Announcement: Parsha Salon

Let's talk about the parsha every week.

So, in the interest of making this space more of a community, I have an idea.

I want to do a parsha thing over video, streaming for subscribers to the substack. I say parsha thing instead of parsha shiur or class because the type of thing I have in mind is much less a frontal learning thing as much as I want it to be a freewheeling discussion, where I am less a teacher and more a facilitator. I’m calling it Parsha Salon, because I’ve always liked the idea of a place where people hang out and argue about stuff. I wanted to call it Parsha Coffee House, which is much less pretentious, but that brand is wholly owned property of R. Scott Kahn and I can’t do my rosh yeshiva dirty like that.

Basically¹ the format would be you read the parsha on your own schedule, however much or little of it you want spending however much time you want, and make note of any questions you have on the text, or things you’ve noticed, or things you want to discuss. Then I go live on video, ask what people have got this week, and then I take a question and answer it, or spin it off into a discussion, or start looking up sources that might answer the question, or open the floor to comments. I have a high degree of trust in my ability to improvise in this manner, and I think people will find it fun and engaging.

The main question I have at this point is what the right videochat/streaming service for this kind of thing. Zoom could be good, but I’d have to pay for it if I want it longer than 40 minutes, which I do. I’ve set up a Twitch account and figured out how to stream video there, but my main concerns with Twitch are a)learning curve b)too frontal c) worried about alt-right trolls hijacking the stream. Not sure about Youtube streaming either. Right now I am leaning towards Twitch just because it seems to have more growth potential and less start up costs, but open to being convinced otherwise.

Wednesday evenings work best for me, and I am on Central United States time. I have tentatively penciled in 6:30-7:30 PM as streaming time, with potential to go longer than that should discussion go well.