Emotions and Reason, Experience and Intellect: Two Views of the Book of Psalms

By :  Benjamin D. Sommer Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages Posted On Jan 31, 2022 / 5782 | Monday Webinar The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

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Part of the series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

This session is generously sponsored by Yale Asbell, JTS Trustee

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.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

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