Open Minded Torah: Of Irony, Fundamentalism and Love

Description

In essays as likely to turn to baseball, Denzel Washington, and the NASDAQ as to Macbeth, quantum physics and psychoanalysis, William Kolbrener provides powerful - and often surprising - insights into how open mindedness allows for authentic Jewish commitment in an age otherwise defined by fundamentalism and unbelief. Open Minded Torah presents - on topics ranging from parenting a son with Down syndrome to Biblical criticism to Talmudic interpretation of dreams - a perspective on Torah which emphasizes scepticism, creativity and the need to embrace difference. Through a personal synthesis of Western and Jewish learning, popular culture and philosophy, Kolbrener offers a compelling new vision where being open minded allows for a non-dogmatic and committed Jewish life. Informed by Kolbrener's considerable erudition, but always accessible, the essays show that scepticism informs belief, commitment grounds creativity, and non-defensive receptiveness makes individual autonomy possible. For every person, it is said, there is a corresponding letter in the Torah: this innovative collection shows Kolbrener writing his letter, and providing the inspiration for others to write their own.

William Kolbrener is a professor of English Literature at Bar Ilan University in Israel. An internationally renowned authority on Renaissance poetry and philosophy, with books on John Milton and the eighteenth-century proto-feminist Mary Astell, Kolbrener also publishes widely on Jewish life and learning. Visit his blog at www.openmindedtorah.com.

'This collection of short personal essays covers a wide range of topics, illustrating how open mindedness allows us to more genuinely engage with our Judaism...' -JTNews: The Voice of Jewish Washington Reviewed in the Jewish Quarterly. Recommendation on the Jewish Daily Forward Sisterhood blog, http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/139549/ Short article on author/book at http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/1220/A-Vital-Relationship Interview with the author at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/animal/2011/07/27/billy-kolbrener Author interview in The Jerusalem Post The author... strives for Jewish engagement through open-mindedness, for a point between today's extremes of strident adherence to the letter of the law, and rejection of that law. His premise- that in Judaism, there is space to let in the world around us- is refreshing and welcome. -- Chicago Jewish Star Kolbrener will make an agreeable literary companion over a weekend, an elegant exponent of 21st-century Torah im derech eretz, rooted in traditional Jewish commitment while open to wider civilisation. He moves effortlessly from personal experience to the world of ideas... Arguing for a "Jewish multiculturalism" in Israel, Kolbrener champions cultured complexity over over-restrictive conformity. His cosmopolitan sensibility is a model for mainstream Jewish day schools to aspire to. http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-book-reviews/61802/open-minded-torah -- Jewish Chronicle Online 'This beautiful book is an exhilarating hybrid, steeped in traditional learning but at home in the modern world, centered on universal questions and yet deeply personal, informed by theology and philosophy and yet guided quite humbly by the challenge of living each day with wisdom and kindness.' - Jonathan Rosen, author of The Talmud and the Internet 'When a great and capacious mind, blessed with sensibility and sensitivity, engages in conversation with the timeless texts of Torah, the result is both enlightening and enthralling. That is what William Kolbrener's new book represents, and all whose Judaism is reflective and thoughtful will be enlarged by it.'- Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks 'William Kolbrener is adept at finding Torah in places where you don't expect it and at finding the unanticipated in the Torah. This is a book for people who want help listening for the elusive, important silences that course beneath the clamor of everyday life.'- Judith Shulevitz, author of The Sabbath World