Weaving together psychology, philosophy and history – from Aristotle to Billie Holiday – Liel Leibovitz discusses surprisingly modern advice from a very old book with Raphael Zarum.

It’s an extraordinary work of Jewish ethics, law and tradition, full of folk legends, bawdy tales and rabbinical back-and-forth over centuries. It’s inspiring, demanding, confounding – and thousands of pages long.

But the Talmud is also, Liel Leibovitz argues, humanity’s first self-help book, with sage advice on an unparalleled scope of topics. Weaving together psychology, philosophy and history with examples including Aristotle, Billie Holiday and Weight Watchers, he makes the Talmud’s insights reverberate for our modern age. The Israeli author and journalist joins Rabbi Raphael Zarum to discuss.

Buy a copy of How The Talmud Can Change Your Life by Liel Leibovitz.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval. 

Digital events will take place over Zoom, with an event link sent to bookers 24 hours in advance of the event and a reminder email 30 minutes before the event starts. Ticket holders for digital events will also be sent a link to a recording of the event, available to watch until the end of March.

Book Week 24 Digi-Pass gives access to all 16 online streaming events for £39.50.

About the speakers:

Liel Leibovitz is host of Tablet’s daily Talmud podcast Take One and cohost of the Unorthodox podcast. Author of A Broken Hallelujah and Stan Lee and coauthor of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, he lives in New York City.

Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum is Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) and holds the Rabbi Sacks Chair of Modern Jewish Thought, established by the Zandan family.