Below you will find the original video recording of this episode, the core Talmud sources from the conversation (click their citation hyperlinks to find the texts in their fuller context), and a section of Further Learning (links to books, articles, and additional resources mentioned by our hosts). And remember, the most fulfilling way to deepen your learning is to find a chevruta (a study partner) to share it with!

This week Dan & Benay learn with special guest Professor Jane Kanarek of Hebrew College Rabbinical School, author of “Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law” (2014), “The Pedagogy of Slowing Down: Teaching Talmud in a Summer Kollel” (2010), and “Throwing the Talmud Across the Room: Emotions and the Cultivation of Subjectivity in Talmud Study” (2025, via Taylor & Francis). Jane Kanarek joins the Oral Talmud to discuss her understand of what the sages were doing in constructing the Talmud, and her pedagogic values in building a Rabbinic School classroom.

• What are the Rabbis doing with the Book of Genesis when they transform stories into law, especially when it comes to the most shocking narratives?
• What is the Rabbis’ relationship to Torah, especially in the moments that we’ve labeled them as misquoting torah in past episodes of The Oral Talmud?
• What evidence do we actually have for the Rabbis’ relationship to God and Talmud, beyond the winking?
• Why do we teach Talmud, and what are our goals for our students? How can a thoughtful teacher incorporate secondary texts as new commentaries for helping students develop lenses to read the Talmud through?
• What comes to the surface when we really slow down our learning?

Interview with Professor Jane Kanarek of Hebrew College Rabbinical School, author of Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law

[1] “Nomos and Narrative” by Robert Cover (1982 - PDF on Yale’s Law Library site)t

[2] Rooting a minyan being a ten-person prayer quorum in Genesis and Joseph’s brothers is Yerushalmi Talmud Berakhot 7:3 (Sefaria)

[3] On Jacob studying in Yeshiva “The First Beit Midrash: The Yeshivah of Shem and Eber” by Miriam Pearl Klahr (on Kol Hamevaser/Yeshiva University’s website)

[4] For the Akeidah, The Binding of Isaac, explore Genesis 22 (Sefaria)

[5] Moshe Halbertal’s “People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority” (1997, on Jstor)

[6] Shamma Friedman on Wikipedia (I could not find his article about the marginalia note on Perek HaChovel/Eye for an Eye making its way into the standard Talmud text - Olivia Devorah Tucker, footnotes editor)

[7] Judith Hauptman, Rabbi and author of “Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice” (1998, entry in the Jewish Women’s Archive)

[8] Charlotte Fonrobert, author of “Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender” (2000), and published in “Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community” (2010) (Wikipedia article)

[9] Daniel Boyarin, author of “Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture” (1993), “Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man” (1997) – Listen to our interview The Oral Talmud: Episode 16 - The Greatest Voices Are Anonymous with Daniel Boyarin!

[10] Gwynn Kessler, author of "Queering Jewish Theology In Parables" (2019, on Swarthmore’s archive)

[11] Sarra Lev, Rabbi and Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities (RRC’s website)

[12] Yochi Brandes, author of “The Secret Book of Kings” and "The Orchard" (translated by Dan), on Judaism Unbound

[13] Tikva Frymer-Kensky’s writing on the Dinah narrative may be found in “Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East” (1998, pgs 79-96, mostly available on Google Books)

[14] The curious betrothal narratives may be found on Kiddushin 8b-9a (Sefaria)

[15] Marjorie Lehman, co-author with Jane of “Learning to Read Talmud: What it Looks Like and How It Happens” (2019) (Bio on JTS website)

[16] Mira Wasserman, author of “Jews, Gentiles, and other Animals: The Talmud after the Humanities” (Penn Press, 2017) (Bio on RRC’s website)

[17] Read Jane Kanarek’s article “The Pedagogy of Slowing Down: Teaching Talmud in a Summer Kollel” (2010, on Brandeis’s digital library)

[18] The article which Jane Kanarek wrote with Katie Light Soloway interviewing Rabbinical School students about their experience in learning Talmud is “Throwing the Talmud Across the Room: Emotions and the Cultivation of Subjectivity in Talmud Study” (2025, via Taylor & Francis)

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Learn more Talmud with Benay Lappe at SVARA by checking out www.svara.org

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