December 7th, 2025, 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
This one session course will introduce the basic concepts of Kabbalah on Shabbat and the core prayer of the Friday evening service, Lecha Dodi. This beautiful poem by Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz in the 16th Century was sung in the hills of Safed on Friday evening to welcome the Sabbath, as the sun sets over Mt Meron where legend has it that the Zohar was written.
The prayer is deeply spiritual and mystical, but one must understand the essentials of Kabbalah to decode and appreciate its beauty and feel its spirituality. Come discover Kabbalah, the foundation of Jewish mysticism. The class will also provide the needed pre-requisite to join Professor McCrensky’s Monday evening Zoom class.
Learn more about Kabbalah at www.ContemporaryKabbalah.org.
Jay McCrensky holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies, concentrating in Kabbalah and Jewish philosophy with minors in Rabbinic Literature and Sociology of Judaism, from the Baltimore Hebrew University and Towson University. He’s taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at St Mary’s College of Maryland of the University of Maryland System.
Jay is currently the founder and CEO of the Contemporary Kabbalah Institute (CKI). A nonprofit consortium of rabbis, scholars and students, the CKI works to revive Kabbalah in Jewish education and as the core of contemporary Jewish spirituality. Through the CKI, Jay teaches adult education courses on Kabbalah, and conducts a free online Kabbalah course, meeting weekly and open to all. He has taught Kabbalah courses for over 40 years and is a leading teacher of and speaker on Kabbalah in the Washington/Baltimore area.
Jay is author of the books Understanding Evil and Ethics through Kabbalah (2000, 2014, 2022) and Connecting to Judaism: Spirituality through Kabbalah (2013, 2022). His forthcoming book, The Surreptitiously Subversive Zohar: The Case of Moses will provide a new dimension to interpreting the Zohar. The goal is that it will become a text for college level courses on Sefer Ha Zohar.
His dissertation, The Concept of Receiving in Contemporary Kabbalah, is a contrast between the schools of Jewish renewal Kabbalah of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and the Kabbalah Center of Rabbi Philip Berg. His current areas of academic study include the Sefirot of Netsach and Hod in the Zohar, development of a glossary of analogies and symbols in the Zohar, as well as the concept of receiving in 13th century Kabbalah. Jay presented academic papers on The Sefira of Netsach in the Zohar at the annual Midwest Jewish Studies Association conference (2005) and on The Surreptitiously Subversive Zohar at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference (2024).
Beyond his direct activity as a Kabbalah scholar, Jay consults startup companies on marketing and financing, founded and co-directs the Machaya Klezmer Band (MC, accordionist and dance leader) and teaches skiing as a certified ski instructor, in all of which he applies insights from the Kabbalah tradition.
You can contact him at jay@contemporarykabbalah.org.
Copyright © 2025 Jewish Study Center. All rights reserved. Website designed by Addicott Web.