Rumors of Revelation: How Torah Unites and Divide Jews
Course Details
One could argue that, more than anything else, the Torah unites and connects the Jewish people. At the same time, however, few things have been more divisive in the last few centuries than the controversies of the divinity of the Torah, its perfection, its coherence, and Sinaitic provenance.
This class will develop a picture of what's really at stake when we discuss or ignore questions of revelation, the Torah's perfection, and its origins, questions invoked in the earliest rabbinic texts all the way into the late 20th century.
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein is Executive Director at Harvard Hillel. He previously served as Howard M. Holtzmann Jewish Chaplain at Yale University and as Dean of Students at Hadar, where he taught Talmud and Jewish thought. Jason was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in May of 2011, and also holds an MA in Talmud from JTS and an AB in Social Studies from Harvard College. An alumnus of the kollel at Yeshivat Ma'ale Gilboa, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Fellows program at JTS, and the Graduate Fellowship in Jewish Law and Legal Theory of the Cardozo Center for Jewish Law, Jason has also led multiple programs for the Nesiya Institute. Jason received the Covenant Foundation’s 2015 Pomegranate Prize for Emerging Educators.
