Various rituals are documented in the Talmud – a vast written record of centuries of rabbinic opinions – for everyday practices like handwashing to lifecycle events like nuptials.
Rituals also feature heavily in Miriam Anzovin’s Talmud learning. Some are shared experiences, like her participation in the Daf Yomi, a program of paced daily study by participants worldwide on the same seven-and-a-half-year cycle.
Then there are Anzovin’s individual rites – a meticulous and lengthy make-up routine resulting in perfectly winged eyeliner, and setting up her selfie ring light – undertaken to share her Talmud commentary on social media.
Bringing A Modern Perspective to the Ancient
Anzovin will be the keynote speaker at “Torahpalooza: How Should Jewish Texts Be Encountered in the Twenty-First Century,” the 2025 Lichter Lectures Series event presented by the University of Cincinnati. Register here for this free community evening of Jewish learning, which will take place at 6 PM on Saturday, Nov. 15th at Rockwern Academy.
“By integrating ancient texts into a modern medium, she engages a new generation into the fascinating and rich treasures of the Jewish experience,” said Matthrew Kraus, Department Head and Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at UC.
Kraus, a scholar of Judaism in Greek and Roman antiquity, is excited to welcome Anzovin, in turn known for her fresh takes on ancient texts.
“Remarkably, she is taking an ancient oral tradition that was ultimately written down, and making it oral again,” he said. “Moreover, the medium of the short video makes the oral torah visual as well and reminds us that there was also a visual aspect to the oral torah in antiquity. Anzovin invites us both to hear the ancient sages and imagine seeing them too!”
A Millennial Engaging With Millenia-Old Tradition
One of Anzovin’s Talmud reaction TikTok videos first went viral in 2022. Her witty storytelling craft wasn’t competing against content posted by like-minded Jews or appreciators of Judaic texts.
Most Talmud-related clips on the platform were antisemitic.
Notably, Anzovin doesn’t look or sound like most would expect from someone who engages in daily Talmud study. For starters, she’s a stylish blonde woman with flair (and professional level production), not an elderly scholar with a gray beard and skullcap.
Anzovin captivates by juxtaposing genuine friendliness (opening with a bubbly, “Shalom, friends”) with profanity-studded humor. She’ll impress you with her appropriately guttural Hebrew letter chet, sprinkle in edifying bits of Jewish history and law, then make you laugh with an irreverent take.
Though she earned a degree in Judaic Studies and was once religiously Orthodox, she describes herself as a Talmud learner, not expert, and now embraces a redefined Jewish identity as a secular feminist.
Her Talmudic source material offers no shortage of drama, from the absurd to the serious to the mundane, and she brings her modern lens, humor, and artistic craft to make it relatable today.
The topic of her first viral TikTok post, recorded at her makeup table, cosmetic brush in hand: Talmudic opinions on women’s personal beauty care during Chol HaMoed (to wear makeup or not to wear makeup, that is the question). She’s since gone on to celebrate her joy for cosmetics in a series of Very Jewish Makeup Tutorials.
It’s a mistake, however, to categorize her study as casual or her interests as frivolous. Perhaps the main descriptors of her work, whatever the current subject, are unapologetic and authentic.
That means unapologetically Jewish and entertaining. Unapologetically biting in her criticism of abusive patriarchy. Unapologetically engaged with and enthusiastic about Talmud.
“I began recording these videos alone in my room during the pandemic (alone, other than my dog, that is),” Anzovin said. “And it felt relatively ‘safe’ for an introvert like me because honestly, I’m speaking to myself on my phone.”
Finding her voice and sharing it first required a reckoning by Anzovin about her Jewishness after becoming religiously nonobservant.
“For a long time, I did throw the metaphorical baby out with the mikveh water,” she said. “I thought it would be hypocritical to do anything other than that. But who am I kidding? I was unable to walk away from Judaism. That would be like attempting to cut out my heart, leave it in a storage facility, wave ‘bye! ‘and not return for the rest of my life. I couldn’t do it.”
Next came the reclaiming of her love for her heritage. Rather than limiting herself to being “culturally Jewish” alone, Anzovin also embraced the study of religious texts.
“Talmud was my way to reclaim and reconnect to that Jewish identity,” she said. “To find once again that pride and joy in Judaism and Jewish learning. But perhaps I had to step away in order to feel that void within my being, to know that I didn’t want to lose this huge part of myself, and to figure out what parts of Jewishness I truly loved from my soul and which I thought I loved because other people told me to.”
Anzovin revealed her truest self as part of this process.
“I needed to find the authentic ‘Miriam,’ and then once I found her, I could map my authentic relationship to Judaism and Jewishness with a clarity I had not before. I was able to see a path for me to walk on,” she said. “The path was quite different from the one I had walked in my childhood, but it is the right derech, the right path, for me. And I’ve been walking it ever since! Just now, a lot of people walk with me. I’m surprised and delighted. I’d walk it alone, absolutely, but it’s so much fun to walk together.”
For Anzovin, an interactive public event like Torahpalooza in Cincinnati offers a way to connect and co-learn with others.
“Public speaking does feel a bit more intimidating, no question, but at the same time I feel so energized after doing a live session with folks and learning and reacting to some Talmud with them!” she said. “I get to hear everyone else’s hot takes, their opinions, how they relate the learning to their lives – there’s a very enjoyable, almost healing aspect to that.”
Come discover more about Talmud – and perhaps yourself – with Miriam Anzovin on Nov. 15th.
