchenen)
- Professional skills: officiating at Jewish, interfaith and same-sex weddings, b’nai mitzvah, baby namings, brit shalom ceremonies and funerals, plus writing and delivering sermons
Final requirements
Before ordination you lead a Friday night Erev Shabbat service, write a final dissertation, and give a Lunch and Learn presentation in your area of expertise. Then you’re ordained at our online Ordination Shabbaton, held each June and December.
Community
You join a network of more than 250 JSLI rabbis and cantors who stay connected through our private Facebook group, alumni gatherings and online events like our Lunch and Learns and Master Classes.
See Admission and Fees for requirements and tuition, or go back to the Rabbinical School overview.