Work-Life Balance in Ancient Times:
Why the Rabbis Left Their Homes to Study Torah

By :  Rachel Rosenthal JTS Alum (Kekst Graduate School), Gemara Faculty and Director of External Affairs, Yeshivat Maharat Posted On Aug 9, 2021 / 5781 | A Wandering People: Jewish Journeys, Real and Imagined Monday Webinar

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Part of the series, “A Wandering People: Jewish Journeys, Real and Imagined”

We often think of questions about how to balance work and family as modern ones. However, a series of stories in Ketubot show that people have been struggling with these issues for hundreds of years. In these stories, the rabbis leave home to learn Torah, and often return to domestic chaos. Dr. Rachel Rosenthal explores these stories to better understand how the rabbis understood their obligations to Torah, to themselves, and to their families.  

ABOUT THE SERIES

As the pandemic surged and forced us into our homes, many of us dreamed with new intensity of being elsewhere. For Jews throughout the ages, the promises and perils of travel have been central to shaping the individual and collective experience. Notions of home and homeland have been redefined by Jewish wandering. Drawing on literary, spiritual, and historical sources and responses, JTS scholars explore what happens when Jews—whether by force or voluntarily, whether in reality or in the imagination—travel from one place to another. 

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