Yonatan Brafman, assistant professor of Modern Judaism at Tufts and the University of Pennsylvania, teaches this class on Hayyim of Volozhin. Hayyim of Volozhin (1749-1821) was a founder of modern Judaism through his institution, the Etz Hayyim Yeshiva, which is called the "mother of yeshivot," and his book, Nefesh ha-Hayyim, which presents continuous Torah study as the spiritual ideal. This class will explore how Hayyim of Volozhin attempted to justify the practice of commandments precisely in a world that seems devoid of God and the study of non-mystical Torah expressly because of its place in kabbalah. How does the structure and instability of his thought reflect Judaism today?

Yonatan Brafman is an assistant professor of Modern Judaism in the Department of Religion and a member of the Program in Judaic Studies at Tufts University, and this year the Thomas and Elissa Ellant Katz Fellow at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intersection of Jewish thought, Jewish law, and contemporary moral, legal, and political philosophy. He is the editor, with Leora Batnitzky, of Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on State, Religion, and Morality, and author of Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Norms and Normativity (forthcoming).

Open to all learning levels.