Rabbi Irving Greenberg is the President Emeritus of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. JLN’s mission is to create new institutions and initiatives to enrich the inner life (religious, cultural, institutional) of American Jewry. Alongside Michael Steinhardt and his son, JJ Greenberg, zichrono livracha, he played a founders role in the JLN initiated partnerships which include such major projects as birthright israel which gives the gift of a ten day educational first trip to Israel to Jews, 18-26 years old, worldwide, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) which offers seed money and expertise to create new day schools, and MAKOR (now Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y) which reaches out to Jews in their 20's and 30's through cutting edge music, arts and Jewish educational programs. Greenberg also served as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 2000-2002. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of pluralism and on the theology of Jewish-Christian relations.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi, a Harvard Ph.D. and scholar, Rabbi Greenberg has been a seminal thinker in confronting the Holocaust as an historical transforming event and Israel as the Jewish assumption of power and the beginning of a third era in Jewish history. In the book, Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century, Professor Steven T. Katz wrote, “No Jewish thinker has had a greater impact on the American Jewish community in the last two decades than Irving (Yitz) Greenberg.” Rabbi Greenberg has published numerous articles and monographs on Jewish thought and religion, including The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays (1988), a philosophy of Judaism based on an analysis of the Sabbath and holidays, Living in the Image of God: Jewish Teachings to Perfect the World, (1998) and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (2004).
From 1974 through 1997, he served as founding President of CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a pioneering institution in the development of adult and leadership education in the Jewish community and the leading organization in intra-Jewish dialogue and the work of Jewish unity. Before CLAL was founded, he served as Rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, as Associate Professor of History at Yeshiva University, and as founder, chairman and Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York.
7/18/11
God, Faith, and the Path of Lovingkindness: Exploring Core Issues in Theology
Core Issues in Jewish Theology: A Signature Lecture Series Rabbi Shai Held
This three part series will explore central themes in Jewish theology and their relevance to our lives. Lecture topics include:
I. How (Not) To Talk About God April 28, 2010 In this first session, we'll begin by exploring the very different ways two seminal Jewish thinkers-- Maimonides and Abraham Joshua Heschel-- thought about God, and see what's at stake for us in their disagreement. We'll continue by discussing why the idea of God's transcendence is so important for Jewish theology-- why, in other words, everything is not God. Listen to Session 1 (April 28)
II. On Faith, Doubt, and the Possibility of Believing in Our Time May 5, 2010 In this session, we'll explore some of the ways Jewish thinkers have thought about faith and doubt, and about the relationship between them. How might we think about faith-- what does it mean? What does it look like in real life? What risks are entailed by a life of faith? We'll also ask how the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard can help us think about faith, passion, and uncertainty in our own lives.
III. On Walking in God's Ways and the Path of Lovingkindness (Hesed) May 12, 2010 In this final session, we'll explore what Judaism sees as the culmination of the good life: embodying the ideal of Hesed in the world. Using Maimonides as our springboard, we'll explore the relationship between a life of contemplation and a life of action.
We hope you will join us for these lectures. RSVPS are not required.
Can't attend? All lectures will be broadcast live on u-stream and made available in podcast and video form
3/3/11
The Heart of Judaism: Seven Jewish Ideas to Change Your Life
Rabbi Shai Held
In this series of classes, we will explore seven of the most fundamental Jewish ideas, ideas that have the potential to challenge, deepen, and enrich the ways we live our lives--both as individuals and as a community. Some of the ideas we will be considering include: 1) gratitude for the gift of life and creation as the foundation of the spiritual life; 2) the notion that every human beign is created in the image of God and is therefore infinitely valuable; 3) the mandate to "walk in God's ways" by caring for the vulnerable through acts of hesed (love and kindness); 4) the aspiration to turn our suffering into love by recalling that we were strangers in the Land of Egypt; and 5) the notion of tzimtzum (making space for others) as core to what it means to live in the image of God.
What happens when I pray-- to me? to God? What outcomes (if any) do I hope for? How does prayer relate to spiritual life more broadly, and how does my theology interact with my experience of prayer? In this series, we'll explore the ways in which four modern Jewish thinkers understand the meaning of prayer, and how their interpretation of prayer relates to their broader religious worldviews-- and to our own contemporary religious questions. Throughout, we'll move between understanding these thinkers on their own terms and asking whether and how their approaches to prayer and theology might challenge, inform, and enrich our own.
When: 3 Tuesday nights, November 30 - December 14 (come for any or all classes) Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Cost: $5 per class Where: Mechon Hadar, 190 Amsterdam Avenue (at 69th St.)
"Haham Adif mi-Navi" Rav Kook on the Meaning of Prophecy and Halakhah
Shiur Klali (Integrated Communal Learning)
Rabbi Shai Held Through a close reading of a beautiful essay by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, we'll discuss the relationship between broad vision (that is, Prophecy) on the one hand, and attention to detail (that is, Halakhah), on the other--in life in general, and in Jewish life in particular. Download Audio Recording1 hour, 51 minutes; 31.8 MB
Wonder, Prophecy, and Creativity: The Religious Worldviews of Rabbis Heschel and Soloveitchik
by Rabbi Shai Held
In this class, we will explore the theological worldviews of Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Joseph Soloveitchik. We'll begin with Heschel, and discuss: a) the meaning of wonder and radical amazement, and their connection to a sense of commandedness; b) Heschel's belief in a personal God and his idea that God is "in search of man"; c) the meaning of prophecy, and how prophets can serve as role models for our own religious lives; d) the problem of evil and how it affected Heschel's relationship with God; and e) the life of prayer, and our attempt to overcome self-centeredness. Then we'll turn to Soloveitchik and focus especially on the idea of the human being as creator, and on how that plays out in a variety of Soloveitchik's writings. The class aims both to introduce Heschel and Soloveitchik on their own terms, and to provide students with a vocabulary for thinking about their own religious commitments and obligations.
A Role Model for Social Action - Moshe's Leadership
Mishael Zion
Taking a close look at Shemot Chapter 2, with the help of Franz Kafka, Rabbi Moshe Chalphon hacohen and Yehuda Amichai, we will try to unravel some of the lessons Moshe Rabeinu teaches us about taking aciton in the face of injustice.
Few texts in the history of Judaism have been as evocative, elusive, and controversial as Genesis 22, the story of the Akedah. Why does God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son, and why does Abraham agree? What are the consequences of this fateful event for Abraham, Isaac, and Sarah-- and for us as readers and students of this text? We'll begin with a close literary and theological exploration of the Biblical text itself, consider the interpretations of Hazal, and then create a multi-faceted conversation among an array of modern Jewish (and Christian) thinkers as they-- and we-- struggle to make sense of this text and its role in Jewish theology and spirituality. Our investigation will include such thinkers as Soren Kierkegaard, Abraham Isaac Kook, Joseph Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, Phyllis Trible, Uriel Simon, Jon Levenson, and others.
Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg is one of the leading Jewish thinkers and activists of our time. He is the President Emeritus of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. He served as founder and president of CLAL from 1974-1997. Author of The Jewish Way, Living in the Image of God, and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity, he has written extensively on the theory and practice of pluralism among other topics.
