Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought
Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought
Mr. Ynon Wygoda
Short description
The aim of the course is to provide students with an introductory familiarity with key themes and central figures that occupy the world of Modern Jewish Thought. It is structured on both a chronological order spanning from the 17th to the 20st century, as well as a thematic logic inquiring after the particularity of the problematic of modern Jewish identity and the major axes that have come to define it: The question of the nation, the possibility of rereading its canon, and the question of memory. The course is divided into four sections:
- Introduction to the problem of the Modern Jewish condition: The reinterpretation of Scripture and the critique of Jewish particularism in the works of Spinoza and Mendelssohn.
- The Rise of Zionism:
- Anti-Semitism and the forging of political Zionism: Hess, Nordau, Pinsker
- Cultural Zionism and the controversy concerning the negation of diaspora: Ahad Ha’am, Dubnow
- Religious Zionism and the controversy as to the religious value of the Jewish state: Kook, Soloveitchik and Leibowitz.
3)Tradition revisited – The hermeneutic alternatives to nationalism:
a.Buber’s dialogical philosophy and the re-appropriation of Prophetic and Hasidic Judaism.
b.Rosenzweig’s Jewish existentialism, Biblical retranslation and the quest for Jewish renewal
c.Lévinas and the rereading of the Talmud.
4)The precept of memory and the question of forgiveness after the Shoah: Fackenheim and Jankélévitch.
Course Requirements
Emphasis will be placed on an attentive completion of weekly readings that will serve as the basis for the classroom lectures and discussions. Classes themselves will be made-up of part lectures pertaining to the cultural and philosophical background of the weekly texts, part close readings of selected passages and part discussion which will hinge on the students’ active engagement with the texts and their peers.
The following are the three course requirements:
1)Full attendance, preparation of weekly reading assignments, and participation in class discussions.
2) Hand-in weekly 1-2 paragraph long answers pertaining to weekly readings (10%)
3) A mid-term assignment (30%)
4) A final take-home exam (60%)
