The Jewish tradition — technically speaking, the rabbinic tradition that establishes what is called “Judaism” and which is known in emic terms as “the Oral Tradition” — might be described as a courageous and even audacious attempt of the ancient rabbis to read and implement the Bible in a manner consistent with their own ethical ideals. This, even when doing so required them to assert readings that clearly contradicted the plain sense of Scripture. In this session we will explore the ways in which rabbinic morality and commitment to the sanctity of human life led to the neutralization of biblical justification of holy wars and their concomitant genocides

In Kooperation mit

• Born in 1965 in Detroit, USA.
• He is Sir Isaac Wolfson Full Professor of Jewish Thought in the Departement of Jewish History at the University of Haifa.
• He represents the fields of Jewish thought and rabbinic literature on the Executive Board of the World Union of Jewish Studies.
• Chajes's research focuses on the intersection of Kabbalah, magic, and science in early modern Jewish culture.
• He has written on spirit possession and exorcism, women’s religiosity, attitudes towards magic, and on the visualization of knowledge. His forthcoming The Kabbalistic Tree (PSUP) has already won an Israel Science Foundation pre-publication prize.
• His recently published The Kabbalistic Tree was awarded the 2023 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for best book in the category of philosophy and Jewish thought.
• Chajes's pioneering work has been awarded five Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grants, the Friedenberg Prize for the outstanding project in the humanities, and two Volkswagen Foundation grants to develop the digital humanities project "Maps of God - The Visual Kabbalah Portal (ilanot.org)."

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