Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ Center for Jewish Learning welcomes Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Benay Lappe to St. Louis on Sunday, January 28, 2018. Rabbi Benay Lappe is an award-winning educator, specializing in the application of Queer Theory to Talmud study. She is the founder of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva.

Rabbi Benay Lappe is an award-winning educator, specializing in the application of Queer Theory to Talmud study. She is the founder of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, based in Chicago. SVARA’s uniqueness lies in making accessible to everyone the experience of learning Talmud in the original Hebrew/Aramaic rather than in translation. Sixty-some learners come weekly to SVARA’s mixed-level evening Beit Midrash, a radically inclusive space for a diverse population of learners.

Rabbi Lappe is a 2016 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for innovative Jewish education, and SVARA received a Jim Joseph Foundation Jewish Educator Grant to launch a Transformative Talmud Teaching Fellowship.  A graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Lappe is also a licensed pilot, shoemaker, and patent-holding inventor.

The program, taking place at Washington University Hillel, will start with a Crash Talk at 12:30 pm. In this session, Rabbi Benay Lappe lays out SVARA’s philosophy of the Talmud and the rabbinic revolution that gave rise to it. Come hear how the Talmud – and all radical ideas – are born, crash and are reborn anew.

Following, at 2:00 pm, Rabbi Lappe will present a SVARA Beit Midrash. The group will learn a complete Talmud text, start to finish. All you need to know is your aleph-bet.

A registration fee of $10 includes lunch (at 12:00 pm), snacks, hot and cold beverages; dietary laws observed. RSVP at JFedSTL.org/events/BenayLappe. For more information, contact Rabbi Tracy Nathan at RabbiNathan@JFedSTL.org or 314-442-3757.