How did the Sages of the Talmud understand the connection between rain and the Divine? How do talmudic stories impart ethical values? 

Dr. Jonathan Wyn Schofer is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, with affiliation in the Schustermann Center for Jewish Studies at The University at Texas at Austin. He has published work on the connections between law, theology, and ethics in canonical Jewish sources of late antiquity, including his first book, The Making of a Sage: A Study in Rabbinic Ethics.  His essay “Theology and Cosmology in Rabbinic Ethics: The Pedagogical Significance of Rainmaking Narratives”  is the groundwork for a chapter on drought in his second book, Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics. 

Special thanks to our executive producer, Adina Karp

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"Midnight Tale" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)