August 1, 2023
10th Annual Nostra Aetate Lecture
with Michal Bar-Asher Siegal
A virtual option has been added, see below for details.
Nostra aetate (from Latin: "In our time") is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on 28 October 1965 by Pope Paul VI. It is the shortest of the 16 final documents of the Council and "the first in Catholic history to focus on the relationship that Catholics have with Jews." It "reveres the work of God in all the major faith traditions." It begins by stating its purpose of reflecting on what humankind has in common in these times when people are being drawn closer together.
Event is co-sponsored by Rev. George Balasko and Rabbi Joseph P. Schonberger.
There will be two lectures, one at 2:00 pm the other at 7:00 pm.
An optional dinner is being offered for $10 per person at 5:25 pm.
Registration is preferred for those staying for dinner.
2:00 pm
The Rabbi who was a Monk: On Christians Monasticism and the Babylonian Talmud
The importance of Christian monks during the time of the composition and redaction of the Babylonian Talmud, fostered a literary connection between the two religious populations. We shall explore one such story that reveals the shared literary elements in the literature of these two religious communities. This tells us a great deal about Jews and Christians in the first centuries CE.
Virtual Option for the 2:00 pm Lecture:
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8715427267?pwd=dkx4a0V0Zm14SVRlYnZwTU9JRFB4QT09
Meeting ID: 871 542 7267
Passcode: VMESC
7:00 pm
When a Heretic and a Rabbi Meet: On Jewish-Christian Dialogues over Scripture.
Stories portraying heretics in rabbinic literature are a central part of rabbinic discussion with the ‘other’. These stories typically involve a conflict over the interpretation of a biblical verse in which the rabbinic figure emerges victorious in the face of a challenge presented by the heretic. Join us as we explore such a story with its humor and polemics and learn together about the conflict between Jews and Christians in the first centuries CE, along with the dialogue and engagement between the two.
Virtual Option for the 7:00 pm Lecture:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8715427267?pwd=dkx4a0V0Zm14SVRlYnZwTU9JRFB4QT09
Meeting ID: 871 542 7267
Passcode: VMESC
Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. Her work focuses on aspects of Jewish-Christian interactions in the ancient world and compares between Early Christian and rabbinic sources. She is a faculty member at The Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and was an elected member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences. She is the Horace Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic Studies, Yale University Associate Professor. Her first book is Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2013, winner of the 2014 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award). Her second book is Jewish – Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019, a finalist, National Jewish Book Award , 2019).