What’s Dikduk Got to Do With It? Language, Law, and Theology
Part of our winter learning series, What’s Next? New Ways of Engaging Jewish Sources
Monday, February 24, 2024
1:00–2:00 p.m. ET
Online
With Rabbi Luciana Pajecki Lederman, Director, Beit Midrash and Nishma Summer Program, and Dr. Miriam Meir, Area Coordinator of Jewish Languages, Senior Lecturer, Hebrew Language
The innovations of the rabbis can be seen not only in the content of their laws but also in their creative use of the Hebrew language. While they preserved the laws and formulations that they inherited from the Bible, the rabbis also transformed them in significant ways. In this session, we will closely examine passages about the return of lost objects to uncover how linguistic shifts reflect new rabbinic understandings of property and their theological implications.
Nishma, the JTS Summer Beit Midrash program, immerses students of all levels in the Jewish tradition of text study, fostering improved Hebrew language skills and greater independence in reading classical Jewish texts. Luciana Pajecki Lederman and Miriam Meir, Nishma faculty members, will demonstrate how language acquisition and text study intersect in this dynamic and enriching learning experience.
About the Series
Mondays, February 3–March 24, 2025*
1:00–2:00 p.m. ET
JTS is well-known as a hub of innovative scholarship and a center of academic Jewish Studies. Recently, JTS has launched programs in Biblical Hebrew, Pastoral Care, and Teen Learning, offering accessible entryways into the Jewish textual tradition. Explore how JTS is bringing together new modes of learning with classical sources to meet the needs of today’s world. Sessions will give participants a taste of the ideas and teaching that are central to these programs.
* There is no session on Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 17.
