Shul School: "Thinking Matters" Resumes

Our "Thinking Matters: Modern Jewish Philosophy"
course series continues this winter!
Join an impressive line-up of teachers to wrestle with the exciting and challenging questions of modern Jewish philosophy! Can there be such a thing as a Jewish philosophy, or a philosophy of Judaism? How have Jewish traditions participated in the philosophical canon? How are Judaism and Jewish ideas relevant to the modern relationship of ethics, theology, and philosophy?

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.


January 7
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

Reading: Walter Benjamin, "Dialogue on the Religiosity of the Present" (1912)

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

March 17: Philosophy of Purim in The Big Lebowski, Part I: “I don’t roll on Shabbos," Jewish Identity, & the Philosophy of History
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)