Scholar in Residence

Be in Touch

Here are some sample topics for you to explore.  I’d be happy to discuss additional topics and to craft a learning experience that will be most relevant for your community.

Topics in Tanakh:

  • Siblings Rivalry: Yaakov and Esav vs. Rachel and Leah
  • Fertility Journeys:  The Emotional Journeys of our Foremothers
  • When Children Rebel: King David’s Dynasty and Beyond
  • Women in the Windows: The Mother of Sisera, Princess Michal, and Queen Jezebel
  • How Leaders Fail:  King David vs. King Solomon
  • Hopeless Prophets: Is Death Preferable to Persistence

Unnamed Women in the Torah:

  • The Wife of Noach
  • The Wife of Lot
  • The Wife of Potifar
  • The Daughter of Yiftach
  • The Wife of Manoach
  • The Witch of En Dor

Topics in Talmud:

  • The Gift of Suffering?:   Rabbinic Struggles with Life’s Hardships
  • Compassion Under Fire: Talmudic Women Encountering End of Life Moments
  • Adapting to Change and Loss: Grappling with the Upheaval, Gittin 56a
  • Matchmaking vs. Basheret: Rabbinic Insights into Couplehood
  • Israel Has No Mazal: How Superstitious Should We Be?

Contemporary Topics:

  • When Halacha Hurts:  Hair Covering and Headaches and Halachic Infertility
  • Are Chained Wives Still Chained?: The Inside story of Agunah Advocacy
  • Holding Hannah’s Hand: Offering Spiritual Support During Fertility Struggles
  • Nachum Ish Gam Zu: Optimism or Toxic Positivity

Workshop Topics: These are sample topics that are crafted for a workshop format which includes text-based experiential learning, as well as space for introspection and group discussion.

Personal Wisdom from Jewish Women:

  • EVE: Why is she always blamed?
  • SARAH: From Follower to Freedom
  • SEARCH: The Matriarch Archivist
  • MIRIAM: The Challenge of Comparison
  • THE DAUGHTERS OF TZELOFFCHAD: When Women Find their Voices
  • RACHAV: A Life Transformed
  • CHANAH: The Discovery of Inner Strength
  • NAOMI: Rebuilding After Loss

Beit Midrash in Motion: These workshops incorporate movement and meditation into Talmudic text study for a fully embodied experience.

  • The Maidersvant’s Compassion:  Ketubot 103
  • Hiding from the Neighbor: Taanit 24b-25a
  • Breaking Free from Suffering:  Brachot 5b
  • Groupthink: Baba Metizah 59b

To explore this possibility together , please be in touch

Ddavis@yeshivatmaharat.org