Fall 5786 Scholar in Residence

Beth Am will welcome Rabbi Jane Kanarek, Ph.D. to Beth Am as our Scholar in Residence this November 14th – 15th.

Rabbi Jane Kanarek, Ph.D.

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

Friday, November 14th | 8:00 PM | Scholar in Residence Friday Night Dinner

  • 5 pm | Proneg for families with young children who’d like to have dinner before services. 
  • 6 pm | Kabbalat Shabbat Services 
  • 7 pm | Dinner followed by Rabbi Kanarek’s first lecture.

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.

Saturday, November 15th | 1:00 PM | Scholar in Residence Shabbat Kiddush Lunch Talk

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. 

Sunday, November 15th | 7:00 PM | Scholar in Residence Saturday Evening Lecture 2025

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.