Back to the Future: Isaiah’s Vision of the Days to Come (Isaiah 2:2-5), Prof. Yair Zakovitch (Hebrew University)

  The Gabriel Urwitz Jewish Studies Lecture Library In difficult times, the prophets of Israel envisioned and hoped for peaceful days in Jerusalem. In constructing their ideal futures, they used building- blocks from traditions of the past – for example the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The new beginning however, will be even better than t ... ... more »  

Midrash: between Presence and Absence, Dr. Dina Stein (University of Haifa)

The Gabriel Urwitz Jewish Studies Lecture Library Two very different rabbinic texts stand at the center of this talk: the first is a poetic list of five inaudible voices which run from one end of the world to the other (from Pirke deRabbi Eliezer); the second is a rabbinic Narcissus-like tale in which a high priest and a nazirite meet (here cited ... ... more »  

Lurianic Kabbalah: Man’s Personnal Responsability for God’s Fate, Assaf Tamari (Ben-Gurion University)

  The Gabriel Urwitz Jewish Studies Lecture Library This lecture presents the Lurianic Kabbalah’s rich, graphic and highly dramatic myth about the God who fell apart, and created man so that he can complete God’s continuous process of restitution. A God who is dependent upon man for his own mending, and consequently for the restoration of ha ... ... more »