HAIG Lecture: “Supernal and Secret: Jewish Mysticism and the Humanities” by Steven Sacks

Steven Sacks, assistant professor of religion, will give a lecture titled “Supernal and Secret: Jewish Mysticism and the Humanities.” The scholastic tradition of rabbinic Judaism assumes a great deal of knowledge from its readers, presenting great obstacles to simple explanations and easy understandings. The challenge of the tradition only grows as the sages tread into the forbidden realms of Jewish mysticism. These traditions, however, lie at the heart of the Jewish tradition – which underscores our urgency to understand them, and their practitioners. In a discussion of his recent research, Sacks will address the expression of mysticism in the classical rabbinic tradition, and speak to mysticism’s challenge to the credo of the humanities: Nothing human is foreign to me.