"Lurianic Kabbalah on Scripture"
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 from 4-7 P.M. and
Thursday, April 26, 2007 from 4-7 P.M.
University of Denver, Multi-purpose Rm# 3430
Daniel L. Ritchie Center, 3rd Floor
2201 E. Asbury Ave., Denver
Much of the focus on Kabbalah in the academy has dealt with Kabbalah’s metaphysical world-view, its liturgical and devotional applications, and its historical setting. Less work has been done on the hermeneutical strategies used by Kabbalists to re-write Scripture in their own image and how these interpretive schemes may have been responding to local and global events in the Jewish world. This series of classes focuses on one kabbalistic fraternity, that of Rabbi Isaac Luria in 16th-century Safed, and explores the way they used Scripture as a lens to understand the major theological and cultural events in their time. In this period, Safed was a fascinating nexus of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Returning conversos from the Iberian Peninsula had a strong affect on the culture of Safed, and the emerging Ottoman Empire provided a new context for confluence between Jews and their Muslim neighbors. The sessions look at a series of Lurianic meditations of Scripture that may have been responding to this new environment as a challenge to rethink notions of self and other, Jew and gentile, insider and outsider.
Shaul Magid is the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair of Jewish Studies at Indiana University. Professor Magid's work focuses on Kabbalah, Hasidism and medieval and modern Jewish philosophy. He is the author of Hasidism on the Margin: Reconciliations, Antinomianism and Messianism in Izbica and Radzin Hasidism. Editor of God's Voice from the Void: Old and New Essays on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and co-editor of Beginning Again: Toward a Hermeneutic of Jewish Texts.
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SYLLABUS AND READINGS
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To obtain a copy of the readings for $10, please call 303.871.3660 or email palarsen@du.edu |
Upcoming Events
- PUBLIC LECTURES
Monday, April 16, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Stuart Schoffman,
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Shaul Magid,
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 7 p.m., with Benjamin Nathans,
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. with Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett
All events are free and open to the public; however, RSVPs are required, as space is limited. Please call 303.871.3660 or email palarsen@du.edu.
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