Midrash or Myth? An Aggada about the Prince of the Sea
Jan 21 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A FLOWING THROUGH TIME AND TRADITION PROGRAM
Join the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life for Midrash or Myth?: An Aggada about the Prince of the Sea, a Lunch and Learn with Professor Emeritus Daniel Boyarin exploring themes from the exhibition Flowing Through Time and Tradition.
What, the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud asked, settles the Israelites’ crisis of faith after the Red Sea had parted so they could escape to safety? God negotiates with the sea, and a river guarantees the deal! In this shiur (study session), we will study an aggada (traditional folktale) from the Talmud which personifies the sea with a double view of water and of midrash as a mode of thought.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
12:00 – 1:00 pm
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
RSVP
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at magnes@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.
About the speaker
Daniel Boyarin is the Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Emeritus Professor of Talmudic Culture in UC Berkeley’s Departments of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and Rhetoric. He has also been affiliated with the Department of Women’s Studies; Gay and Lesbian Studies; Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology; Women, Sexuality, Gender Studies; and the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture. Professor Emeritus Boyarin began his education at Goddard College and received his Masters of Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His education continued with a Masters of Semitic Languages at Columbia University where he did his thesis on The Babylonian Aramaic Verb According to Codex Hamburg. He was awarded a doctorate degree in 1975 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America upon completion of his dissertation on A Critical Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Nazir.
About the exhibition
Exploring the theme of water through the holdings of the Magnes Collection, Flowing through Time and Tradition traces how water flows through and shapes Jewish lives: enacting belief, sustaining life and communities, providing the means for spiritual cleansing, and mapping identities.
