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 dead?

In this episode,  Dr. Susan Weissman, Chair of Judaic Studies and Associate Professor at Lander College for Women, a division of Touro College, shares her extensive research and expertise on death and the afterlife in medieval Europe. Through a detailed analysis of ghost tales in the Talmud and Sefer Hasidim, a religious-ethical work by an elitist group of medieval Jewish German Pietists, Weissman shows how many beliefs and rituals of the period reflected in Shakespeare’s Hamlet were cross-culturally shared by neighbors, Jews and Christians alike.

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Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 there a basis for this claim? What is the Jewish understanding of revenge and retributive punishment? How do we reconcile the divine prohibition against revenge in the Hebrew Bible with its description of God as vengeful? And of what relevance is the long-suffering biblical Jacob, whose life is discussed by the characters in this play? 

In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner offers a master class on biblical exegesis, the relationship between interpretation, law, and justice, and what we can learn from Jewish tradition about how to end the cycle of vengeance.

Twice Blest was recently selected as one of the top 20 Shakespeare podcasts by Feedspot. 

Audio Credits:

The Merchant of Venice: Arkangel Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice (2004)

Mentioned in This Episode: 

The Jews as They Are by C.K. Salaman

The Beginning of Wisdom by Leon R. Kass

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Violence and the Sacred by René Girard

Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare by René Girard

The Warrior’s Honor: Ethnic War and Modern Conscious by Michael Ignatieff

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 relating internal essence and external appearance.

Audio Credits:

Richard III, dir. Jane Howell, 1983

Henry VI, Part 3, Arkangel audio, 2005

Richard III, dir. Richard Loncraine, 1995

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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, unpacking the influence of early Israelite leaders, including Moses, Joshua, and David, on Shakespeare’s compelling and complex representation of the Tudor dynasty.

Audio Credits:

Henry V, The Hollow Crown series, dir. Thea Sharrock (2012)

Henry V, Arkangel Shakespeare audiobook (2014)

Henry V, dir. Kenneth Branaugh (1989)

Mentioned in This Episode:

Shakespeare and the Bible by Steven Marx

Rabbi Sacks, Covenant and Conversation

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 Jacob and Leah and the underexamined presence of prayer in the play.

Audio Credits

Paterson Joseph as Shylock, “You call me misbeliever” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vSR6W8_uBU

Upstart Crow, “The Apparel Proclaims the Man” (Series 1, Episode 3)

The Merchant of Venice, dir. Jonathan Munby, Shakespeare’s Globe (2015)

The Merchant of Venice, dir. John Sichel (1973)

The Merchant of Venice, Arkangel Shakespeare Collection, 2005)

Laura Carmichael as Portia, “The quality of mercy” https://youtu.be/wmmBT_4dmI0

Mentioned in this episode

Rokeach, Rabbi Elezar of Worms

James Shapiro’s Shakespeare and the Jews

Janet Adelman’s Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in The Merchant of Venice

Michelle Ephraim’s Reading the Jewish Woman on the Elizabethan Stage

Sara Coodin’s Is Shylock Jewish? Citing Scripture and the Moral Agency of Shakespeare’s Jews

The Bible on Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England, eds. Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 (2020)

Macbeth, dir. Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company production (1979)

King Lear, Arkangel Shakespeare Unabridged Audiobook (2014)

Mentioned in this episode:

The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole

Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth by A.C. Bradley

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 Studios + The Public (2020) 

Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt in The Hollow Crown, "Richard II"

William Shakespeare's Richard II, Act 3, Scene 2, played in the Netflix original series The Crown (Season 3, Episode 6)

Mentioned in This Episode:

Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Selden by Jason P. Rosenblatt

Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 by John Julius Norwich

This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith

Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber

Hosted by Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo

Produced by Uri Westrich and Sam Gelman

Outro by Straus Scholar Ayelet Brown

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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 for Torah and Western Thought of Yeshiva University. She received her PhD in English from UC Irvine, where she specialized in early modern literature and religious studies. Her current book project, From Scripture to Script: The Hebrew Bible on the Early Modern Stage, considers the affordances and risks of hermeneutic engagements in the works of writers including Peele, Greene, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Cary, and Milton. In her teaching and scholarship, she continues to explore the connections between literacy, cultural identity, and social engagement.

The Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought trains Yeshiva University students to be Modern Orthodox intellectual leaders who are well versed in both Torah and the Western canon. Through a combination of unique, interdisciplinary courses taught in collaboration with faculty from across YU, communal events, and publications, the Straus Center seeks to cultivate the intellectual, religious, and civic leaders of tomorrow. Learn more about the Straus Center at yu.edu/straus

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