Life Under Siege: The Talmud’s Take on Trying Times
May 4, 2020 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture
How do we understand the relationship between the multiple complicating factors that arise in moments of communal hardship, such as questions of political leadership, unreliable news sources, physical privation, and economic disparity? The interplay of these challenges is at the core of a Talmudic story about the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. Through an exploration of the values and priorities portrayed in this story, this class will help shed new light on the tensions of our present moment.
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Beyond the Flag: The Religious Dimensions of Yom Ha’atzma’ut
Apr 27, 2020 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel Independence Day, commemorates a historical event – the declaration of the new State of Israel. From the beginning, however, it was also framed as a religious holiday. We will look at how, drawing on the liturgy of Hannukah, Purim, Shabbat and Passover, a holiday ritual was created, one that provides the religious language with which to speak of a fundamentally political event.
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The Self, the Other, and God in 20th Century Jewish Philosophy:
Cohen, Buber, and Levinas
Mar 8, 2021 By Yonatan Y. Brafman | Public Event video | Video Lecture
her, and where does our relationship to the other Other—God—fit in? Modern Jewish philosophers, including Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas placed the intersubjective relationship—the relationship between persons–at the center of their thinking. Dr. Yonatan Brafman explores their reflections—their similarities and differences—in order to grapple with its implications for Jewish ethics.
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Jealousy and Gender in Rabbinic Literature
Feb 28, 2022 By Sarah Wolf | Public Event video | Video Lecture
“Men are more likely to have anger issues.” “Women are more sensitive than men are.” We are all familiar with gendered beliefs and stereotypes about emotion in today’s world. Presumptions about gender and emotion also existed in the time of the rabbis, though not necessarily the ones we’d expect. Join Dr. Sarah Wolf to look at rabbinic texts about jealousy and other emotions that are portrayed as negative or dangerous, noticing how gender roles function in these texts, and to reflect on how rabbinic ideas about gender and emotions can help us shed light on our own.
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Emotions and Reason, Experience and Intellect: Two Views of the Book of Psalms
Jan 31, 2022 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
What sort of religious experience does the Book of Psalms reflect and encourage? Does the book primarily appeal to our emotions, or is it first and foremost a work to be studied on an intellectual level? Join Dr. Benjamin Sommer to see how the Book of Psalms provides its own answers to these questions. By addressing these questions, we will have an opportunity to think about the relative places in Judaism of emotion and reason, heart and mind, and to explore the relationship between prayer and text-study in the Bible and rabbinic Judaism.
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Imagining a New World When Your Old One Collapses: The Rabbinic Response to the Destruction of the Temple
Apr 20, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
In 70 CE, the Jewish world changed catastrophically. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Judaism prescribed by the Torah became impossible. Into this gap, the rabbis emerged to create a new, vibrant Judaism that required no particular center in any place. What is the system they created and how does it fill the gap left by the destruction?
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Unlocking the Gates of Heaven: The Transformative Power of Grief
Feb 7, 2022 By Rachel Rosenthal | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Grief is a primal emotion, often associated with paralysis, but sometimes it has the power to generate great change in the face of loss. In this session, we will study some rabbinic sources that focus on grief and the ways that the rabbis use it to transform their circumstances and their communities.
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Love During the Holocaust
Feb 14, 2022 By Edna Friedberg | Public Event video | Video Lecture
The Holocaust was one of the most profound ruptures in Jewish history. And yet, the foundational human emotion of love persisted—and even blossomed—in the most devastating circumstances. Dr. Edna Friedberg explores the varied manifestations of love—romantic, parental, platonic—at a time of terror and loss. Each of these forms of deep affection and connection offered psychological sustenance and sometimes spurred life-saving acts of courage and altruism. The session will draw from primary sources including diaries, oral testimonies, artifacts, and historical photographs.
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