Syllabus: Eighteen Stories in Four Sections
Section I:
Companionship, or Death: Stories of Relationships in the Talmud
1. The Tragic Tale of the Best Hevruta Ever: The Gladiator and the Beard-less Rabbi Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish | Talmud Bavli Bava Metzia 84b
2. Rabbis, Wives and the Other Woman: An Unforgiving Tale for Yom Kippur Rabbi Rehumei | Talmud Bavli Ketubot 62b
3. Ilfa Gets a Job: Hunger and the Search for Authenticity Ilfa and Rabbi Yohanan | Talmud Bavli Taanit 21b
Section II:
Authority, Politics and Pluralism: Behind the Scenes of the Rabbinic Intellectual Revolution
4. From Jerusalem to Yavneh: The Founding Myth of Talmudic Judaism Rabbi Yohanan b. Zakkai leaves Jerusalem | BT Gittin 55b-56b
5. How Hillel Became President: Who is an Authority in the Jewish World:The Forgotten Halakha in Three Acts | Tosefta Pesahim 4:13-14, Talmud Bavli Pesahim 66a, Yerushalmi Pesahim 6:1, 33a
6. "It's not in Heaven": Power to interpret, Power to Shame :The Oven of Akhnai | TB Baba Metzia 59a-59b
7. Epilogue to the Oven of Akhnai : The Passing of Rabbi Eliezer | TB Sanhedrin 68
8. Moshe in Rabbi Akiva’s Beit Midrash : Talmud Bavli Menakhot 29b
9. Jewish Law and the Politics of Disagreement: Hillel and Shammai Revisited Assorted Discussion of Hillel and Shammai
10. Yalta Breaks Some Barrels: The Talmud’s Most Learned Woman teaches a Lesson Talmud Bavli Berakhot 51b
Section III:
Rome and Jerusalem: A Minority Culture Defines Its Space
11. Heresy or Not to Be: Eating the Fruit and Tossing the Peel
Elisha Ben Avuyah | Talmud Bavli Hagiga 15a
12. Rabban Gamliel Takes a Piss: Negotiating Public Space in a Multi-cultural Society Mishna Avodah Zarah 3:4
13. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, The Ivory Tower, Plato's Cave and the first story of Tikkun Olam R. Shimon bar Yochai in the Cave | Talmud Bavli Shabbat 33b
14. The Tales of the Destruction: Kamtza & Bar Kamtza Talmud Bavli Gittin 55b
Section IV:
Ids and Egos, Husbands and Wives
15. Desire and Authenticity: The Tzitzit and the Harlot Sifrei Numbers 115
16. Freedom, Intimacy and the Marital Bed: Heruta seduces her Husband
Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 81b
17. "Spit in my Eye": The Wife, the Husband and the Sermon Marriage Counseling Rabbi Meir, Leviticus Rabbah 9:9
Epilogue: Entering and Exiting
18. Nehunia ben HaKane - Entering and Exiting Mishna Brachot 4:2 & Postscript, by Rabbi Mishael Zion