The Talmud is the backbone of religious Judaism. But given how foreign its theological assumptions, methods of interpretation, and style of argumentation are to us, a modern Jew searching for wisdom about how to live might be forgiven for looking elsewhere to find it. This workshop will attempt to read selected Talmudic passages in something similar to the philosophical, wisdom-seeking spirit that readers like Leon Kass have brought to the study of the Hebrew Bible. We will give the Talmud’s discussion about the laws of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot the same respect we might give to any other Great Book and see if its legal arguments can be translated into philosophical questions that touch on eternal human concerns.