Program: Hebrew College Tamid
Instructor: Jacob Meskin, PhD
Dates: 8 Tuesdays: 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 4/7 & 4/14
Time: 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. ET
Course fee: $400, financial aid is available
Location: In Person at Temple Isaiah, Lexington, MA
Hosted by: Hebrew College, Temple Isaiah and Temple Emunah
Registration: Click here
Many modern Jews enjoy Judaism’s communal rituals and ethical teachings, but greet talk of “Jewish religious experience” with lack of interest – and even disdain. Perhaps this sort of talk made sense to our medieval, pre-scientific ancestors, but what could it really mean today, in the twenty-first century? In addition, while “religious experiences” remain important in other religions, Judaism seems different – leaving modern Jews with questions about what a Jewish religious experience might be, whether Jews actually have them, and even whether Jews ought to want them!
In this course we will examine 1) how modernity has changed our understanding of religious experience; 2) what religious experience has looked like in Jewish tradition, and 3) whether religious experience is even a Jewish value. Our approach will be intellectual and historical, rather than an attempt to help anyone to find a spiritual path.
In the first part of this course we will grapple specifically with the intriguing question of whether religious experience is possible in the modern world. Recent work in philosophy and sociology can help us see the long process of concrete changes through which we became modern, ending up as quite different from our medieval ancestors. Understanding this process requires reflecting not only on science, but also on how we came to hold our contemporary ideas about the rights of the individual, about the social order, about sex and gender, and about the importance of the body. But, surprisingly, nothing about our distinctly modern, secular frame of reference rules out the possibility of religious experiences. Yet even so, we would have to see such an experience through the lens of modernity. An individual today who felt she had undergone a religious experience would describe it from within the paradigm of modernity: for example, as a far-reaching, transformative personal experience of insight or realization. What she would not do would be to describe it using the medieval paradigm of miraculous, blatantly supernatural occurrences.
In the second part of the course we will try to figure out what “Jewish religious experiences” are in the first place. We will study the traditional Jewish spiritual movements of mussar and hasidism, seeking to understand how they aim to develop the capacity for individual religious experience. These movements, both of which incorporate practices that we today would call species of “meditation,” strive to transform seemingly commonplace features of Jewish life, such as prayer, holiday rituals and celebrations, into profound spiritual disciplines and practices. Thus the mundane practice of Jewish ritual, for instance, can also become something more: a personal spiritual path.
We will conclude by looking at contemporary Jewish thinkers who question whether religious experiences really are a Jewish value at all. They advance powerful visions of Jewish life that emphasize study, tikkun olam, building community, caring for others, and the gradual cultivation of intellectual and personal wisdom as the goals of Judaism – as opposed to the “sudden bursts of enthusiasm” often associated with religious experience. We will explore this spirited debate.
For additional information or questions, contact the Hebrew College Tamid Team
Sponsor a Tamid Class
We warmly invite you to consider dedicating your class in loving memory or honor of a dear one by making a gift in support of Jewish learning. Simply use our secure form and indicate in the text box that this is your class sponsorship. Please be sure to write the class name so your thoughtfulness can be recognized by your instructor. (Suggested minimum gift of $360). Thank you!
