A yearly integrative research seminar

The seminar will examine the significance and centrality of ethical commandments in Jewish sources.

The idea that moral imperatives and commandments regarding interpersonal relations (ben adam le chavero) are unique to Judaism was widespread among enlightened 19th century Jewish intellectuals and scholars of Jewish Studies. This central concept was further developed in the early 20th century in the works of Hermann Cohen, Yechezkel Koifman, and a long list of thinkers and researchers. However, notwithstanding the ethical works of Emanuel Levinas and others in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the identification of Judaism with fundamental moral imperatives began to diminish. In the course of this seminar we will hear from ten leading Israeli researchers in the field of Jewish Studies about the centrality or lack thereof in their respective fields of study on moral imperatives. Discussion will encompass Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Talmudic and halakhic literature, medieval philosophical and Kabbalistic texts, Hasidism and modern Jewish thought. The central research issue we explore in the course of our meetings and in the ensuing discussions will be the centrality of ethics in each of the Jewish canons; whether they are core concerns or peripheral to the texts; to what degree the emphasis on morality may be a consequence of a particular zeitgeist and to what degree its centrality is verifiable from a historical perspective as well.

Students will receive an essential article to read in preparation for each guest lecture.