Tobias Lecture with Gregg Gardner

Light is a key theme in the Jewish tradition. It is the first of God’s creations in the Book of Genesis. The golden menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum, was a central object in the Tabernacle and First and Second Jerusalem Temples. Lighting candles for the Sabbath is one of the most widely practiced Jewish rituals today. This lecture will draw on Jewish texts (in English translation), ancient art, and archaeological finds to explore the roles that light has played in Judaism through the ages.

Gregg E. Gardner is Distinguished Faculty of Arts Professor of Jewish Studies and Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics at the University of British Columbia. He teaches and researchers on Judaism in antiquity, classical rabbinic literature, and material culture. He has written two books on poverty and charity: The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge UP, 2015), and Wealth, Poverty, and Charity in Jewish Antiquity (University of California Press, 2022), the latter of which won two book awards. His third book, on material culture and Judaism in the Roman era, is forthcoming. He is also currently Co-Editor of AJS Review: The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies.