Rebecca Epstein-Levi

Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi is is the Mellon Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at Vanderbilt University. She’s an expert on Jewish sexual ethics, and is working on a book project on sex, risk, and rabbinic text. In her copious free time, she enjoys cooking unnecessarily complicated meals and sharpening her overly large collection of kitchen knives.

How Ancient Rabbis Can Help Combat STI Stigma

The sages, or rabbis, whose teachings were collected in the Mishnah, had a concept they called 'tumah,' or ritual impurity. This term, which to some readers might conjure visions of judgmental tub-thumpers, isn’t at all equivalent to today's abstinence warriors.