| Sumario: | This article explores the interconnections between research and teaching in the Leo Baeck College Beit Midrash (otherwise known as the Rabbinic Literature Intensive). Two recurring issues that have consistently arisen in the teaching and learning of rabbinic texts are, firstly, a struggle with the nature of the Sages and, secondly, a reluctance to engage with what may be perceived as difficult or irrelevant texts. I propose that the challenges posed to the contemporary reader both by the Sages and by the wide range of topics they explored, might be met through a middle way between apologetics and blame, and by the engagement with, rather than avoidance of, difficult themes and difficult Sages. Through a comparative methodological approach, analysing two parallel sugyot in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds on the delicate subject of virginity claims, we will demonstrate how research of apparently non-utilitarian, antique, challenging texts can permit us to embrace and learn from the discomfort and tension in our sacred literary inheritance.
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