THE JUDGES: DEBORAH, SAMSON, AND LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF CRISIS

The Book of Judges gives us some of Tanakh’s most unforgettable leaders — and none are more compelling than Deborah and Samson. She is a prophet, judge, and commander whose clarity steadies a nation in crisis. He is a wild, powerful, larger-than-life figure whose strength is both his gift and his undoing.

In this four-session seminar, Rabbi Jason Cook will bring these stories to life, exploring courage, charisma, power, gender, and the complicated choices leaders make when the world around them feels unstable. Dramatic, surprising, and deeply relevant, Deborah and Samson invite us to ask what real leadership looks like when there is no easy path forward.

WEDNESDAYS, 12:00-1:30pm (ET)

Dates: June 3, 10, 17, 24 

Rabbi Jason Cook jokes that he is a wandering Jew, having grown up in western New York, northern California, and Lake Oswego, Oregon (just south of Portland). He attended American University in Washington, D.C, where he studied International Relations. After graduating, he moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he worked in the Jewish non-profit world doing teen engagement. In South Florida, Rabbi Cook also met his wife, Phylicia. After five years of rabbinical school (including a year studying in Jerusalem), Rabbi Cook received his rabbinic ordination at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College in May 2021. Rabbi Cook and Phylicia are excited to be coming home to South Florida and to start a new adventure at the University of Miami Hillel with their son Micah. Rabbi Cook always has time to talk Jewish text and history, Torah, science fiction, and his beloved Portland Trail Blazers.