Between Law and Narrative in the Talmud
Feb 27, 2023 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture
This session presents the history of the law vs. narrative distinction in reference to the Talmud, and will show how this categorization became central to how Jews think about Jewish texts and Jewish learning more generally. We consider the limits of this binary by looking at some texts from the Talmud that seem to defy categorization, raising the question of what possibilities open up when we read Jewish legal texts as literature.
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The Tent of Meeting: Central or Marginal?
Feb 13, 2023 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Tent of Meeting is described at great length in the Torah as the elaborate sacred tent located in the center of the Israelite encampment that travelled through the wilderness for forty years. But several passages in the Torah describe the Tent of Meeting differently, as a tiny structure located outside the Israelite camp. Why does the Torah include both historical memories of this structure? How does each structure reflect a particular religious worldview, and what does the presence of both in the Torah tell us about Judaism?
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Between This World and the Next: Rabbinic Visions of Purgatory
Feb 6, 2023 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Gehenom is often thought of as the Jewish version of hell, but an examination of the places it appears in the Talmud presents something more nuanced. Part purgatory, part hell, part passageway, Gehenom becomes a place for punishment and redemption. Through a close reading of the texts concerning Gehonom, we will gain a clearer understanding of what, exactly, its purpose might be, and what it might tell us about rabbinic views of what happens after we die.
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The World as Liminal: Genesis and the Incompleteness of Creation
Jan 30, 2023 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The story of creation in the first chapter of the Torah is one of the most familiar but least understood texts in the Bible. When viewed within its historical context it is a very strange story, because it lacks the expected ending. We will look for the proper ending of the story elsewhere in the Torah. Finding it will allow us to understand a core aspect of biblical theology: that the world God created is incomplete. Poised between chaos and perfection, creation itself is designed to be liminal. That aspect of biblical theology, surprisingly enough, will remind us of a famous idea articulated more than two millennia later in kabbalistic literature.
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The Space In Between: Thresholds and Borders in Jewish Life and Thought
Jan 12, 2023 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In this series, JTS scholars will delve into the idea of liminality—the time or space in between—which we encounter often in Jewish ritual, identity, law, and life. Join us to consider what these many manifestations of “in-between-ness” can teach us about ourselves and about Judaism, and to explore how we might find strength and meaning in an orientation not of “either/or” but of “both/and.”
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Where Do We Draw the Line? The Importance of Highlighting Multiple Perspectives in Jewish Education
Dec 19, 2022 By Meredith Katz | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Jewish educators address many goals, including building Jewish literacy and Jewish identity. To these ends, they make decisions constantly as curricular gate-keepers, or censors with a purpose. Why and how should they introduce students to the perspectives of those with whom they might not agree, both within and outside the Jewish community? This session explores the importance of highlighting multiple perspectives and helping students develop the skills to navigate conversations with those with whom they disagree, as a key component of civic education in Jewish settings.
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The Hollywood Blacklist and the Whitewashing of American Culture
Dec 12, 2022 By Ellie Gettinger | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Hollywood Blacklist is one censorious aspect of the larger Red Scare that limited the freedoms of speech and assembly through the 1950s. Yet the political policing and litmus tests required for screenwriters, actors, and producers in this period led to a monumental shift in the way that American culture was represented on screen (both large and small). This session explores the political climate that led to the blacklist and how it fundamentally changed the film industry.
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Censoring the Holocaust: How Books Shape Our View of a Painful Past
Dec 5, 2022 By Edna Friedberg | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Ever since the 1940s, books about the Holocaust have proven flashpoints. From early editions of The Diary of Anne Frank that omitted controversial passages to more recent attempts to ban the graphic memoir Maus from some classrooms, what we read about this difficult history often amplifies broader societal debates. In this session we look back at Holocaust literature (both fiction and non-fiction) and how its popularity shifts depending on time and place.
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