Multiple presenters: The Heretic in the Room (Zoom only)

March 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Program Fee:

In partnership with the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union

Heresy is as old as Orthodoxy: we already find it in the Bible! It then continues as a thread, sometimes subterranean, others front and center, throughout Jewish history and thought. This course will take you on a journey from the Bible to today, stopping to consider heresy from the Talmud and Spinoza to the false messiah Shabbatai Zvi and the antinomian thinker Jacob Frank, all the way to the complex paths of those who leave Orthodoxy today.

All sessions are on Zoom only.

February 20 @ 7–8:30pm Prof. David Biale: Bible—The Korach Rebellion
February 27 @ 7–8:30pm Prof. Charlotte Fonrobert—Talmud: “The Other,” Elisha ben Avuya
March 5 @ 7–8:30pm Profs. Hannah Ginsborg & Sam Berrin Shonkoff—Modern Europe: Spinoza A panel discussion on Yair Qedar’s documentary film “Spinoza: 6 Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher”. Watch the film on your own ahead of the session. (The video password will be sent to registrants.)
March 12 @ 7–8:30 pm Prof. Ariel Mayse—Modern Antinomianism: Shabbatai Zvi and Jacob Frank
March 19 @ 7–8:30 pm Prof. Naomi Seidman: “Off the Derekh” in Contemporary Orthodoxy

Optional Spinoza “Homework:” Read this New Yorker article or listen on Apple Podcasts