Twice Blest: Exploring Shakespeare and the Hebrew Bible

BONUS EPISODE: Shakespeare’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 Shakespeare’s Hamlet were cross-culturally shared by neighbors, Jews and Christians alike. Corrections In her concluding statements about the role of the dead in the Talmudic/Rabbinic period, Dr. Weissman speaks of the "living coming to aid or inform the dead" but meant to have said the "dead coming to aid or inform the living" (around 18:24). Dr. Trapedo mistakenly says the Rabbinic/Talmudic literature was "centuries later" instead of "centuries earlier" (around 23:08). Dr. Weissman speaks of the violence inflicted upon knights by their very own spurs "cutting into their soles," but being that there are no written words visible, listeners might hear it as "cutting into their souls," which would be inaccurate. Dr. Weissman intended the soles of their feet since these tortures were inflicted on bodies, not disembodied souls. (around 25:45). Dr. Weissman says "we have responsas," but intended "responsa" as the word is already plural. Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown Learn more about the Straus Center Like the Straus Center on Facebook Follow the Straus Center on Twitter Follow the Straus Center on Instagram Connect with the Straus Center on LinkedIn

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 Shakespeare’s representation of Richard III’s misshapen body and behavior, as well as the ongoing implications of relating internal essence and external appearance. Audio Credits: Richard III, dir. Jane Howell, 1983 Henry VI, Part 3, Arkangel audio, 2005 Richard III, dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995 Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown Learn more about the Straus Center Like the Straus Center on Facebook Follow the Straus Center on Twitter Follow the Straus Center on Instagram Connect with the Straus Center on LinkedIn

Few literary characters have loomed as large and felt as "real" as Shakespeare’s Shylock. Though, as early 20th-century British Jewish historian Cecil Roth reminds us, he is a "sheer figment of Shakespeare’s imagination." Or was he? In this episode, Dr. Chaya Sima Koenigsberg illuminates Shakespeare’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. Audio Credits Paterson Joseph as Shylock, “You call me misbeliever” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vSR6W8_uBU Upstart Crow, “The Apparel Proclaims the Man” (Series 1, Episode 3) The Merchant of Venice, dir. Jonathan Munby, Shakespeare’s Globe (2015) The Merchant of Venice, dir. John Sichel (1973) The Merchant of Venice, Arkangel Shakespeare Collection, 2005) Laura Carmichael as Portia, “The quality of mercy” https://youtu.be/wmmBT_4dmI0 Mentioned in this episode Rokeach, Rabbi Elezar of Worms James Shapiro’s Shakespeare and the Jews Janet Adelman’s Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in The Merchant of Venice Michelle Ephraim’s Reading the Jewish Woman on the Elizabethan Stage Sara Coodin’s Is Shylock Jewish? Citing Scripture and the Moral Agency of Shakespeare’s Jews The Bible on Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England, eds. Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown Learn more about the Straus Center Like the Straus Center on Facebook Follow the Straus Center on Twitter Follow the Straus Center on Instagram Connect with the Straus Center on

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 King Lear as a battle of biblical prooftexts and tracks the presence and purpose of benediction in the play and beyond to reveal a cascade of blessings throughout Shakespeare’s works. Audio Credits:  King Lear, dir. Richard Eyre (2018) King Lear, dir.Trevor Nunn (2020) Macbeth, dir. Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company production (1979) King Lear, Arkangel Shakespeare Unabridged Audiobook (2014) Mentioned in this episode: The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth by A.C. Bradley Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown Learn more about the Straus Center Like the Straus Center on Facebook Follow the Straus Center on Twitter Follow the Straus Center on Instagram Connect with the Straus Center on LinkedIn

Welcome to Twice Blest, a podcast from the Yeshiva University 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. Shaina Trapedo is a lecturer in English at Stern College for Women and a Resident Scholar at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought of Yeshiva University. She received her PhD in English from UC Irvine, where she specialized in early modern literature and religious studies. Her current book project, From Scripture to Script: The Hebrew Bible on the Early Modern Stage, considers the affordances and risks of hermeneutic engagements in the works of writers including Peele, Greene, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Cary, and Milton. In her teaching and scholarship, she continues to explore the connections between literacy, cultural identity, and social engagement. The Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought trains Yeshiva University students to be Modern Orthodox intellectual leaders who are well versed in both Torah and the Western canon. Through a combination of unique, interdisciplinary courses taught in collaboration with faculty from across YU, communal events, and publications, the Straus Center seeks to cultivate the intellectual, religious, and civic leaders of tomorrow. Learn more about the Straus Center at yu.edu/straus Like the Straus Center on Facebook Follow the Straus Center on Twitter   Follow the Straus Center on Instagram Connect with the Straus Center on LinkedIn