May 12, 2021
A Talmudist Writes Poetry: On Yatziv Pitgam and its World
The poem Yatziv Pitgam, recited on the second day of Shavuot in connection with the haftarah, is an obscure but beautiful window into the religious world of medieval Ashkenaz, written by the great Tosafist, Rabbenu Tam. In this class we will read and unpack the poem in order to reflect on what it teaches about Shavuot, and on the intellectually rich but also tragic period in which it was written.
