Class Title – Rabbinic Courage to Repair and Adapt – Texts from Gittin Part Two
Class taught by Rahel Berkovits
Class description: In this class we will encounter the literary power of the Talmud as we examine the story, as told in Tractate Gittin, of what led to the destruction of the Temple and the loss of Jerusalem as the political and cultural center. We will meet Rabban Yohanan b. Zakai, who asks Vespasian for Yavneh as a refuge for the Sages and we will examine the idea of takanot (literally “fixes”), that the Rabbis made post destruction to rebuild the nation and set Judaism on a new path.
