Interleaved: A Talmudic Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

How did the monetary guarantee of the ketubah develop? What light can similar contracts from the Ancient Near East and modern pre-marital financial agreements such as the pre-nup shed on the nature of the ketubah, including the question of whether it is binding?

Prof. Michael L. Satlow is Professor of Judaic Studies and Religious Studies at Brown University.  He holds a Ph.D. from JTS, and is an author of numerous works including the book Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, and the chapter “Reconsidering the Rabbinic Ketubah Payment” in The Jewish Family in Antiquity.  

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

CW// sexual assault/r*pe

What do Talmudic texts about vaginal bleeding and sexual assault tell us about how the rabbis perceived women’s humanity and subjectivity? Is a true gender-egalitarian halakha even possible?

This is the second part of an interview. Listen to part one here.

Dr. Rebecca Kamholz holds a PhD in rabbinics from Yale University. Her areas of focus are gender theory and legal texts about women in the Babylonian Talmud. Her dissertation, Virginity in the Babylonian Talmud: Sex, Identity, and Epistemology, focused on legal and cultural questions around the definition and verification of virginity in the Talmud. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Why is the Sages’ exposition of the Book of Esther so imaginative? How do we avoid blurring the lines between Midrashic homilies and what’s actually written in the text?

Dr. Eliezer Segal is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary. He is widely published and some of his recent books include From Sermon to Commentary: Expounding the Bible in Talmudic Babylonia and Sanctified Seasons.  Additionally he is the author of “The Babylonian Esther Midrash: A Critical Commentary.”

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How did the Sages of the Talmud understand the connection between rain and the Divine? How do talmudic stories impart ethical values? 

Dr. Jonathan Wyn Schofer is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, with affiliation in the Schustermann Center for Jewish Studies at The University at Texas at Austin. He has published work on the connections between law, theology, and ethics in canonical Jewish sources of late antiquity, including his first book, The Making of a Sage: A Study in Rabbinic Ethics.  His essay “Theology and Cosmology in Rabbinic Ethics: The Pedagogical Significance of Rainmaking Narratives”  is the groundwork for a chapter on drought in his second book, Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Hadran Alach Mesekhet Rosh Hashanah!  Since the modern period and beyond, the communal creative practice of calendar making, which our Tractate has mainly focused on, has mostly left us — but not entirely. Hear from some of the artists and collaborators of The Radical Jewish Calendar Project. 

Rabbi Ariana Katz is the layout editor for the Radical Jewish Calendar project. She is also the founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl.  

Ariel DiOrio is a Boston-based artist, educator, designer, and photographer who finds inspiration in projects that use creativity to promote social change. Her work is featured for the month of Shevat. 

Ayeola Omolara Kaplan is a visual artist and abolitionist. Her work is featured for the month of Adar II. 

Blue Reinhard is a student studying Studio Art at Occidental College. Their work is featured for the month of Tammuz. 

Katherine Leung is an artist, activist, and educator. Her work is featured for the month of Av. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

What makes the shofar unique among Biblical instruments? How can a commandment to hear teach us to listen?

Dr. Jonathan L. Friedmann is a scholar and practitioner of Jewish music. He serves as a pulpit cantor, he composes and arranges music, is a researcher in the area of the history and functions of synagogue song, and teaches at the Academy for Jewish Religion California. He has numerous books on music and religion and was co-editor of “Qol Tamid: The Shofar in Ritual, History, and Culture.”

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Is there mazal for the people of Israel? How did the Sages relate to the stars? 

Lorelai Kude has been a practicing, professional astrologer for more than 30 years. She received her Master’s Degree in Jewish Studies from Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union, with a thesis titled: “Yesh Mazal l’Yisrael: Astrology in Jewish Cultural Heritage”, and writes a syndicated Jewish astrology column (“Astrolojew”). Along with maintaining and growing her private astrological consulting practice, Lorelai also teaches classes, publishes a podcast on Jewish astrology, and is the Executive Director of The Aquarian Minyan and “Mother” of the Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

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Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

What does an ethical Jewish meat company look like on the inside? How can we learn to care about where our food comes from?

Naftali Hanau is the CEO and co-founder of Grow & Behold, the Brooklyn-based purveyor of fine kosher-pastured meats raised on family farms with no hormones or antibiotics. A shochet and menaker, Naf has learned with experts across the country.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

How did the Yom Kippur Machzor come to be? What’s the real story of Kol Nidre and U’Netaneh Tokef?

David Stern is the Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Jewish and Hebrew Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. His fields of specialization are ancient and medieval Jewish literature and culture and the history of Biblical interpretation. Most of his current research and writing deals with the history of the Jewish book. Additionally, he is the author or editor (or co-editor) of fourteen books and many articles including “The Picture of Prayer, Kol Nidre 1320 and 2010,” “Kol Nidre with Dragons,” and “The Gospel of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz.”

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Hadran Alach Mesekhet Sukkah! We shall return to you Tractate Sukkah! Finish off the tractate with us by hearing about a new, collaborative multimedia commentary on the final chapter, created by the Kreuzberg Kollel of Berlin.

Rabbi Jeremy Borovitz is the Director of Jewish Learning for Hillel Germany, the co-founder of Base Berlin, and the Rosh Kollel of the Kreuzberg Kollel, a collaboration between Hillel Deutschland and OyVey Amsterdam. The Kollel is built to be a communal learning space geared towards in-depth, committed Jewish learning, and an incubator for developing new talent and creative Europe-based teachers rooted in the Jewish tradition. The most recent cohort just published a commentary on the 5th chapter of Masekhet Sukkah. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)