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Midrash Agnon

Course Description

Join us for a 5-part series on S.Y Agnon, Nobel Prize Laureate for Modern Hebrew literature. We will enjoy Agnon's stories from a literary perspective, while unraveling the "intertexts" of classical Jewish sources from which Agnon builds his stories and explore the resonances between text and mastertext. Stories will be read in English translation, with references to the original Hebrew text - but Hebrew fluency is not required to participate.

Agnon's writing explores an array of questions to sensitive readers - theological, cultural, spiritual - such as: the viability of Judaism in the Diaspora, the continuity of tradition in the face of modernity, the challenge and meaning of the return to Eretz Yisrael.

Participate in the course live in Agnon's own house in Talpiot, Jerusalem, or via the simultaneous, interactive, online broadcast via WebYeshiva.org (sessions will be recorded and archived for those unable to join in "real time"). We recommend buying A Book That Was Lost: Thirty-Five Stories by S.Y. Agnon (The Toby Press), available for online purchase here.

5 Sundays at 7:30 PM Jerusalem time, February 6-March 6, 2010

About Rabbi Jeffrey Saks
Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is the founding Director of ATID―The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education, in Jerusalem. An editorial board member of the journal Tradition, Rabbi Saks authored Spiritualizing Halakhic Education (Mandel Foundation) and edited Wisdom From All My Teachers: Challenges and Initiatives in Contemporary Torah Education (Urim). He is a graduate of Yeshiva University (BA, MA, Smicha) and participated in the Jerusalem Fellows program for senior Jewish educators at the Mandel Institute. He has taught at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, Yeshivat Hamivtar and Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim.