Shul School: "Thinking Matters" Resumes
/course series continues this winter!

For an introduction to Jewish modern thought and philosophy, we recommend Steven Katz's essay, "Eliezar Berkovits & Modern Jewish Philosophy."
Details and readings for the "Thinking Matters" mini-courses taught in January - March 2016 are included below.

People of the Book (1 session w/ Henry Hollander)
Henry Hollander's class will meet on Thursday night in the CBS Board Room from 7-8:30 p.m.
January 7: People of the Book, Modernity, & Philosophy of Book Collecting
Reading: Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk About Book Collecting," Illuminations, pp. 59-67
January 14, 21, 28, & February 4
Walter Benjamin: A Jewish Nietzsche? (4 sessions w/ Michael Loebs)
Michael Loeb's classes meet Thursday nights in the CBS Board Room from 7-8:30 p.m.
January 14: On Friendship As Metaphysics
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, "of the Three Metamorphoses," "Of War and Warriors," and "Of the Friend," from Thus Spake Zarathrustra, Part I

January 21: Morality and the Critique of Violence
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, Part I
Reading: Walter Benjamin, Zur Kritik der Gewalt (Critique of Violence, 1921)
January 28: Art, Culture, & Technology
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (Book 2, pp. 57-59, 78-89, 107)
Reading: Walter Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936)
February 4: Redemption from History & Messianism
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage & Disadvantage of History (Forward, Sec. 1-3, 6-7)
Reading: Walter Benjamin, Über den Begriff der Geschichte (On the Concept of History / Theses on the Philosophy of History, 1940), w/ "Theologico-Political Fragment"
February 11, 18, & March 17, 24
Philosophy of Purim: Modernity & Perennial Parody (4 sessions w/ Rabbi Aubrey Glazer)
Rabbi Glazer's classes meet Thursday nights in the CBS Board Room from 7-8:30 p.m.
February 11: Philosophy of Purim in Woody Allen, Part I: God, Suicide, & the Meaning of Life
Source Sheet: Beyond Good & Evil: Philosophy of Purim & Hypernomianism
Source Sheet: Source in the Ethical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
February 18: Philosophy of Purim in Woody Allen, Part II: Zelig, Inauthenticity, & Personal Identity
Source Sheet: Costumes, Masks, & (in)Authenticity

Source Sheet: Beyond Good & Evil: Philosophy of Purim & Hypernomianism
March 24: Philosophy of Purim in The Big Lebowski, Part II: “That Ain’t Legal Either," Rules, Authenticity, & Hyper-nomianism
Source Sheet: Beyond Good & Evil: Philosophy of Purim & Hypernomianism
February 25, March 3, 10, & 31
Ghetto Thinking: From the First Ghetto in Venice to the Last Ghetto in Lodz
(4 sessions w/ Dr. Michael Thaler)
Dr. Thaler's classes meet Thursday nights in the CBS Board Room from 7-8:30 p.m.
February 25: The Venice Ghetto
Source Sheet: Venice: The first ghetto
March 3: The Venice Ghetto
Source Sheet: Venice, 1616
March 10: The Lodz Ghetto
Source Sheet: Lodz: The last ghetto
March 31: The Lodz Ghetto
Source sheet: Lodz ghetto, 1942
Image credits: uncredited photo of Walter Benjamin; Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche by Hans Olde, 1899/1900; Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and John Goodman in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski (Courtesy of Universal Studios)