I Can't Believe It: God, Prophecy, and Free Will
Course Details
Jews and Christians often say, "Christianity is about beliefs, but Judaism is about actions." It turns out that that's not true – as either a description of the Jewish tradition or in terms of our lived experience of being Jewish in the world: what we believe matters, and it always has.
This class will study a series of related theological and existential question. Are we commanded to believe in God? What if we just can't believe? Does it matter more what we know about God and Judaism, or how we feel towards God and Judaism? The course will examine these questions through the debate between the two greatest medieval Jewish philosophers: Maimonides and his critic, R. Hasdai Kreskas.
We will take up these questions as both intellectual and spiritual concerns, seeking to both understand the ideas of others and to clarify and deepen our own understanding of the world in which we live.
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.
