Valley Beit Midrash

A hybrid (in-person and virtual) event presentation by Dr. Elias Sacks

EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY:

BMH-BJ

ABOUT THE EVENT:

Is it offensive and blasphemous to say that God love us? Is Judaism nothing more than the laws of an ancient kingdom that have been mistaken for a religion? Does God have body parts, romantic relationships, and other human-like characteristics? We will explore ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish thinkers who have answered “yes” to these questions, as well as other Jewish thinkers who have deemed such ideas to be heretical. Throughout, we will wrestle both with diverse voices from the Jewish tradition, and with this overarching question: is there anything that Jews aren’t allowed to believe?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Elias Sacks is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies Jewish thought, philosophy of religion, Jewish-Christian relations, religious ethics, and religion and politics. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (2017), as well as articles on medieval and modern thinkers including Mendelssohn, Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Jacob Taubes. Previously, Sacks served as Director of The Jewish Publication Society.