Dr Laliv Clenman (Leo Baeck College) Joint seminar with the Theology Seminar

The biblical laws related to mixed-marriage tend towards the specific rather than the general.  As early rabbinic sources wrestle with the notion of a general prohibition of intermarriage, we find a diversity and multiplicity of hermeneutic approaches, including significant differences between the exegetical schools of R. Akiva and R. Ishmael.  I will argue that the prohibition against interpreting the arayot (or sexual prohibitions) of Leviticus 18 and 20, associated with the school of R. Akiva, played a pivotal role in the divergence between the two schools, which ultimately forged radically different paths towards the common goal of prohibiting intermarriage.

Dr Laliv Clenman, Senior Lecturer in Rabbinic Literature at Leo Baeck College, holds a PhD from the Dept. of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Her research explores the diversity and development of rabbinic law and the complex relationships between halakhah and aggadah, as well as between Palestinian and Babylonian sources. She is particularly interested in themes such as violence and the law, legal authority, and problems of identity and status. In the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at King's, Dr Clenman supervises PhD dissertations in the field of rabbinic literature and related areas.