Coming Home – A performative Talmud lesson

“Coming Home” – the masterpiece production of the 2025 Israel Festival, led by Chaya Gilboa – a spiritual and Talmudic figure who has created a performative Talmud lesson exploring the idea of home, its disintegration and rebirth, through texts and performances by actors, a captivity survivor, a war widow, spoken word artists, and musicians.

Two performances will take place:

• First performance – “Coming Home” in English: begins at 17:45

• Second performance – “Coming Home” in Hebrew: begins at 19:00

.The performances will be held during the festival’s opening event, on November 18, 2025, in Talpiot – Yad Harutzim Complex, Komkum Theater Space (4 Yad Harutzim St., 4th floor).

Admission by ticket – get yours here

Home.
One word with many meanings that have undergone a huge upheaval in the last two years. Our national, personal, and spiritual home has changed, shaking our foundation and sense of security. And yet, quite a few people are “returning home” – from the battlefield, from captivity, from the evacuation forced upon them. So, how do we get back home?
In a performative learning session, we will meet around a large table and study the sources. We will focus on a sequence of legends in the Babylonian Talmud, and also dive into the Mishnah, Iliad, Odyssey, and contemporary texts from local culture. The study will be led by Chaya Gilboa in collaboration with talented cellist Maya Belsitzman, singer and composer Orit Tshuma, actor and puppeteer Daniel Engel, and several other figures connected to themes central to the study.
This is not a regular lesson, nor is it a regular performance: it is a kind of artistic hybrid that seeks to stimulate the intellect, open the heart, ignite the imagination, and mark out our collective path back