Dr. Yair Lipshitz
35 teaching hours, equivalent to 6 ECTS
Dr. Yair Lipshitz is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theatre Arts and Head of the Cymbalista Jewish Heritage Center at Tel Aviv University. He is also Academic Content Advisor at Paideia. Dr. Liphshitz’ research examines the various intersections between theatre, performance and Jewish religious traditions – and more broadly, between theatre and religion. He is the author of “The Holy Tongue, Comedy’s Version: Intertextual Dramas on the Stage of ‘A Comedy of Betrothal’” (Hebrew, 2010), “Embodied Tradition: Theatrical Performances of Jewish Texts” (Hebrew, 2016), and “Theatre & Judaism” (English, 2019). He has also published numerous papers dealing with topics ranging from Jewish-Italian theatre in the Renaissance to the queering of Scripture in “Angels in America”, and from Jewish ritual and performance theory to the reception of “King Lear” and “Salome” in Modern Hebrew culture. His current projects focus on messianic temporalities in Hebrew theatre and on the performativity of rabbinic literature.
The course will focus on the act of textual study in Jewish culture. It will examine how the multilayered textuality that emerges from the act of study allows for innovative interventions within tradition, and how interpretation serves as an engagement both with the text and with the identities of those studying it at a particular moment. We will further consider the performance of study, as a live event that includes elements of embodiment, space, and voice – and discuss how the practices of study shed lights on its place and meaning in Jewish culture. We will explore these themes through a close reading in “scenes” of study from throughout Jewish literature: Talmudic stories, the Zohar, Hasidic literature, and Yiddish and Hebrew drama.
