PILLAR Institute

Jamie has recently been teaching Torah-related classes at the PILLAR Institute. From their website: "PILLAR Institute for Lifelong Learning is the only independent lifelong learning institute in the Pikes Peak region and throughout southern Colorado. There are three class catalogs a year, with exciting classes and interesting instructors, who are local and who are from other parts of the world."

PILLAR's current catalog is here.

The wisdom available in these stories/classes is available to everyone, religious or not.

Jamie's Classes:

The Ten Commandments Applied Today (I and II)

This is done in two parts. First Commandments 1-5, then Commandments 6-10. "If everyone in the world followed even a subset of the Ten Commandments, we’d be about as close to a utopia as is possible. We’ll walk through each of the Commandments, explain what the commandment actually commands, and look at some real-world applications. You need not be any particular religion or even religious at all."

Creation (I and II)

"Our scientific understanding of "The Beginning" is expanding. The universe itself is expanding. Is our understanding of God expanding? We'll explore what the Genesis Creation story tells us about Creation alongside some of the science of it all. You may be surprised what the Biblical Creation story is really trying to impart. This class is also done in two parts, the Genesis chapter 1 story and the Genesis chapter 2 story.

For some brief notes from Creation I, click here.

Babel and Noah

Between Creation and the Patriarchs are two early-history stories in Genesis that deserve some attention. We'll look at the particulars and the lessons they teach for us today in the stories of the City (not Tower) of Babel and the story of Noah and the Flood.

Abraham

How/Why did God choose Abram (later Abraham)? What tests did God put Abraham through and what do we learn from those? Hopefully we'll get through the Binding of Isaac. Other topics we'll try to hit along the way include: wealth creation, lying, faith versus works, both sides of the covenant, how God communicates (at least back then), family/marriage, perpetuation of "The Way," and Sodom and Gomorrah.