Rethinking Judaism
Larry Gillick and Gerard Badler
This event, originally scheduled for April 10, has been postponed to a later date.
Please join us for a Shir Hadash Adult Education "seminar" on Rethinking Judaism led by Larry Gillick and Gerard Badler. For location call (617) 965-6862. This session will explore deep, critical conflicts between modernity and Judaism--why these occur and how they might be resolved. Based on the reactions to Larry's d'var last fall and questions raised during Rabbi Audrey's recent three-session course, many of us are dealing with profound uncertainties regarding the proper role and value of religious doctrine and practices in our lives that have not been satisfactorily addressed by Reconstructionist thought.
Among the issues you'll be invited to explore:
- Can one find value in observing Jewish rituals even if, as is true for some of us, we accept neither the Orthodox nor Reconstructionist concepts of God? Is that value sufficient to retain the interest of our descendants?
- How useful are Rabbi Arthur Green's ideas, expressed in his book Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition, advocating major changes in our thinking about the nature of God, Torah and halakhic rules?
- What role should modern notions of empiricism, multiculturalism, uncertainty and experimentation play in the future evolution of Judaism? What are the benefits and dangers of integrating these concepts into our tradition?
There is no required reading for this event but we will be referring to the following books:
- Green, Arthur, Radical Judaism: Rethinking God & Tradition, Yale University Press, 2010.
- Silver, Mitchell, A Plausible God: Secular Reflections on Liberal Jewish Theology, Fordham University Press, 2006.
- Biale, David, Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought, Princeton University Press, 2010.