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Part of the learning series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

This event was generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.

“Men are more likely to have anger issues.” “Women are more sensitive than men are.” We are all familiar with gendered beliefs and stereotypes about emotion in today’s world. Presumptions about gender and emotion also existed in the time of the rabbis, though not necessarily the ones we’d expect. Join Dr. Sarah Wolf to look at rabbinic texts about jealousy and other emotions that are portrayed as negative or dangerous, noticing how gender roles function in these texts, and to reflect on how rabbinic ideas about gender and emotions can help us shed light on our own.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.

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Part of the series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

This session is generously sponsored by Yale Asbell, 91�첥 Trustee

What sort of religious experience does the Book of Psalms reflect and encourage? Does the book primarily appeal to our emotions, or is it first and foremost a work to be studied on an intellectual level? Join Dr. Benjamin Sommer to see how the Book of Psalms provides its own answers to these questions. By addressing these questions, we will have an opportunity to think about the relative places in Judaism of emotion and reason, heart and mind, and to explore the relationship between prayer and text-study in the Bible and rabbinic Judaism.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.

Download Sources

Part of the learning series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

Grief is a primal emotion, often associated with paralysis, but sometimes it has the power to generate great change in the face of loss. In this session, we will study some rabbinic sources that focus on grief and the ways that the rabbis use it to transform their circumstances and their communities.  

With Dr. Rachel Rosenthal, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91�첥.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.

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Part of the learning series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

The Holocaust was one of the most profound ruptures in Jewish history. And yet, the foundational human emotion of love persisted—and even blossomed—in the most devastating circumstances. Dr. Edna Friedberg explores the varied manifestations of love—romantic, parental, platonic—at a time of terror and loss. Each of these forms of deep affection and connection offered psychological sustenance and sometimes spurred life-saving acts of courage and altruism. The session will draw from primary sources including diaries, oral testimonies, artifacts, and historical photographs.  

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.

Download Sources

Part of the learning series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

In , the prophet compares the divine word to “a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones.” This powerful image of irresistible passion constrained has long been interpreted in both positive and negative ways.  Dr. Alan Cooper examined how the image has been used by Jewish authors and also glance at the way it has come to prominence as the title of both Charles M. Blow’s memoir and Terence Blanchard’s pioneering opera based on the memoir. 

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. 91�첥 scholars explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds. 

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.

Download Sources

Part of the series, “The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life“

Through study of Kabbalistic texts ranging from 13th-century Spain to 16th-century Tzfat, Dr. Eitan Fishbane, associate professor of Jewish Thought, 91�첥, explored how the related themes of love and compassion were central to the spiritual and ethical thinking of key Kabbalists. For these mystics, compassion and love were simultaneously ideals in relation to other people and in relation to God; what is more, many understood interpersonal compassion and love as actual manifestations of Divinity in the earthly realm. Our createdness in the image of God brings the ideals of emotion and virtue to life in the physical world.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View all sessions in the series

SPONSOR A SESSION

Did you know that you can  to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more, contact learninglives@jtsa.edu. 

Download Sources

Part of the series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

With Rabbi Mychal Springer, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and Adjunct Professor, 91�첥.

Though it is possible to be lonely while surrounded by others, the loneliness that has surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the ways that being alone intensifies loneliness. Rabbi Mychal Springer explores the existential issues related to belonging and abandonment, drawing on Jewish spiritual resources that help foster a loving embrace, divine and human, even when we must carefully balance distance and proximity in the face of contagion. 

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View all sessions in the series

SPONSOR A SESSION

This event is generously sponsored by members of the Center for Pastoral Education Advisory Board.

Did you know that you can  to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more, contact learninglives@jtsa.edu. 

Download Sources

Part of the learning series, The Power of Emotion: Judaism and the Inner Life

We often think of shame or embarrassment as an experience to be avoided, and, to be sure, rabbinic tradition considers shaming someone else in public to be a grievous sin. But the Talmud also teaches that the capacity to feel shame is important, for the fear of shame will keep one from sin. Dr. David Kraemer discusses this complicated emotion and how Jewish tradition “feels” about it.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Joy. Grief. Anger. Shame. Love. Emotional experience is often at the center of our lives. Join us for sessions that explore perceptions of emotions in Jewish texts and offer surprising and useful insights for understanding the feelings that make up our inner worlds.

View All Sessions in the Series

SPONSOR A SESSION

At 91�첥, we are committed to providing the Jewish community with outstanding classes in Judaic studies. We hope you will partner with us so that we can continue to do so. Did you know that you can sponsor a learning session to honor a loved one, celebrate an occasion, or commemorate a yahrzeit? To learn more visit the  or email learninglives@jtsa.edu.