Adoption or Resistance: The Structure of the Seder and the Greco-Roman Symposium

March 22, 2021

Adoption or Resistance: The Structure of the Seder and the Greco-Roman Symposium

Dr. Yair Furstenberg

1 Lectures

Dr. Yair Furstenberg is the chair of the Talmud Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on the history of early rabbinic literature and law within its Greco-Roman context. In his publications he examines the emergence of the rabbinic movement and the evolution of the Mishnah. His current project aims to integrate rabbinic legal activity into its Roman provincial context. He is the founder and served as a co-gabbay of “Hakhel – Minyan Shivyoni Baka”

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While both Jewish and Christian authors in Antiquity openly confronted Greek and Roman practices of dining and celebration, the rabbis shaped the most important meal of the year in disturbing similarity to the Greco-Roman symposium. What is the cultural significance of this choice? While scholars hotly debated this question, I suggest a new perspective to this issue through a close analysis of the structure of the Seder in the Mishnah.

- 03/21/2021

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Rabbanit Leah Sarna is the Associate Director of Education and Director of High School Programs at Drisha. She previously served as Director of Religious Engagement at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago, a leading urban Orthodox congregation.

She was ordained at Yeshivat Maharat in 2018, holds a BA from Yale University in Philosophy & Psychology, and also trained at the SKA Beit Midrash for Women at Migdal Oz, Drisha and the Center for Modern Torah Leadership. Rabbanit Sarna’s published works have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Lehrhaus and MyJewishLearning.

She has lectured in Orthodox synagogues and Jewish communal settings around the world and loves spreading her warm, energetic love for Torah and Mitzvot with Jews in all stages of life.

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