UPCOMING LECTURE SERIES:

"REFORMULATING JEWISH BELIEF: 

THREE GREAT 20TH CENTURY THINKERS"

Presentations by Rabbi Michael L. Morgan, PhD
March 22-24, 2012
At Temple Emanu-El and the University of Arizona

"The Social and Ethical Character of Human Existence:  Emmanuel Levinas and Judaism"  

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012

Time: 7pm

Location: Kiva Auditorium (University of Arizona Student Union)

The link between Emmanuel Levinas and Judaism is his account of the social and ethical character of human existence.  On the one hand, Levina's philosophical views draw upon Jewish ideas and themes, from the Bible, the Talmud and figures like Maimonides; Judaism does contribute to his account of the human condition.  On the other hand, Levina's understanding of Jewish life can only be appreciated from the point of view of his philosophy and philosophical writings.  The key to both relationships is the way in which Levinas portrays human existence as fundamentally ethical and his belief that this insight is central to Judaism and Jewish texts.  In this lecture I will explore these issues and show what is distinctive and valuable in the conjunction of philosophy and Judaism in Levinas's thinking.

 

"Franz Rosenzweig's Conception of Judaism: Too High a Price to Pay?" 

Date: Friday, March 23, 2012

Time: During Shabbat Evening Services

Location: Temple Emanu-El (Rubin Family Sanctuary)

During the decades of World War I and Weimar Germany, Franz Rosenzweig developed a powerful and compelling conception of Judaism.  To Rosenzweig, Judaism plays a vital role in history and yet a role detached from political concerns and a responsibility for history.  The narrative of history may require Jewish life, but the Jewish contribution is not to draw society close to its goal.  Rather Jewish time is itself cyclical, a mirror of eternity, and central to Judaism is the life of ritual and liturgical practice.  How and why does he come to view?  And today, as we ask what can and should be recovered from his thinking, is this outcome too high a price to pay?

 

"Emil Fackenheim's Legacy: Judaism and Tikkun Olam after the Holocaust" 

Date: Saturday, March 24, 2012

Time: During Rabbi's Tish

Location: Temple Emanu-El (Board Room)

In the late 1960s Emile Fackenheim first exposed his conception of Jewish life and Jewish faith to the horrors of the death camps and Nazi atrocities.  As a result of that exposure, he came to understand how contemporary Jewish life can and must recover beliefs and practices from the Jewish past but only insofar as that recovery is also a response to the horrors of Auschwitz.  A Judaism without a sense of the past is empty, but a Judaism without appreciation of Auschwitz is blind.  Today, after those events, Judaism must be a mode of "mending the world" and mending itself.  How and why should that tikkun, that mending, take place?  For over 35 years, Fackenheim explored these issues in philosophical and Jewish writings that are monuments to a deep sense of Jewish fidelity.

 

Dr. Morgan received his rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in 1970, and his doctoral degree in Philosophy from The University of Toronto. He is the author of sixteen books on subjects as diverse as Jewish Thought After the Holocaust, Modern Jewish Philosophy, and Moral and Political Theory.  Among these works are several that examine the contributions of important thinkers such as Benedict Spinoza, Emil Fackenheim, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Co-sponsored by Temple Emanu-El, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, Hillel of the University of Arizona, Religious Studies Program of the University of Arizona, Philosophy Department of the University of Arizona, Tucson Marriott University Park.

Bilgray Lectureship

The Bilray Lectureship is a joint project, cosponsored by Temple Emanu-El and the University of Arizona. With the cooperation of the Program of Judaic Studies, it brings to Tucson distinguished authorities in the realm of Judaic studies. 

The Bilgray Lectureship was created in 1985 by members of Temple Emanu-El in Tucson, Arizona to honor Albert T. Bilgray, Rabbi Emeritus and Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. In the course of more than a quarter century, Bilgray created and helped develop three programs at the University: Hebrew Language and Literature, Religious Studies and Judaic Studies. The Lectureship seeks to perpetuate the two primary emphases of Bilgray's career, through a popular presentation on Jewish life and literature as well as through an academic scholarly approach. 

PREVIOUS LECTURES

1986 

Professor Jacob R. Marcus

"The Significance of American History"

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1988 

Professor Robert Alter

"Putting Together Biblical Narrative"

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 1989 

Professor Amos Funkenstein

"Intellectuals and Jews"

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1990  

Professor Jacob R. Marcus

"Josephus and the Pharisees"

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1991 

Professor Leon A. Jick

"Method in Madness"

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 1992 

Professor Arnold M. Eisen

"Rethinking Jewish Modernity"

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1993  

Professor Shermaryahu Talmon

"The Dead Sea Scrolls' or the Community of the Renewed Covenant"

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1994 

Professor Michael Fishbane

"The Song of Songs and the Jewish Religious Imagination"

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 1995 

Professor Susannah Heschel

"Transforming Jesus from Rabbi to Aryan"

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 1996 

Professor Marc Bregman

"Sarah bat Asher, Biblical Origins, Rabbinic Aggadah and Contemporary Folklore"

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1997 

Professor Amy-Jill Levine

"Women in Jeopardy"

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 1998 

Professor Arnold J. Band

"Hebrew Literature and the Zionist Narrative"

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2002 

Dr. Daniel Matt

"God and the Big Bang"

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2003 

Dr. Mitchel Scharzer

Constructing Jewish Life 

"Recreating a World in Images"

"Rebuilding Judaism: The Architecture of Memory"

"The Architecture of the Talmud"

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 2004 

Rabbi Steve Greenberg

"Same Sex Marriage: Devil and Religious Values in 2005"

"God, Humor, and Sex: Comic Scenes from a Rabbinic Wedding"

"Homosexuality and Jewish Law"

"Trembling Before God"

"To be GLBT and Jewish: A Conversation"

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2005 

Rabbi Byron Sherwin, PhD

"When Passion Cools: Judaism and Catholicism from Vatican II to the 21st Century"

"Interfaith Relations in the Post 9/11 World"

"Workers of Wonders: Biblical Prophets, Jesus, Talmudic Rabbis, Kabbalists and Hasidic Masters"

"An Interfaith Dialogue with Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas"

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2006 

Professor Reuven Firestone

Judaism & Islam 

"Divine Authority and Mss Violence: Holy Way in Islam, Christianity and Judaism"

"The Problem of Closeness in Judaism and Islam"

"Jews & Muslims in Texts: How do we See Each Other?"

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 2007 

Professor Tamara Cohn Eskenazi

The Bible and its Relevance to Contemporary Life 

"Did They Fall or Were They Pushed?  Adam and Eve and the Birth of Possibilities"

"Tales of Power and Passion: The Story of King David"

"The Bible and the Seasons of Our Life"

"Biblical Sources of Transformation"

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 2008 

Professor Jonathan Sarna

The Emergence of American Judaism 

"The Mystical World of Colonial American Jews"

"American Judaism Emerges"

"George Washington's Correspondence with the Jews of Newport"

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2009  

Rabbi Neil Gillman

God: Today and Tomorrow 

"The Death of Death: Jewish Views of the Afterlife"

"Thinking about God: How a Modern Jew can Speak of God"

"Views of Revelation: Heschel, Kaplan, and Buber"

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2010 

Professor Jonathan Boyarin

Jewish Identity and the Kaleidoscope of Generations 

"Tricksters' Children: Paul Radin, Stanley Diamond and Filiation in Anthropology"

"Jewishness and the Kaleidoscope of Generation"

"Hasidic Modernity: Radical Introspection in Early 19th Century Poland"

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 2011 

Professor Joe Regenstein

Jews and Food: The Ethics of Eating 

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Kosher and Halal, But Were Afraid to Ask"

"How the Oreo Cookie Became Kosher"

"The New Mark of Kosher: The Ethical Treatment of Workers and Animals in Food Processing"

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 2012 

Rabbi Michael L. Morgan, PhD

"Emmanuel Levinas and Judaism"

"Franz Rosenzweig's Conception of Judaism: Too High a Price to Pay?"

"Emil Fackenheim's Legacy: Judaism and Tikkun Olam after the Holocaust"

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