Jewish Quest

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Rabbi David Zucker discusses the theological role of dreams in Miketz. 

Dr. Rabbi David J. Zucker is an Independent Scholar. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (UK), and Ordination and an M.A.H.L. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He publishes regularly (see www.DavidJZucker.org) and his latest book is American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, Second Edition.

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Prof. Jack M. Sasson is the Mary Jane Werthan Professor (Emeritus) of Judaic and biblical Studies at Vanderbilt University as well as Kenan Professor (Emeritus) of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. in Mediterranean Studies from Brandeis University. Sasson’s publications include commentaries on the Biblical books of Ruth (1979), Jonah (1991), Judges 1-12 (2014), and Judges 13-21 (forthcoming). His most recent monograph is From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters (Eisenbrauns, 2015).

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Dr George Savran asks whether Esau and Jacob really reconciled.

Dr George Savran taught at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies since 1996, and was director of biblical studies. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and is the author of Telling and Retelling: Quotation in Biblical Narrative (Indiana University Press, 1989) and Encountering the Divine: Theophany in Biblical Narrative (Sheffield University Press, 2005).

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Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite shares how Jacob's departure from Haran acts as a precursor for the Exodus from Egypt and how the Jacob story foreshadows so much else both in Torah and the development of Judaism itself. 

Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite is Professor of History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU. He holds a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. He is the author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China and The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History and is working on a new monograph, Crescent China: Islam and the Nation After Empire.

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Rabbi Alex Matthews discusses Rivkah's moment of existential and physical crisis. 

Rabbi Alex Matthews has been part of the Congregation Ahavas Achim in Newburyport since 2015 and has been serving as its congregational leader since 2019. Rabbi Matthews was ordained at Hebrew College in June 2023. He serves part-time as a staff chaplain at Beverly Hospital. Rabbi Matthews completed the 18 Doors Rukin Rabbinic Fellowship focused on interfaith engagement, as well as the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies Machloket Matters fellowship, focused on working toward and through constructive disagreement. 

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Professor Tammi Schneider discusses the life of Sarah in the context of the Ancient Near East. 

Tammi J. Schneider holds the Danforth Chair of Religion at Claremont GraduateUniversity. She specializes in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. She received her BA is in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Minnesota and her doctorate in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include: Sarah: Mother of Nations published by The Continuum International Publishing Group, she serves as the secretary for the Council for the Society of Biblical Literature. She is writing a book on “peripheral” men in the book of Genesis.

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Dr Noam Cohen uncovers the fascinating link between the background to Isaac's birth and the Ugaritic text of the Aqhat Epic. 

Dr. Noam Cohen is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He received his PhD from NYU, with a dissertation examining portrayals of spousal violence in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient West Asian texts.

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Due to several requests we are extending this series of audios featuring Rabbi Jacobs, from 2005 recordings. All are also avaialable with video by visiting www.booksof.louisjacobs.org. A free months subscription is available.

Rabbi Louis Jacobs reflects in this video upon his past appointments, starting from his early steps as assistant Rabbi in Eli Munk’s Beit Midrash in Golders Green, and concluding with the creation of the New London synagogue and the instigation of the Masorti movement. He offers intimate descriptions of his experience in these communities, each time contemplating the religious outlook of their respective congregants and the various initiatives he undertook to further their development.

He takes the opportunity to offer some insights on what he refers to as minhag Angliya, or more simply, the traditional religious outlook of English Jews. The civility and intellectual integrity which, in his view, characterizes Anglo-Jewry, was lost over the past decades to a more haredi-influenced notion of hashkafah. Rabbi Jacobs debases this shift as ‘inauthentic’, and claims that it was with the intention of upholding the traditional religious outlook of British Jewry that he established the New London synagogue.

Finally, Louis Jacobs offers some insights on recent infighting within the English-Jewish community. He expresses certain reservations concerning the ideology professed by the Masorti movement, and in a similar vein, justifies his opposition to the Stanmore Accords, proclaiming that there is no use of holding back criticism in situations of ideological conflict.

The recording is followed by a short extract on mysticism, in which Rabbi Jacobs offers some reflections on the role of mysticism in contemporary Judaism. He puts forward his belief in the continued relevance of mystical and kabbalistic Jewish sources, each representing forms of expression of the ineffable. He debases, on the other hand, ‘Pop Kabbalah’, or the attraction to mystical excitement or ecstasy professed by a large number of individuals today (including Madonna, Barbara Streisand, or Mick Jager), arguing that such views are based on superstition, and come out as quaint.

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Rabbi Jacobs discusses the various Jewish groups which make up the contemporary world. 

He begins with a discussion of the charedim. He points out that their approach to religious matters, for example dress, is uncompromising, although the term ultra-orthodox is misleading. 

Turning to the orthodox he considers their interaction with and differences from the charedim. He outlines the various programmes of education in both the charedi and orthodox worlds and their ambivalence to secular learning. 

Modern orthodox however have a different philosophy to both the charedim and ultra-ortodox, particularly in respect of education. Modern orthodoxy follows Samson Raphael Hirsch’s philosophy of Torah im derech eretz; Torah with worldly study. Secular learning has a value in itself, it is not just a means of preparing to earn an income. Modern orthodoxy plays an active role in Israeli life and has a positive attitude to the scientific study of Judaism. 

The philosophy of Judaism as a dynamic religion, as espoused by Zecharias Frankel led to the Conservative grouping. This philosophy allows Conservative Judaism to reconcile contemporary science and social attitudes with religious belief. 

Reform Judaism resulted from changes to synagogue services to make them more compatible with dominant religious norms in Germany, influenced by Christianity. Not all suggested reform innovations, such as the abolition of circumcision, were adopted. 

The twentieth century saw the growth of the Liberal movement, which did not think that the innovations of Reform had gone far enough. Rabbi Jacobs discusses the relation of the Ten Commandments to the other biblical injunctions, which traditionally number 613 and their role as symbols of Jewish loyalty. The Ten Commandments both need to be amplified, and to understood in their simplicity. Despite changing social mores we continue to believe in the Ten Commandments as the best guide for society.

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Rabbi Jacobs discusses the relation of the Ten Commandments to the other biblical injunctions, which traditionally number 613 and their role as symbols of Jewish loyalty. The Ten Commandments both need to be amplified, and to understood in their simplicity. Despite changing social mores we continue to believe in the Ten Commandments as the best guide for society.