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When a Question Threatens

Jun 19, 2026 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Korah

In this week鈥檚 parashah, Korah organizes a group of two hundred and fifty well-respected people to protest Moses and Aaron鈥檚 leadership. 鈥淵ou have gone too far,鈥� Korah and his group announce. 鈥淔or all the community is holy, all of them, and God is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourself above God鈥檚 congregation?鈥� (Num. 16:3). Moses is appalled, God is furious, and in response, the earth opens up and swallows the protesters, their households, and all their possessions. What are we as readers to make of this episode? Do we attempt to creatively rehabilitate Korah, despite his divine punishment, as an example of those who bravely attempt to speak truth to power? Or do we side with Moses and try to figure out why Korah must have truly deserved what he got?

Hard Cases: Facing Law鈥檚 Challenges in American Legal Theory and Rabbinic Literature

Jun 1, 2026 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Part of the series “America at 250: Jewish Ideas and the American Experiment” Download Sources With Dr. Sarah Wolf, Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快活林 How do judges settle cases when there is no clear right answer? How are precedents mined for new rulings? Should laws be the product of a legislator鈥檚 own creativity, or are […]

Between Law and Narrative in the Talmud

Feb 27, 2023 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

This session presents the history of the law vs. narrative distinction in reference to the Talmud, and will show how this categorization became central to how Jews think about Jewish texts and Jewish learning more generally. We consider the limits of this binary by looking at some texts from the Talmud that seem to defy categorization, raising the question of what possibilities open up when we read Jewish legal texts as literature.

Why Did Moses Have a Speech Disability?

Jan 20, 2023 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Va'era

Moses is the quintessential prophet in the Jewish tradition. Moses鈥檚 job, like the task of all other prophets, is to convey the word of God to the people. He fulfills this role, the Torah tells us, in exemplary fashion: 鈥淣ever again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses鈥� (Deut. 34:10). Moses is not just the paradigm for all prophets that follow, he is the best in the business. But if Moses is supposed to serve as the first and foremost prophet鈥攖hat is, to be the expert at telling people what God wants from them鈥攚hy would God choose a mouthpiece who has a speech disability?

Mandatory Fun: The Commandment of Joy

Apr 4, 2022 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Usually we think of the mitzvot, the commandments of Jewish law, as involving specific actions. Yet the Torah also commands us to feel certain emotions, including love for God and joy on the festivals. Dr. Sarah Wolf to explores rabbinic texts that grapple with questions about what fulfillment of such a commandment should look like.

Jealousy and Gender in Rabbinic Literature

Feb 28, 2022 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

鈥淢en are more likely to have anger issues.鈥� 鈥淲omen are more sensitive than men are.鈥� We are all familiar with gendered beliefs and stereotypes about emotion in today鈥檚 world. Presumptions about gender and emotion also existed in the time of the rabbis, though not necessarily the ones we鈥檇 expect. JoinDr. Sarah Wolfto look at rabbinic texts about jealousy and other emotions that are portrayed as negative or dangerous, noticing how gender roles function in these texts, and to reflect on how rabbinic ideas about gender and emotions can help us shed light on our own.

Fear and Forgiveness

Dec 17, 2021 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Vayehi

ef; it can also reopen old woundsamongrelatives. This is what happens at the end ofParashatVayehi,which is alsotheendof the book of Genesis,after the patriarch Jacob dies.Following Jacob鈥檚 death, his sonsfear that things are not fully resolved in their family, and theybecome worried that their brother Joseph is still angry at them for the ways they mistreated him.

Can God Prohibit an Emotion?

Feb 5, 2021 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Yitro

Part of my current research focuses on how human emotions are discussed and legislated in the Talmud and other ancient rabbinic texts, and so the last of the Ten Commandments (as counted in the Jewish tradition) raises for me some fundamental questions.

Sufferings Large and Small

Dec 15, 2020 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

The ancient Rabbis struggled with the classic problem of theodicy: why would God let terrible things happen to good people? But they also struggled with what may seem like a more contemporary problem: if suffering is supposed to be meaningful in some way, is there any significance to our more mundane, everyday disappointments? Explore the rabbis鈥� perhaps surprising take both on what counts as 鈥渟uffering鈥� and what it ultimately means.

Retelling the Past

Jul 24, 2020 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Devarim

Since the wave of protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Americans have begun to reckon with the narratives many of us have taken for granted about our national past. As part of this national awakening, the legacies of some formerly beloved past leaders are being revisited. Demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, toppled a statue of Thomas Jefferson, a 鈥渇ounding father鈥� who also owned hundreds of slaves; the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in front of New York City鈥檚 American Museum of National History, which portrays him on horseback next to an African and a Native American man, has been removed. Although this is an unprecedented moment of introspection for the United States, we can turn to the Book of Devarim for some insight on what is at stake in telling and retelling the past.

Life Under Siege: The Talmud鈥檚 Take on Trying Times

May 4, 2020 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture

How do we understand the relationship between the multiple complicating factors that arise in moments of communal hardship, such as questions of political leadership, unreliable news sources, physical privation, and economic disparity? The interplay of these challenges is at the core of a Talmudic story about the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. Through an exploration of the values and priorities portrayed in this story, this class will help shed new light on the tensions of our present moment.

Why Everyone Should Cry in Public

Jan 3, 2020 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Vayiggash

Vayiggash brings us to the culmination of the drama between Joseph and his brothers that began in Parashat Miketz. Ten of Joseph鈥檚 brothers鈥攁ll but Benjamin鈥攈ad travelled to Egypt to buy food during a famine. Joseph, newly in command in Egypt, had disguised himself and, perhaps in retaliation for the way they had treated him earlier, forced his brothers to go through various ordeals and humiliating situations. One of Joseph鈥檚 demands was that his brothers bring their youngest brother Benjamin when they returned to Egypt, with which they now comply, despite their father Jacob鈥檚 resistance to putting his youngest and beloved son in danger.

Falling Wisely

Nov 2, 2018 By Sarah Wolf | Commentary | Hayyei Sarah

Hayyei Sarah offers us a scene straight out of a romantic comedy. By the middle of the parashah, Rebekah has agreed to follow Abraham鈥檚 servant back to Canaan, where she will meet and marry Isaac. Rebekah and the servant near their destination on camelback as the afternoon draws to a close, and Isaac is wandering in the fields. The mood is set for an elegant and romantic first meeting.

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