Interleaved: A Talmudic Podcast

The Eruv is first and foremost a tool for community-building, but it’s easy to overlook the dividing line it creates between communities. How we can make our Eruvin less like fortresses and more like open-sided tents? What can the Talmud teach us about how to relate to people who do not belong to our communities?

Hannah Lebovits is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Texas-Arlington and freelance writer who focuses on human-centered sustainability issues related to urban and metropolitan governance. Her work has been featured in local publications and national outlets including JTA and Business Insider.

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 on Earth does one curate a wildly popular museum exhibit about Eruv, one of the most technical topics in Jewish law? How is a museum exhibit like a page of Talmud?

Zachary Paul Levine curated the exhibition “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond” for the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan, New York. He has produced dozens of exhibitions, installations and educational programs for cultural institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad and is the principal of Throughline Collaborative. Currently he is Director for Archival & Curatorial Affairs in the National Institute for Holocaust Documentation at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and serves as Vice Chair on the Council of American Jewish Museums.

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/)

Who was Beruriah, the only woman whose halakhic opinion is recorded in the Talmud? What does her Torah mean for women Torah scholars today?

Avigayil Halpern is entering her second year of study for rabbinic ordination at the Hadar Institute's Advanced Kollel while living in Washington Heights, New York. She holds a BA in Judaic Studies from Yale University, where she focused on Talmud.

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/)

In what ways is the Talmud like a building? How can a bunch of poles and wires—the Eruv—create a spiritual community?

Dr. Mitchell Schwarzer is a historian of architecture who writes and teaches about urban and suburban built environments. He is Professor of Architectural History and Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at California College of the Arts. He also is the author of several books, most recently Urban Development and Disruption in Twentieth Century Oakland, set to publish in 2021. In addition to his books, his writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including his article on The Architecture of the Talmud which was published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

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 Mesechet Shabbat! At times this tractate felt like an arduous journey so in celebration of its completion we asked you, our listeners, about your journeys. Specifically, journeys like the one mentioned in the first mishnah in the last chapter of this tractate — journeys where you didn’t make it home for Shabbat. Thanks again to Avi Robinson, Eliana Yashgur, Natasha Shabat, and Elliot Heller for sharing their stories with us & you.

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/)

CW: death/dying.

What was it like to die during the time of the Talmud? Did the Sages really believe that the body of the deceased has a life of its own?

Dr. David Kraemer is a Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he has also served as director of its library for nearly fifteen years. His scholarship of the Talmud and rabbinic culture is vast, and he is the author of several books including “A History of the Talmud” and “The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism”.

View a source sheet for this episode here.

We’re collecting stories of that time you didn’t make it home in time for Shabbat: Got stuck in traffic and decided to walk? Placed your wallet on the nearest donkey? Found a new community when you couldn’t make it to the one you planned on staying by? We want to know how the final mishah in tractate shabbat played out in real life for you! Message us to have your voice on the pod!

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/)

Why is the Talmud’s primary discussion of Brit Milah found in the 19th chapter of Shabbat, of all places? How should we understand this ancient ritual in light of modern medicine, values, and conceptions of gender?

Rabbi Eliezer Lawrence is a teacher and certified Mohel. An alumnus of Yeshiva Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, he holds an MA in Bible and Semitic languages and serves on the Judaic Studies Faculty at the Leffell School. He received his certification from the London School of Circumcision, and also studied ritual circumcision at the Moresheth Avoth Institute in Beit Shemesh, Israel.

We’re collecting stories of that time you didn’t make it home in time for Shabbat: Got stuck in traffic and decided to walk? Placed your wallet on the nearest donkey? Found a new community when you couldn’t make it to the one you planned on staying by? We want to know how the final mishah in tractate shabbat played out in real life for you! Message us to have your voice on the pod!

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

Music from https://filmmusic.io

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

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

Can a single thread really change a whole fabric? How does a loom actually work?

Anita Rabinoff Goldman is a textile artist who specializes in quilts based in Boston, Massachusetts. A graduate of the University at Albany, with a degree in Art and Art History, she is the past owner of Pomegranate Judaica, a fiber arts business selling her handmade tallitot, Torah mantles, and other ritual items as well as Jewish themed art. Her quilt work, including her popular exhibit Seeing Torah, has appeared in numerous local and national shows, and is represented in private collections.

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

View a source sheet for this episode here.

Keep up with Interleaved on Facebook and Twitter.

We’re collecting stories of that time you didn’t make it home in time for Shabbat: Got stuck in traffic and decided to walk? Placed your wallet on the nearest donkey? Found a new community when you couldn’t make it to the one you planned on staying by? We want to know how the final mishah in tractate shabbat played out in real life for you! Message us to have your voice on the pod!

Music from https://filmmusic.io

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

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

How has safrut, the sacred craft of Jewish calligraphy, changed since the days of the Talmud? Why does it have such a rarefied air about it today?

Jen Taylor Friedman is a soferet, a Jewish scribe, scholar, and educator. She is believed to be the first modern day soferet to complete a Torah scroll, and has over ten years’ experience in scroll creation and repair. In addition she also writes other ritual items such as megillot, mezuzot, and tefillin. Jen is also the creative mind behind Tefillin Barbie, and is a member of Stam Scribes, an international Jewish scribe collective. She is currently working on a PhD in the historical development of Hebrew script.

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/)

What does the Talmud think about prosthetic limbs? What would it think if it were written in 2020?

Tziona Zellis is a certified occupational therapist assistant and tutor in Brooklyn, NY. Following a car accident and more than 20 surgeries, Tziona’s right leg was amputated and she began wearing a prosthesis in 2019. She also works as a motivational speaker telling her story and sharing her journey.

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/)