Midrashic Learning

Midrashic Learning is a dialogical practice of learning which is inspired by the traditional Jewish hevruta learning (study in pairs) as well the traditional Midrash literature (rabbinic interpretation of the Bible), and modern hermeneutics and pedagogy. Midrashic Learning is a playful, joyful way of study, where the text becomes our basis for being and thinking together.

I am an historian of religion, specialist in Judaism. I studied Archeology and Philosophy in The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and, in 2000 I move to Paris, then Rome, where I was trained as a Medievalist (working mainly on the Crusades). I have Ph.D. degrees in history, specializing in the end of antiquity, from the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris, 2011) and from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, 2013). In addition to learning, I enjoy being the father of Maya (12 years old), gardening and volunteering in rural communities in the jungle of Chiapas (Mexico).

Because Midrashic Learning is more about practice than theory the best way to introduce it is simply by doing it. Any text (and even object) can be studied through Midrashic Learing but Talmudic stories are especially apt for introduce this method of study; it is after all in that Jewish culture that studying was dominated by dialogical practice. We may learn, for example, the famous stories about Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yohanan in the Jordan River, the story of the Oven of Akhnai, about Rabbi Joshua Ben Karha and the eunuch, and more.