Twice Blest A Podcast Exploring Shakespeare and the Hebrew Bible Artificial Intelligence Biotechnology Computer Science Cybersecurity Data Analytics and Visualization Digital Marketing and Media Mathematics Occupational Therapy Physician Assistant Physics Speech-Language Pathology Twice Blest Welcome to Twice Blest, a podcast from the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. Hosted by Dr. Shaina Trapedo, Twice Blest brings you conversations with faith leaders, scholars, and writers that bridge the wisdom of Judaic and classical texts so we can live more informed and fulfilling intellectual and spiritual lives on an individual and communal level. Twice Blest Welcome to Twice Blest, a podcast from the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. Hosted by Dr. Shaina Trapedo, Twice Blest brings you conversations with faith leaders, scholars, and writers that bridge the wisdom of Judaic and classical texts so we can live more informed and fulfilling intellectual and spiritual lives on an individual and communal level. “His deputy anointed in His sight”: Kingship in Shakespeare and the Hebrew Bible How has the Hebrew Bible impacted the intellectual development of the West? How might a deeper understanding of Saul and David’s biblical narrative help us read ’s meditations on the nature of kingship? In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the ’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, examines the legitimacy, majesty, and humility of monarchy (or lack thereof) in ’s Richard II and Macbeth. | | “Speak what we feel”: Biblical Blessings and Beyond in ’s King Lear What are blessings? Prayers? Protections? A performative act? In this episode, Professor Julia Reinhard Lupton, Shakespeare scholar and co-director of the UCI Shakespeare Center, rethinks the love gambit that opens as a battle of biblical prooftexts and tracks the presence and purpose of benediction in King Lear and beyond to reveal a cascade of blessings throughout Shakespeare's works. | | “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends”: Hamlet and Torah Tradition What is the relationship between values and action? How does one move forward when "time is out of joint"? In this episode, President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman draws from his experiences as an educator, father, and academic leader to discuss the themes and human experiences central to Shakespeare's Hamlet that complement and contrast similar stories from Torah tradition. | | "The prop that doth sustain my house": Jewish Women, Widowers, and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice Few literary characters have loomed as large and felt as "real" as ’s Shylock. Though, as early 20th-century British Jewish historian Cecil Roth reminds us, he is a "sheer figment of ’s imagination." Or was he? In this episode, Dr. Chaya Sima Koenigsberg illuminates ’s (in)famous portrait of Shylock with her research on medieval Ashkenaz Jewry and the lives of the Rokeach and his wife, Dulce. She also sheds new light on the presence of Hebrew bible figures Jacob and Leah and the underexamined presence of prayer in the play. | | "The sin upon my head": The Hebrew Bible in ’s Henry V Does religion dictate politics or does politics dictate religion? Is success achieved through strategy or spirituality? Should the king bear moral responsibility for his soldiers’ behavior in battle? Shakespeare shot to fame in the 1590s by tackling the critical questions of his day in dramas depicting the inner lives of medieval English monarchs. But he couldn’t have done it without drawing on the Hebrew Bible. In this episode, Professor Paul Cantor takes us on a deep dive into Henry V, unpacking the influence of early Israelite leaders, including Moses, Joshua, and David, on ’s compelling and complex representation of the Tudor dynasty. | | "That foul defacer of God’s handiwork": Bodies in the Hebrew Bible and Richard III If, as we're told in the Hebrew Bible, "God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good" (Genesis 1:31), how are we to understand physical imperfection? As "mistakes" by the divine? Manifestations of malfeasance? Or misinterpretations of creation? In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson explains the discourses of theology, physiognomy, and monstrosity that influenced ’s representation of Richard III's misshapen body and behavior, as well as the ongoing implications of relating internal essence and external appearance. | | "I will better the instruction": Sufferance and Vengeance in The Merchant of Venice and Jewish Thought ’s portrayal of Shylock as a cruel and vengeful Jew in the early 16th century gave rise to some of the most enduring racial stereotypes. He also gave Shylock depth and sympathetic qualities. In one of the most stirring speeches in all of Shakespeare, Shylock underscores his humanity, famously asking, “hath not a Jew eyes?” Yet the conclusion of that monologue requires further examination as it ends with the Jew’s assertion that he learned revenge from his Christian neighbors. Is there a basis for this claim? What is the Jewish understanding of revenge and retributive punishment? How do we reconcile the divine prohibition against revenge in the Hebrew Bible with its description of God as vengeful? And of what relevance is the long-suffering biblical Jacob, whose life is discussed by the characters in this play? In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner offers a master class on biblical exegesis, the relationship between interpretation, law, and justice, and what we can learn from Jewish tradition about how to end the cycle of vengeance. | | "Remember me": Ghosts and the Afterlife in Hamlet and Rabbinic and Medieval Jewish Literature ’s Hamlet opens with a seemingly straightforward question: “Who’s there?” Who’s there, indeed. The appearance of the ghost of his murdered father prompts Hamlet– and the play’s 16th-century audience–to grapple with a series of philosophical and theological questions relating to death and the afterlife. Does Purgatory exist? How does one avoid posthumous punishment? Can the deceased visit the world of the living? If so, how and why? What do the living owe the dead? In this episode, Dr. Susan Weissman, Chair of Judaic Studies and Associate Professor at Lander College for Women, a division of Touro College, shares her extensive research and expertise on death and the afterlife in medieval Europe. Through a detailed analysis of ghost tales in the Talmud and Sefer Hasidim, a religious-ethical work by an elitist group of medieval Jewish German Pietists, Weissman shows how many beliefs and rituals of the period reflected in ’s Hamlet were cross-culturally shared by neighbors, Jews and Christians alike. | |
