Join Gila Silverman, director of Jewish lifelong learning with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program, for a three-week online course titled “Jewish Lives: Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud.”
Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was raised in poverty and began to learn the Torah only as an adult. In the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., he helped shape a new direction for Judaism. Mystic, legalist, theologian and interpreter, he debated his colleagues in dramatic fashion yet was admired and beloved by his peers. Executed by Roman authorities for his insistence on teaching Torah in public, he became the exemplar of Jewish martyrdom.
The course will be held Wednesdays Aug. 4–18 from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
The course costs $50 for Siegal Lifelong Learning Program members and $61 for nonmembers.