Being Good at Being a Man: What Men can Learn (and Unlearn) from Tanakh

Being Good at Being a Man:
What Men can Learn (and Unlearn) from Tanakh
with
RABBI BARBARA THIEDE

Sunday, November 17, 2024
7:30pm EST | 4:30pm PST

Identifying the kind of masculinity that valorizes and normalizes violence of all kinds is essential to the well-being of all men. But if we do not acknowledge that male characters in Tanakh (and men of our own time) deploy sexualized violence against other men, we silence every man who has been victimized. During this session, we will explore Tanakh’s depiction of masculinity and male-on-male violence, focusing especially on King Saul and his narrative. We will ask how addressing such violence in our sacred texts can help us create a safer world and heal hurts that have gone long unaddressed.

Rabbi Barbara Thiede, PhD is the rabbi of Temple Or Olam in Concord, NC. She served the ALEPH Ordination Program (AOP) as Dean of Faculty and sat on its academic council for many years. Dr. Thiede is a professor of Judaic Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte’s Department of Religious Studies.

Her research focuses primarily on the structures of hegemonic masculinity and the performance of masculinities in biblical texts. She is the author of Male Friendship, Homosociality, and Women in the Hebrew Bible: Malignant Fraternities and Rape Culture in the House of David: A Company of Men.

Dr. Thiede is now working on her third book for Bloomsbury Press, which focuses on masculinity in the Books of Samuel. She blogs at adrenaline-drash.org and is the CEO of NotMyBrothersKippah at Etsy, where she sells kippot, tallitot, and challah covers for Jews with imagination.