Venue: The Jewish Center (New York, NY) The Jewish Center (New York, NY)

Halacha:

Avodah Zarah,  Birchat HaChammah 

History:

Period of Tanach,  Roman Period 

Yerushalmi:

Berachos 

Collections: Rabbi Lamm Semester 3

Description

Semester 3: Shi'ur 5. Building off our discussion of what the Second Commandment was understood to entail (and not entail), we ask the question of how - even if it was not technically asur - the image of a foreign sun-god could possibly appear in a context so thoroughly Jewish as the floor of a shul, right in front of the Aron. Our solution to this puzzle requires close readings of archaeological finds, passages from Tanach, and midreshei Chazal.