Twice Blest: Exploring Shakespeare and the Hebrew Bible

BONUS EPISODE: Shakespeare’s Hamlet opens with a seemingly straightforward question: “Who’s there?” Who’s there, indeed. The appearance of the ghost of his murdered father prompts Hamlet– and the play’s 16th-century audience– to grapple with a series of philosophical and theological questions relating to death and the afterlife. Does Purgatory exist? How does one avoid posthumous punishment? Can the deceased visit the world of the living? If so, how and why? What do the living owe the...

Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock as a cruel and vengeful Jew in the early 16th century gave rise to some of the most enduring racial stereotypes. He also gave Shylock depth and sympathetic qualities. In one of the most stirring speeches in all of Shakespeare, Shylock underscores his humanity, famously asking, “hath not a Jew eyes?” Yet the conclusion of that monologue requires further examination as it ends with the Jew’s assertion that he learned revenge from his Christian neighbors. Is...

If, as we’re told in the Hebrew Bible, "God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good" (Genesis 1:31), how are we to understand physical imperfection? As "mistakes" by the divine? Manifestations of malfeasance? Or misinterpretations of creation? In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson explains the discourses of theology, physiognomy, and monstrosity that influenced Shakespeare’s representation of Richard III’s misshapen body and behavior, as well as the ongoing implications of...

Does religion dictate politics or does politics dictate religion? Is success achieved through strategy or spirituality? Should the king bear moral responsibility for his soldiers’ behavior in battle? Shakespeare shot to fame in the 1590s by tackling the critical questions of his day in dramas depicting the inner lives of medieval English monarchs. But he couldn’t have done it without drawing on the Hebrew Bible. In this episode, Professor Paul Cantor takes us on a deep dive into Henry V,...

Few literary characters have loomed as large and felt as "real" as Shakespeare’s Shylock. Though, as early 20th-century British Jewish historian Cecil Roth reminds us, he is a "sheer figment of Shakespeare’s imagination." Or was he? In this episode, Dr. Chaya Sima Koenigsberg illuminates Shakespeare’s (in)famous portrait of Shylock with her research on medieval Ashkenaz Jewry and the lives of the Rokeach and his wife, Dulce. She also sheds new light on the presence of Hebrew bible figures...

How has the Hebrew Bible impacted the intellectual development of the West? How might a deeper understanding of Saul and David’s biblical narrative help us read Shakespeare’s meditations on the nature of kingship? In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the YU’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, examines the legitimacy, majesty, and humility of monarchy (or lack thereof) in Shakespeare’s Richard II and Macbeth. Audio Credits: Richard II: Episode 1, WYNC...

What are blessings? Prayers? Protections? A performative act? In this episode, Professor Julia Reinhard Lupton, Shakespeare scholar and co-director of the UCI Shakespeare Center, rethinks the love gambit that opens King Lear as a battle of biblical prooftexts and tracks the presence and purpose of benediction in the play and beyond to reveal a cascade of blessings throughout Shakespeare’s works. Audio Credits: King Lear, dir. Richard Eyre (2018) King Lear, dir.Trevor Nunn...

What is the relationship between values and action? How does one move forward when “time is out of joint”? In this episode, Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman draws from his experiences as an educator, father, and academic leader to discuss the themes and human experiences central to Shakespeare’s Hamlet that complement and contrast similar stories from Torah tradition. Audio Credits: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, BBC Radio, 2018 Hamlet, dir. Gregory Doran (2010) Hosted...

Welcome to Twice Blest, a podcast from the Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. Hosted by Dr. Shaina Trapedo, Twice Blest brings you conversations with faith leaders, scholars, and writers that bridge the wisdom of Judaic and classical texts so we can live more informed and fulfilling intellectual and spiritual lives on an individual and communal level. Shaina Trapedo is a lecturer in English at Stern College for Women and a Resident Scholar at the Straus Center...