Jane Kanarek is Professor of
Rabbinics and Dean of Faculty at
Hebrew College. She is the author of
Biblical Narrative and the Formation of
Biblical Law and an editor of Mothers
in the Jewish Cultural Imagination
and Learning to Read Talmud: What
It Looks Like and How It Happens,
both of which were finalists for the
National Jewish Book Awards.
A pioneer in the field of Talmud
pedagogy, Rabbi Dr. Kanarek is a
recipient of the prestigious Wexner
Graduate Fellowship and a former
member of the Rabbinical Assembly’s
Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards. She lives in Brookline, MA
with her husband and three boys.
Her next book— Beyond Brutality:
Reclaiming Female Presence in Bavli
Sotah — is forthcoming in December
from Brandeis University Press
Join us for Kabbalat Shabbat and Dinner, followed by Rabbi Kanarek’s first lecture, Reading the Talmud Through Feminist Eyes. All too often, we assume that women are not present in the Talmud. But if we shift our lenses and being with an assumption that in fact women are present in the Talmud, we suddenly see much more than we had thought possible. This talk will ask us to practice the art of learning to notice what we might all too easily overlook.
Following services and Kiddush lunch, join us for Rabbi Kanarek’s second lecture, Seeing God Under an Apple Tree: The Righteous Women of Tractate Sotah. Tractate Sotah of the Babylonian Talmud contains a magnificent midrash about the righteous women for whose sake Israel was redeemed from Egypt. We will study this story as a window into the rabbinic imagination and as a guidepost for rebellion, resistance, and subversion.
Don’t miss Rabbi Kanarek’s final lecture, How the Bible Became Rabbinic. We often take for granted that the Bible is the foundation of Jewish life. But the Bible underwent a process of becoming the foundation of Jewish life. Through examining the ways in which stories from the book of Genesis become sources for rabbinic law, this talk will look at the process of the Bible becoming a rabbinic document.
*Join us for a wine and cheese reception and Havdalah before the talk.