Modern Jewish Thinkers

THIS IS A WEBYESHIVA.ORG MACHSHAVA MASTERY PROGRAM COURSE. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MACHSHAVA MASTERY PROGRAM OR TO APPLY PLEASE CLICK HERE.

This course with Rabbi Jeffrey Saks will examine the thought of rabbinic figures such as the Maharal of Prague, R. Nachman Krochmal, Moses Mendelssohn, R. Ḥayim of Volozhin, R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and R. Abraham Isaac Kook, alongside some major modern Jewish philosophers such as Benedict Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Central themes include the tension between autonomy and authority, the challenge of modern individualism, the rise of historicism, the influence of existentialism, and the impact of the Enlightenment on Jewish thought and identity. The individuals and topics shall be studied with an eye toward understanding cultural movements in modern Judaism, including Hassidism, Reform, the Mussar movement, Ultra-Orthodoxy and Modern Orthodoxy.