The Most Important Thing About Halacha Is That We Are in Relationship With God

In this edition of the 18Forty Podcast, we are privileged with the return of Dr. Malka Simkovich—Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago—who helps us explore Second Temple Judaism and how it relates to Jewish life today.

By diving deep into the Jewish past, Malka enables us to understand the narratives and commitments that have allowed the Jewish people to persist through the most existential challenges. In this episode we discuss:

• What was the relationship between the ancient Jews and the surrounding dominant cultures?
• How did the Jewish world respond to the destruction of the Second Temple?
• What are the differences between Jewish and Christian notions of truth?

Tune in to hear a conversation about the central practices and distinctions that have marked and preserved the Jewish people across the millenia.

Interview begins at 25:53.

Dr. Malka Simkovich is the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She earned a doctoral degree in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism from Brandeis University and a Masters degree in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University. She is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016), and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018).

References:

Malka Simkovich on 18Forty: The Mystery of the Jewish People

Tzidkat HaTzadik by Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin

“God’s First Love: The Theology of Michael Wyschogrod” by Meir Y. Soloveichik

Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture edited by Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman

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