Course description: This course on the writings of Hebrew literature’s only Nobel laureate. We will cover an array of topics and issues while encountering and exploring his writing, including: (1) Agnon’s unique use of intertextuality, his crafting of a nexus of sources reaching back to Biblical and Rabbinic literature through and including the Hasidic writings and those of the Jewish Enlightenment to craft his modern stories; (2) Agnon’s writing as an exemplar of the “re-awoken” Hebrew language and his role in that renaissance; (3) Agnon’s major themes: The tension and transition between tradition and modernity, between the old world and the new, between the Diaspora and the renewed Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael.
Bio: Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is the Director of Research at the Agnon House in Jerusalem, Series Editor of The S.Y. Agnon Library at The Toby Press, and Editor of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. He is the founding
director of ATID – The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education, in Jerusalem, and its WebYeshiva.org program. A three-time graduate of Yeshiva University (BA, MA, Ordination), Saks has lived in Israel for over 30 years and has published widely on Jewish thought, education, and literature.
Dates: March 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17
Time: 18:00 - 21:00
Registration: info@ashkenazium.eu
