Dr. Benjamin Sommer
Congregation Netivot Shalom is excited to host Dr. Benjamin Sommer, Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary, as our Scholar-in-Residence February 21-23. Professor Sommer is renowned for his innovative scholarship and wonderful teaching. He is the author of th e award-winning Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “a traditionalist but an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today.” Professor Sommer will teach at Netivot Friday night, February 21, Saturday afternoon February 22, and Sunday morning, February 23.
Friday, February 21, 8:15 – 9:15 PM
“Praying with Angels: Psalm 29 and the Kedushah Prayer”
Psalm 29 is one of several biblical texts that describe not only human beings as praising God but heavenly beings as well. Examining texts of this type — which continued to be composed in the postbiblical period, as the Kedushah Prayer shows — will shed light on Judaism’s views of humanity, community, and creativity.
Saturday, February 22, 1:15 – 2:15 PM
(Shabbat day after kiddush)
“Complaint, Appeal, Protest: The Psalms of Crisis”
About thirty of the poetic prayers found in the Book of Psalms are psalms recited by a person or community experiencing some calamity and begging for divine aid. Comparing these prayers to other parts of the Bible and to other ancient prayers will show how they form a bold, original, and surprising stream in biblical theology.
Sunday, February 23, 10 – 11 AM
“Sacred Space in the Torah: Two Memories, Two Theologies”
Starting with this week’s parashah, the Torah describes a structure called “the אהל מועד” (“Tent of Meeting”) in considerable detail. But a close look at the next several parashot and at texts from the Book of Numbers shows that the Torah contains two strikingly different memories of this tent. Comparing the two will reveal a productive tension between two visions of holiness and two understandings of religion itself.
This Scholar-in-Residence series of lectures has been sponsored by Rabbi Judith Hauptman Adesnik and her three sons, Ariel, Hillel, and Moshe Adesnik, in memory of her husband and their father, Professor Milton Bernard Adesnik. He was a professor of molecular biology at NYU Medical School for over 40 years and an active member of Town and Village Synagogue, on whose board he served with distinction for more than two decades. He made a lifelong commitment to adult (Jewish) education, bringing high quality programming to his synagogue community.
Benjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Senior Fellow at the Kogod Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought of the Shalom Hartman Institute. His books, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (Yale, 2015), The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2009), and A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40–66 (Stanford, 1998), received multiple prizes in the United States and Israel. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “a traditionalist but an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today.”