with Alyssa Henning, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Luther College The rabbinic story of “the Oven of Akhnai,” which appears in the Babylonian Talmud (part of Judaism’s “Oral Torah”), describes a heated argument between Rabbi Eliezer and his colleagues over whether a clay oven is ritually pure. The text raises questions about authority in … Continue reading Talking Back to God? ‘The Oven of Akhnai’ and Rules for Disagreement