Ancient Wisdom Series for High School
There's a particular kind of moment when ancient text suddenly speaks directly to your life — when a rabbi from two thousand years ago turns out to be asking the exact question you've been sitting with. The Ancient Wisdom Series is built around that moment. Once a week, over dinner, with friends, we open up Torah and Jewish thought not as history, but as a living conversation about who we are and how to live.
Who Are We?
The Six11 Project is a Jewish education nonprofit based in Los Angeles, founded by Rabbi Brett Kopin. The mission of The Six11 Project is to ignite a lifelong love of Jewish learning, empowering individuals to draw on the wisdom of the tradition to build meaningful, purpose-driven lives.
7-10
Students Per Cohort
7
Weeks Per Module
1
Hour Per Week
Over Dinner
What is the Ancient Wisdom Series?
Picture the best hour of your teen's week: a home full of friends, dinner on the table, and a conversation about the biggest questions of life through a Jewish lens — identity, purpose, and freedom — the kind of conversation that feels exciting and alive.
Students meet weekly in intimate cohorts of up to ten, guided by a mentor who engages them as serious thinkers and thought partners. Classes are organized into thematic seven-week modules, so each cohort goes deep on one set of questions at a time. At the end of every module, families choose whether to continue, which means every student in the room is there because they want to be. In other words, it's Torah Lishma — learning for its own sake. There are no grades and no tests. Just dinner, real conversation, and space to think seriously about who you are and how to live, with friends you already love spending time with.
The best part? The learning doesn't stay in the living room. Students bring what they discover back into their friendships, their families, and their own lives — becoming the ones who deepen the Jewish conversation wherever they go.
Our Pedagogy: Bringing the Shetach Home
Shetach (שטח) means "area," or "open space." A place where people gather, and where real growth happens. The Ancient Wisdom Series is built to bring that same feeling into everyday life through three interconnected ideas:
שאלה – ש
She'elah - Question
We believe the question is holier than the answer. As students navigate their lives, they run into new questions: academic, social, and personal. We focus on embracing those questions and wrestling honestly with their surroundings, choices, and values, through the lens of Jewish wisdom.
טבע – ט
Teva - Nature/Character
Teva is often understood as the physical world around us. Here, teva/nature becomes an inner world: personality, character, strengths, and values. Drawing on the Maharal of Prague's vision of Torah as soil, we treat classical texts as living ground from which each student's identity and purpose can grow.
חינוך – ח
Chinuch - Mentorship
Growth doesn't happen alone. A consistent mentor who knows each student by name, over time, changes lives. Not by handing over answers, but by providing the relational space that lets a student keep exploring who they are. Through weekly cohort gatherings, that mentorship continues throughout the year.
Adina, 9th Grade
I had so much fun in all the discussions and learning how to understand the Torah through different lenses. Thank you for opening me up to all that Judaism can mean.
Rami, 11th Grade
We would get into deep discussions in class and go on random tangents while learning. It really made the learning considerably more engaging and meaningful.
Roan, 11th Grade
One of the highlights of my week. I learned about myself and my religion during the past months and really appreciate every lesson we had.
Eitan, 12th Grade
I've realized that there is so much wisdom to be gained through studying Jewish sources... it's a great way to make me consider many different perspectives.
This Fall:
The Creation Series
Our first module of the year explores the biggest questions in Jewish thought: why we're here, what it means to be human, and what to do when things go wrong, through the lens of the Creation stories at the beginning of the Torah.
7-week cohorts will begin on different dates to accomodate the start of the school year: Thursday, August 27th, Wednesday, September 9th, and Sunday, October 4th. Each class is framed around one major she’elah (question):
How It Works
Cohorts are built around students' existing friend groups or grades, so every class feels like meeting up with friends to learn together during the week. If this sounds like something your teen would love, reach out! We'll talk about the right fit and which cohort makes the most sense.