Exploring Challenging Talmudic Narratives
Join us for a special book discussion exploring Talmudic narratives, featuring "The Snake at the Mouth of the Cave" by Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokol, in conversation with Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff.
Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokol
In his new book, The Snake at the Mouth of the Cave, Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokol offers eye-opening studies of eight aggadic stories in the Talmud from the perspective of both a Talmudic and literary scholar. He draws on classical rabbinic commentaries, contemporary scholarship and insights from psychology, literature, philosophy and history to shed new light on these ancient texts and showcase their timeless messages and relevance to our modern day struggles. Rabbi Dr. Sokol unpacks the complex ways in which human nature, past experiences and future hopes shape difficult moral choices. Rabbi Dr. Sokol is dean of Touro’s Lander College for Men and Rabbi of the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Thyssen Foundation Research Fellow, and received semicha from the Israel Torah Research Institute (ITRI).
Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff
Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff is president of Gratz College and a former associate professor of Jewish history for the Touro College and University System. He earned a doctorate in American Jewish history at Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in History and Education from Teachers College at Columbia University and was ordained at Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He has authored six books and more than 30 scholarly articles and is a scholar with considerable research interests in the area of American Jewish history, Orthodox Judaism and contemporary American religion.
Part of the online lecture series "Touro Talks" presented by Touro experts.
