Dr. Yonatan Feintuch

Dr. Yonatan Feintuch holds a B.Sc. degree in Medical Sciences from the Hebrew University and a master's and Ph.D in Talmud from Bar Ilan University. His doctoral thesis, "Tales of the Sages and the Surrounding Sugyot in Bavli Neziqin" (Bar Ilan University, 2008), was written under the guidance of Prof. Leib Moscovitz. He has been teaching at the School for Basic Jewish Studies since 2009.

Dr. Feintuch's main areas of research and teaching are Aggada and Midrash literature, and the relationship between Aggada and Halakhah in the Talmud. His articles and two books ("Panim El Panim: The Intertwining of Halakha and Aggada in the Babylonian Talmud" (2019) and "Ki Be’annan Era’eh - Aggada and Halakha in the Yoma Tract" (2021) include analyses of many stories and other aggadot in the Talmud and their reading in their broader halachic contexts, and he recently published, together with Prof. Jeffrey Rubenstein from New York University, a comprehensive methodological article that reviews the different types of aggada in the Talmuds and the types of connections they have with their halakhic contexts, in The Literature of the Sages: A Re-Visioning (2022).

In addition, Rabbi Dr. Feintuch serves as Rabbi of the "Ilana De-Chayei" community in Katamonim, Jerusalem, which he founded and leads together with his wife, Rabbanit Carmit Feintuch. He also teaches Aggada and Hassidut in several Batei Midrash, among them the Beit Midrash for women in Migdal Oz.