Dr. Yael Wilfand

דוא"ל
yael.wilfand@gmail.com
תחומי עניין

Rabbinic literature, Social and cultural history, Poverty, Conversion to Judaism, Halakhah and Roman law, Roman Empire, the interaction of texts and material culture.

קורות חיים

Yael Wilfand (née Ben-Shalom) studies the social and cultural history of the Jews who lived in the Land of Israel during the first five centuries CE, with a particular focus on rabbinic literature. She is interested in the junctures of texts and material culture (such as epitaphs, architecture, mosaics), and the relationship between rabbinic sources and the Roman- and Byzantine worlds.
Yael earned her BA and MA in Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During her years at Hebrew University, Yael also studied and taught Talmud and other Jewish texts in a number of Beit Midrash programs. She then attended Duke University, where she received her PhD in Religion (2011). A monograph based on her dissertation Poverty, Charity and the Image of the Poor in Rabbinic Texts from the Land of Israel was later published by Sheffield Phoenix Press (2014; an extended Hebrew version The Wheel that Overtakes Everyone: Poverty and Charity in the Eyes of Sages in the Land of Israel was published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad in 2017). Her current research focuses on the status of converts in rabbinic literature from the Land of Israel. She has been teaching Jewish history and Talmud at the School of Basic Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University since 2019.

Last Updated Date : 16/01/2025