Center for 岻 Humanities presents 'Why the Apple Falls Far from the Tree of Knowledge' on Jan. 29
How did the apple – unmentioned in the Bible – become the dominant symbol of temptation, sin, and the Fall of Man?
This is the topic scholar Azzan Yadin-Israel will explore when he visits the 岻 of New England Center for 岻 Humanities to present a lecture titled “Why the Apple Falls Far from the Tree of Knowledge” on Monday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. at the WCHP Lecture Hall in Parker Pavilion on the UNE Portland Campus for the Health Sciences.
Yadin-Israel, who earned his B.A. from the Hebrew 岻 and his Ph.D. from the 岻 of California, Berkeley, is a professor of Jewish Studies and Classics at Rutgers 岻. He has published dozens of articles, and several books, including “Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael and the Origins of Midrash,” “Scripture and Tradition: Rabbi Akiva and the Triumph of Midrash,” and “The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen.” His most recent book, and the basis for his lecture at UNE, is “Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple.”
In this talk, Yadin-Israel will pursue the mystery of the apple’s Edenic origin across art and religious history, uncovering where, when, and why the forbidden fruit — once thought to be a fig or a grape — came to be conceptualized as an apple. Ultimately, Yadin-Israel’s wide-ranging research will lead attendees to a new way of seeing a religious icon and a deeper appreciation of how cultural understanding evolves and changes over time.
This will be the first of five events this spring at the Center for 岻 Humanities, where lectures are always free, open to the public, and streamed live online. For more information and to watch the event, please visit: /events/2024/why-apple-falls-far-tree-knowledge