EAJS Conference 2023

The study of musar is still one of the least developed research fields within Jewish Studies. This is partly due to the fact that the term denotes a variety of literary phenomena and modes, and as such is situated between disciplines. The panel will demonstrate how the analysis of the heterogeneous materials subsumed under the term musar benefits from the utilization of multiple approaches. Using several early modern and modern examples from the Ottoman Sephardic, the Ashkenazic, and the Central- and Eastern-European Hasidic context, the four papers will address the place of positive and negative emotions, as well as the role that intrapersonal, interpersonal, and supernatural dimensions play in moralistic discourses. These and other aspects will be analyzed through the lens of different methodological and theoretical considerations from digital humanities, film studies, and psychology. In doing so, they will offer fresh perspectives and offer a more nuanced picture of the diversity of musar.

 

Chair: Agata Paluch, FU Berlin

 

(Patrick B. Koch, University of Hamburg)

 

(Ilaria Briata. University of Hamburg)

 

(Isaac Hershkowitz, Bar Ilan University)

 

(Leore Sachs-Shmueli, Bar Ilan University)

 

For the full conference programme, click here.