8: Looking to the future

10/26/18 • 12 min

Neil Gillman, professor of philosophy at JTS, made it his mission to encourage generations of JTS students, as well as countless members of the Jewish public, to develop their own theologies, rather than relying exclusively on the giants of the past such as those who have been discussed in this podcast. Chancellor Eisen lays out his own approach, grounded in the ongoing covenant with God that enables us to continue the authoritative Jewish conversation in our generation.
Further reading
Neil Gillman, Sacred Fragments
Arnold Eisen, Conservative Judaism Today and Tomorrow (www.jtsa.edu/today)

Previous Episode

7: Hearing women’s voices and moving “from path to pathlessness”

Jewish feminism has been a major influence on Conservative Judaism since the 1970s. Judith Hauptman, professor emerita at JTS, has brought her deep knowledge of rabbinic literature to developing new positions on women’s halakhic obligations. Mara Benjamin is soon to publish a book that uses her own experience of motherhood as a lens on Jewish ethics. A further example of innovating out of a thorough understanding of the tradition comes from Arthur Green, who syntheses Kaplan and Heschel into a naturalist mystical theology.
Further reading
Hauptman: “Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies,” (JUDAISM, Winter 1993) https://ohelayalah.org/wp-content/uploads/article.pdf
Mara Benjamin, The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought (2018)
Arthur Green, “Rethinking Theology,” Radical Judaism, 1-15

Next Episode

Introducing What Now? A JTS Podcast

In this opening episode of JTS’s new podcast, What Now?, host Sara Beth Berman tells her story and speaks with Professor Alan Mittleman. Dr. Mittleman shares his own experiences with loss, framing tragedies as taking place in a world that is nevertheless good and that gives us reason for hope. We also learn why giving Professor Mittleman advice is never a good idea.
Subscribe now:
RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3550593/episodes/feed
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-now-a-jts-podcast/id1465791989
Cover art: Aura Lewis
Theme music: “Jat Poure”by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
Funding: The Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious & Social Studies at JTS.
Contact us at [email protected], and find other JTS podcasts at www.jtsa.edu/podcasts.