Men’s Club Shabbat in the Charry Service

“Give me Yavneh and its sages!” Thus Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai is said to have proclaimed as he is smuggled out of a besieged Jerusalem—in a coffin—in the year 70 CE (b. Gittin 56a-b). In this text study and discussion, we explore the origins of rabbinic Judaism, particularly how it (re)invents itself as a movement led by rabbis instead of prophets and priests, and extols the commandments of study, prayer, good deeds, and charity in place of animal sacrifice. We also consider more recent uses of “Yavneh and its sages” as a call toward further Jewish transformation, both collective and personal.

Gwynn Kessler is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Swarthmore College. She received her PhD in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and she has taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Florida, and the Harvard Divinity School. Her book publications include Conceiving Israel: The Fetus in Rabbinic Narratives, and she was co-editor of A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: Third Century BCE to Seventh Century CE. Her current research is on queer and nonbinary constructions of gender and bodies in rabbinic halakhic traditions. Gwynn is a member of GJC and lives in Mt. Airy with her partner, Rabbi Tamara Ruth Cohen, and their two sons, Tobias and Kliel.