Free from what she calls the “really real,” this is a powerful memory by Laura Levitt who studied under the wing of the late Jacob Neusner at Brown before launching her own spectacular career as a pioneer scholar of Judaism and gender. Well-know for his rigor and cruelty, Neusner never claimed her as his “own,” which Levitt marks as both painful and liberating. Not Neusner’s student, i.e. not a scholar of Mishnah or Talmud, she writes, “Perhaps this disappointment was the greatest gift. Because he never claimed me as his, I remained free. In the years after I entered the academy, Jacob Neusner never acknowledged or responded to any of my scholarly work, although there were many times when I would have loved a response, any sliver of recognition. But in the end, I was one of the lucky ones. I’ve had a career all my own. Since I left Brown, I’ve been beholden to no one. Without him, I’ve been free to cultivate my imagination, to read and write, research and teach exactly what I want.” You can read the whole piece here.
reading about F.Rosenzweig in Lilla’s Shipwrecked Mind book, be interested in yer take on the book if you get a chance to check it out.
on one foot, what does Lilla say about Rosenzweig?
as working against Hegel (writ large) via a therapeutic shift “Ins Leben”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04k2g6g
e is he says, on a mission from God, Robert Berman’s lifelong campaign for organ donation to be permissible under Jewish/Talmudic law – Halacha – is at the centre of an ongoing debate in Israel. Berman, a Harvard University graduate, is striving to change attitudes to the donating of organs and possibly redefine the strict and ancient definition of death