Exploring the Christian Influence on the Talmud
Exploring the Christian Influence on the Talmud
June 12, 2014
Israel Studies, Culture & Jewish Thought
The Jewish Channel — A recent episode of The Jewish Channel‘s program Up Close explores how non-Jewish thought influenced ancient and medieval Jewish ideas and texts.
The show’s host Steven I. Weiss speaks with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Dr. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal about her new book, Early Monastic Christian Literature and the Babylonian Talmud.
Dr. Siegal, who is the incumbent of the Rosen Family Career Development Chair in Judaic Studies at BGU’s Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, talks about how ideas popular in the writings of early monks, the “rockstars” of the medieval world, made their way into the Talmud. Examples include how to pray or the idea of redemption.
“But, that doesn’t make the Talmud any less Jewish,” she says.