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June 8, 2001
Female slant on Talmud
Drisha scholar to speak at Shaarey Tefilah Shabbaton.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
It's rare that one meets an Orthodox woman Judaic scholar and teacher.
But the B.C. Jewish community will have the opportunity to do so,
and to discuss Talmud with her, when Wendy Amsellem comes to Vancouver
next weekend in honor of Shaarey Tefilah's observance of Shabbat
T'lamdeinu.
Amsellem, 27, teaches at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education
in New York and is pursuing a PhD from New York University in Hebrew
and Judaic studies. When in Vancouver, she will give lectures on
various aspects of Talmud and halachah as part of a Shabbaton focused
on Women's Learning and Leadership in the Jewish Community.
Shabbat T'lamdeinu, a weekend on which Orthodox synagogues across
North America hold a program with this focus, actually took place
May 16, but Shaarey Tefilah postponed its observance so that it
could have a speaker from Drisha, an educational institution devoted
to teaching women about Jewish texts.
The first of Amsellem's lectures is Beruriah: Breaking the Beard
Barrier. Beruriah is not the only woman in the Talmud, but she is
the only one presented as a scholar, said Amsellem. "We see
her discussing different verses and discussing different points
of law.... She's involved in the same realm as the rabbis are."
Her second lecture, Talmud Torah and Its Discontents, explores
the tension between the study of Torah as being an ideal and other
things that are also held up as being extremely important, said
Amsellem. She gave the example of talmudic stories about "rabbis
who go off to study for 12 or 13 years and come home and can't recognize
their children or can't find their way home again."
Studying the Talmud is very different from a woman's perspective,
said Amsellem. For example, Amsellem told the Bulletin that,
when she was a student learning about the laws of family purity,
there were many situations presented as "The man comes home
and finds his wife...." and the students would have to, instead,
say, " 'OK, I'm home and my husband comes home....' It was
very interesting to have to do that, to flip around the situation
so that you were taking on the role [in the analysis] that was not
the one being described [in the Talmud]."
Amsellem also has a BA in history and literature from Harvard University,
has served as a Torat Miriam fellow and CLAL intern, and is a columnist
for Beliefnet.com and the Forward.
As to the reaction she gets to being an Orthodox woman and a Judaic
scholar, Amsellem said, "Within the community that I happen
to be in, they're very excited that I'm doing this. But I think
that other communities are much more resistant to it, communities
that have a particular image in their head of what a person who
studies Talmud looks like, and he's not a woman."
Drisha was founded by Rabbi David Silber in 1979. It is devoted
to women's advanced study of classical Jewish texts and offers many
study options.Anyone interested in more information can write to
the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education at 131 West 86th St.,
New York,
N.Y., 10024, or call (212) 595-0307.
The Vancouver Shabbaton with Amsellem is being hosted by Shaarey
Tefilah, with a grant from the Women's Endowment Fund of the Jewish
Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver. The June 15 lecture at
Shaarey Tefilah starts with services at 7 p.m. and is followed by
dinner; the cost is $15. There are two lectures June 16; one after
morning services and one at 5:30 p.m. for the women's Shabbat class
at Gail Wenner's, 1256 West 26th Ave. For information and reservations,
call 873-2700.
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