The Dynamics of Change
By 91快播 | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Change is an integral part of life and a central feature of the Jewish experience. Join 91快播 scholars for an in-depth exploration of significant changes鈥攔eligious, political, and personal鈥攖hroughout Jewish history and life. Together we鈥檒l consider core questions such as: What inspires change? What circumstances are most conducive to change, and what (or who) drives it? How do we experience change and adapt to its impact? How can Jewish values and ideas inspire us to change the world for the better?
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Kiddush and Havdalah: Marking the Boundaries of Sanctified Time
May 22, 2023 By Judith Hauptman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Kiddush marks the onset of Sabbath sanctity and havdalah marks its end. Both of these ritual acts derive from the Talmud. A review of Talmudic texts reveals that although kiddush did not change much during the Talmudic period, havdalah underwent significant modification. It began as a simple statement of the end of Sabbath sanctity but evolved into a full-blown ritual in which we recite blessings, light a candle, smell spices, and drink wine.
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Between Suns: Twilight in Rabbinic Sources
May 15, 2023 By Sarit Kattan Gribetz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Rabbinic sources imagine the period of twilight between the six days of creation and the Sabbath to be a mystically productive time. It was then, they explain, that God created the rainbow and the manna, letters and writing, Abraham’s ram and Moses’s staff. But when is twilight and how long does it last? Does it belong to the day that is ending, the day that is beginning, or to both days at once? These questions are not merely theoretical鈥攖heir answers determine important matters of Jewish practice.
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Talmudic Writings on the Passage from this Life to the Next
May 8, 2023 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
It may surprise you to learn that, in the opinion of Talmudic teachings and the traditions that emerge from them, death is not a moment but a process鈥攁 transition that leads from one stage of life (which we call 鈥渓ife鈥�) to another (which we call 鈥渄eath鈥�). These beliefs have profound implications for our understanding of Jewish rituals of death and mourning, Jewish theology, and much else. Prof. Kraemer offers a close reading of the texts that discuss these rituals as well as the beliefs underlying them.
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Sarah鈥檚 Laugh: Doubt, Trust, and the Ambiguity of the Womb
May 1, 2023 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
On Rosh Hashanah we read about two central biblical characters, Sarah and Hannah, who after facing infertility for many years are told that they will conceive. Many years ago, when I was undergoing fertility treatments and listened to these stories on Rosh Hashanah, I feltas if my struggles were actually at the heart of Jewish religious experience, selected by the rabbis to echo in the birth of every new year for generations of Jews.
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The Blasphemer in Leviticus: A Marginal Figure
Apr 24, 2023 By Alan Cooper | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Bible abounds with characters who transgress boundaries, for better and for worse. One of these characters who comes to a bad end is the half-Israelite, half-Egyptian blasphemer in Leviticus 24:10-16, 23. It鈥檚 clear that the Bible wants this story to show the dire consequences for blasphemy, but why is the identity of the blasphemer so specific, and how does this story relate to other laws outlined in the same chapter of the Torah? We explore these issues with the aid of both traditional and modern critical commentary.
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Defying All Categories: Witches in the Talmud
Apr 17, 2023 By Marjorie Lehman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Together we explore the story of Rav Nachman鈥檚 daughters and examine their transformation from daughters and wives to witches. Taken into captivity and then returned, they emerge as women on the margins of rabbinic culture. For the rabbis this transformation represents a great challenge to the world order and thus is an expression of their deepest anxieties and fears where they must face that certain things are not within their control. In our reading of this story, we see how the women who are movedfrom inside the family to the margins of rabbinic life and culture reminds us of our own complicated journeys navigating where it is we are, and where it is we want to be.
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Gender Identity in Rabbinic Literature
Mar 27, 2023 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Great fans of ambiguity, the sages of the Mishnah and the Talmud loved to problematize what people of their day considered the most deeply ingrained of binaries, including gender and sex identity. For them, human understandings were imperfect, and every perspective was up for debate. Torah was Divine and perfect, but its interpreters were not. Long ago, our sages debated questions of sex difference and the extent of our capacity to know what we are. We explore some of these debates and ask if they still hold relevance for us.
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