Around Arthur Szyk Series
Household, Halakhah, Haggadah: Family Life and Religious Authority at the Passover Seder
Deena Aranoff, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the GTU
The Passover Seder is a heavily choreographed evening that is presided over by multiple forms of religious authority. Through a study of the Passover Seder and its textual companioin, the Haggadah, this lecture will explore the interplay between household norms and formal Jewish practice. Ultimately, Dr. Aranoff will propose a more precise geneaology of Jewish culture that allows for the interplay between the habits of everyday life and the development of halakhah (rabbinic law).
Deena Aranoff is Faculty Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She teaches rabbinic literature, medieval Jewish thought, and the broader question of continuity and change in Jewish history. Deena is also a community educator and teaches Bible, rabbinics, and Jewish mysticism throughout the Bay Area.