Bob Dylan revolutionized popular music by bringing the great questions that have driven religious and spiritual quests for millennia to the radio. The riddle at the heart of his 1965 song Like a Rolling Stone—“How does it feel / to be on your own / no direction home?”—affirmed the search for spiritual meaning that defined rock and roll for all who followed him. While Dylan’s challenge to a generation of seekers is universal, it also resonates strongly with the continuing Jewish journey between home and exile in America. Dylan’s restlessness models how, even as Jews have felt more at home in America than perhaps any other country or kingdom in the past two thousand years outside of the Land of Israel, they have also wrestled with their individual and collective Jewish purpose in ways that intertwine with and influence not just rock and roll, but the American spirit as a whole. Dylan’s career-long search for a “direction home” is one of the essential creative journeys of his era. It is deeply Jewish, deeply American, and still deeply unresolved.

These classes are taught by our rabbis, educators and by distinguished scholars and lay leaders within our community. In order to help create a class community, once a series begins, new students will not be allowed to join the class until the next series begins. Attendance will be taken in order to fulfill the requirements for conversion.

Led by Cantor Abby Gostein and Rabbi Ellie Steinman A special group for Temple Beth Shalom members to connect. New to the group? Contact our office.

This study group is guided by one of our rabbis, educators, or lay leaders. Contact us to receive more information about taking part in Torah Study. Free for members and non-members.