News from Scholion: On Religions of Place, Knowledge and Pain
The Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies, a pioneering center at the Hebrew University’s Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, seeks to create a vibrant academic community that engages in broad-minded intellectual and cultural dialogue, whose impact reaches far beyond the ivory tower. Scholion groups undertake research projects that introduce innovative methods of scholarly investigation and shed new perspectives on the topic under study, in both Jewish and general contexts.
“On Religions of Place and Religions of Community”
During the past three years, the Scholion research group “On Religions of Place and Religions of Community” has been deliberating whether the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. was really a watershed in Jewish history, with fundamental significance for the Jewish religion and Jewish people.
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Both traditional sources and modern historiography have assumed that the destruction of the Temple impacted radically upon the entire Jewish world, moving Judaism from a priestly religion centered on the Temple and the city of Jerusalem to a synagogue-centered religion led by rabbis with no particular geographical focus. However, modern scholarship on Jews and Judaism in antiquity has found evidence of major changes in the Jewish world already before the Temple’s destruction. Moreover, while the centuries that followed the destruction of the Temple did witness various changes in Judaism, it may well be that they should be traced not – or not so much – to that event as to such other factors as the rise of Christianity, which also began in the first century. |
"A unified voice did not rise out of the conference," summarized Prof. Daniel Schwartz after the 3-day seminar hosted by the "On Religions of Place and Religions of Community" Scholion Research Group |
These conflicting perspectives were the basis for the discussions at the international conference, “Was 70 C.E. Really a Watershed? On Jews and Judaism Before and After the Destruction of the Second Temple”, organized by this Scholion research group. During the three-day event, held in January 2009, the group members and other scholars in the fields of history, archeology, religion and sociology examined the evidence presented in their respective fields of expertise in an attempt to create a broad survey of the issues: What changed after the destruction, and to what extent did the changes result from that catastrophe?
“A unified voice did not rise out of the conference”, summarized research group member Professor Daniel Schwartz after the event, “The answers and evidence provided a ‘mixed bag’ of conclusions”. In some fields the evidence confirms the traditional view, that the destruction had a major impact on the subsequent course of Judaism, whereas evidence in other fields point away from that conclusion.
The papers presented at the conference, which thus indicate that progress can best be made when we focus on the separate issues rather than upon sweeping generalizations, are to appear in a volume that the members of the group are currently preparing for publication.
“Knowledge and Pain” workshop
Scholars of the humanities and scientists participated in the "Perspectives on Pain" International Workshop |
The “Knowledge and Pain” research group held an International Workshop entitled “Perspectives on Pains”. Scholars in the fields of neurology, anthropology, philosophy, history, art, music, Jewish studies and medicine spoke about pain from the viewpoint of their respective disciplines. Most notable was the participation of listeners from the School of Medicine. The discussions among the humanities scholars and the scientists were extremely lively and illuminating. As a matter of policy, the members of the research group did not lecture, for the aim of the workshop was to learn and achieve interdisciplinary communication, in the spirit of the Scholion Center. |
The Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem sponsors three concurrent research groups every year. Each group - which includes eight scholars, four senior researchers and four research students - deals with a particular topic in the field of Jewish studies, applying to it the varied methodologies and perspectives that each member brings from his or her discipline. This collaborative approach is meant to yield research that is more original and more insightful than each scholar could produce on his or her own.
Prof. Schwartz describes Scholion as a center of constant activity and productiveness. To illustrate his point, he tells of one member of his research group who was so energized by her experience that “despite a new baby and a husband working on his own doctoral research in Japan, she is producing chapters for her doctoral thesis in record time.”
For more information about Scholion: www.scholion.huji.ac.il
