Yakir Englander
Yakir Englander is a post-doctoral fellow in Israel Studies and a visiting professor of Religious Studies. He is a specialist in Modern Jewish Philosophy, with a focus on Gender Issues; his Ph.D., from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2012), is in Jewish Philosophy and Gender Studies. His Ph.D. dissertation - "The Perception of the Male Body in Ultra-Orthodox Society during the Last Sixty Years, and its Ramifications for Understanding the Human Subject and the World" - offers new understandings of the images of the male body in Jewish Ultra-Orthodox contexts in recent decades.
Yakir’s research is interdisciplinary, touching on the interfaces between Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Law and Gender Studies. He has authored articles on sexuality in Judaism (gay and lesbian issues, masturbation, and women's sexuality in Jewish divorce law), on the role of the body as a mnemonic in the work of post-Holocaust writer Aharon Appelfeld, on ‘shame’ in the Talmud, and on the body of the Hasidic tzadik (Jewish saint). His forthcoming book (co-authored with Prof. Avi Sagi) examines aspects of the religious-Zionist image of the body and sexuality during the last decade.
Another field that increasingly interests Yakir is interfaith dialogue, as well as theory and practice of nonviolent social change. He has been developing understanding of these issues through his volunteer work as Director of Kids4Peace in Israel and Palestine - a member of the global interfaith dialogue organization Kids4Peace International. In 2011, Yakir received the Berlinsky-Sheinfeld Award for Change in Israeli Society from The Israel Council of Higher Education, for his work in Kids4Peace.
Phone: 18478686541
Yakir’s research is interdisciplinary, touching on the interfaces between Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Law and Gender Studies. He has authored articles on sexuality in Judaism (gay and lesbian issues, masturbation, and women's sexuality in Jewish divorce law), on the role of the body as a mnemonic in the work of post-Holocaust writer Aharon Appelfeld, on ‘shame’ in the Talmud, and on the body of the Hasidic tzadik (Jewish saint). His forthcoming book (co-authored with Prof. Avi Sagi) examines aspects of the religious-Zionist image of the body and sexuality during the last decade.
Another field that increasingly interests Yakir is interfaith dialogue, as well as theory and practice of nonviolent social change. He has been developing understanding of these issues through his volunteer work as Director of Kids4Peace in Israel and Palestine - a member of the global interfaith dialogue organization Kids4Peace International. In 2011, Yakir received the Berlinsky-Sheinfeld Award for Change in Israeli Society from The Israel Council of Higher Education, for his work in Kids4Peace.
Phone: 18478686541
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Orit Kamir and Yakir Englander
This article applies a law-and-culture perspective to uncover and analyse the worldview embedded in the Mishnaic law of shame (boshet), the “law of physical injury” laid out in Chapter 8 of Bava Kamma. To lay out this worldview – the cultural tenets that both underlie and supersede the Mishnaic law – we read Chapter 8 as an enclosed literary unit, focusing on its subtext. Our reading presents the legal text as an intersection between a particular honor-and-shame mindset, and a socio-cultural construction of the human body. The significance and value attributed to the body in this textual unit are intertwined with the Tannaitic construction of honor-and-shame and with their formation of the role of law in Jewish tradition (Tannaim are the scholars who composed the Mishnah, a Jewish legal code, in the second century C.E.).
Our textual analysis reveals that the intersection of culture-body-law in the Mishnaic laws of physical injury reflects a profound and transformative – perhaps even revolutionary – cultural shift. The Tannaim who composed Chapter 8 founded it on cultural premises of honor-and-shame that must have prevailed in their society. However, the text displays a range of innovative legal means which they employed to subvert, soften, and even replace this honor-and-shame culture with an alternative one, rooted in an entirely different basic value: intrinsic human dignity (in its secular and/or religious guise, which in Jewish thought is associated with the Image of God, and which we refer to as “glory”).
In this article we suggest that the Mishnaic text that considers physical injury conveys the construction of the human body within a prevalent honor-and-shame culture – while radically reshaping and reframing both the honor-and-shame culture and the construction of the body through legal discourse imbued with human dignity and/or glory. This way the anonymous Tannaic editors of chapter 8 elevate the status of the human body, while designing a systematic, universal, non-metaphysical legal culture that advances perceptions of inherent human dignity and/or glory rather than honor and shame.
The aim of the article is to challenge the claim that Wiesel's mission is indeed humanistic. Using cultural-theoretical tools, I will argue that while Wiesel’s perspective contains deep implications for humanism, his project is not humanistic but religious. First I will extract from Wiesel’s writings the theological foundations of his thought. Then, I show how Wiesel goes back to his mystical tradition, and by using aspects of this unique theology, he offers new tools to recreate relationships among people.
The stories use the descriptions of the Zaddik’s body in order to emphasize this gap between him and his Hasidim. However, the image of the Zaddik’s body gives an opportunity for the Hasidim to touch his world, at least for a short while. From the stories we learn that the connection between the Hasidim and their Rebbe is material: the Zaddik’s body and other physical objects that are connected to him (clothing, tobacco). Thus, Hasidic Judaism emphasizes that humans are first of all physical/corporeal beings.
Rabbi Miller, one of the twentieth century’s most important spiritual
mentors in the United States, was chosen because of the perceptible change in his thinking in the latter half of his teaching career, when we find external (i.e., “secular”) values playing an increasingly central role. This led Rabbi Miller to alternative readings of classical Jewish concepts, and even to a call for significant changes in the manner of living a worthy Jewish life.
In the cultural world of the Tanaim and Amoraim, internal organs and body-matter were perceived quite differently from external organs and skin. We suggest that the sages created an implicit binary distinction between "internal body" and "external body". Tanaim and Amoraim seem to have viewed human beings as made up of external and internal bodies, both animated by soul (roughly resembling Freud’s super ego) and yetzer (roughly resembling the id). Shame was caused by certain interactions of these four components or by one of them deviating from relevant normative requirements. Hence, “imperfection” of the external body (i.e., hair, ears, eyes, limbs) caused shame; especially when effecting an organ that facilitates interaction of two or more of the four human components. The penis, for example, could cause great shame due to its “strategic” role, linking internal and external bodies as well as both the yetzer. Shame was also caused by public exposure of any part of the "external body" that should have been clothed. Similarly, public exposure of the “internal body” caused shame, because it should have been concealed by the "external body". In other words: shame was caused when the “external body” lost control over the “internal body” and failed to keep it properly concealed. Likewise, shame was also caused when the soul lost control over the yetzer, and failed to keep it properly subdued. Our detailed analysis of these findings supports our argument that the Tanaim and Amoraim's world belonged to the family of honor-and-shame cultures. Concomitantly, this analysis also highlights some cultural tendencies that are exceptional in honor-and-shame societies, most significantly – the preference of rule of law over self-help and vengeance.
Orit Kamir and Yakir Englander
This article applies a law-and-culture perspective to uncover and analyse the worldview embedded in the Mishnaic law of shame (boshet), the “law of physical injury” laid out in Chapter 8 of Bava Kamma. To lay out this worldview – the cultural tenets that both underlie and supersede the Mishnaic law – we read Chapter 8 as an enclosed literary unit, focusing on its subtext. Our reading presents the legal text as an intersection between a particular honor-and-shame mindset, and a socio-cultural construction of the human body. The significance and value attributed to the body in this textual unit are intertwined with the Tannaitic construction of honor-and-shame and with their formation of the role of law in Jewish tradition (Tannaim are the scholars who composed the Mishnah, a Jewish legal code, in the second century C.E.).
Our textual analysis reveals that the intersection of culture-body-law in the Mishnaic laws of physical injury reflects a profound and transformative – perhaps even revolutionary – cultural shift. The Tannaim who composed Chapter 8 founded it on cultural premises of honor-and-shame that must have prevailed in their society. However, the text displays a range of innovative legal means which they employed to subvert, soften, and even replace this honor-and-shame culture with an alternative one, rooted in an entirely different basic value: intrinsic human dignity (in its secular and/or religious guise, which in Jewish thought is associated with the Image of God, and which we refer to as “glory”).
In this article we suggest that the Mishnaic text that considers physical injury conveys the construction of the human body within a prevalent honor-and-shame culture – while radically reshaping and reframing both the honor-and-shame culture and the construction of the body through legal discourse imbued with human dignity and/or glory. This way the anonymous Tannaic editors of chapter 8 elevate the status of the human body, while designing a systematic, universal, non-metaphysical legal culture that advances perceptions of inherent human dignity and/or glory rather than honor and shame.
The aim of the article is to challenge the claim that Wiesel's mission is indeed humanistic. Using cultural-theoretical tools, I will argue that while Wiesel’s perspective contains deep implications for humanism, his project is not humanistic but religious. First I will extract from Wiesel’s writings the theological foundations of his thought. Then, I show how Wiesel goes back to his mystical tradition, and by using aspects of this unique theology, he offers new tools to recreate relationships among people.
The stories use the descriptions of the Zaddik’s body in order to emphasize this gap between him and his Hasidim. However, the image of the Zaddik’s body gives an opportunity for the Hasidim to touch his world, at least for a short while. From the stories we learn that the connection between the Hasidim and their Rebbe is material: the Zaddik’s body and other physical objects that are connected to him (clothing, tobacco). Thus, Hasidic Judaism emphasizes that humans are first of all physical/corporeal beings.
Rabbi Miller, one of the twentieth century’s most important spiritual
mentors in the United States, was chosen because of the perceptible change in his thinking in the latter half of his teaching career, when we find external (i.e., “secular”) values playing an increasingly central role. This led Rabbi Miller to alternative readings of classical Jewish concepts, and even to a call for significant changes in the manner of living a worthy Jewish life.
In the cultural world of the Tanaim and Amoraim, internal organs and body-matter were perceived quite differently from external organs and skin. We suggest that the sages created an implicit binary distinction between "internal body" and "external body". Tanaim and Amoraim seem to have viewed human beings as made up of external and internal bodies, both animated by soul (roughly resembling Freud’s super ego) and yetzer (roughly resembling the id). Shame was caused by certain interactions of these four components or by one of them deviating from relevant normative requirements. Hence, “imperfection” of the external body (i.e., hair, ears, eyes, limbs) caused shame; especially when effecting an organ that facilitates interaction of two or more of the four human components. The penis, for example, could cause great shame due to its “strategic” role, linking internal and external bodies as well as both the yetzer. Shame was also caused by public exposure of any part of the "external body" that should have been clothed. Similarly, public exposure of the “internal body” caused shame, because it should have been concealed by the "external body". In other words: shame was caused when the “external body” lost control over the “internal body” and failed to keep it properly concealed. Likewise, shame was also caused when the soul lost control over the yetzer, and failed to keep it properly subdued. Our detailed analysis of these findings supports our argument that the Tanaim and Amoraim's world belonged to the family of honor-and-shame cultures. Concomitantly, this analysis also highlights some cultural tendencies that are exceptional in honor-and-shame societies, most significantly – the preference of rule of law over self-help and vengeance.
This book is a philosophical-theological journey about the different images of the male body in the Ultra-Orthodox literature after the holocaust. The choice in the body as the center of the research comes from the fact that the body is the axis by which this community tries to understand its meaning and its role in life.
In the first part of the book, the writer explains the “problem of the body” and the different ways the Ultra-Orthodox theology deals with it. These different and even contradictory voices can teach the reader about the shifting of ideas inside the Ultra-Orthodox thought in the last decades. The second part of the book focuses on the image of the ideal body and describes how the rabbis train their bodies to reach ultimate form.
כיצד מתארת הספרות החרדית-ליטאית את הגוף הגברי? מה מסמל עבורה הגוף הגברי? איזה גוף גברי נחשב כאידאלי?
הספר הוא מחקר הגותי-פילוסופי על אודות דימויי הגוף הליטאי הגברי בדורות האחרונים. הבחירה בגוף כציר שדרכו נבחנת המחשבה הליטאית-חרדית נובעת ממעמדו המיוחד כמרחב שאינו מצוי בשליטה מוחלטת של האדם, ומכאן שדרכו יכולים לבוא לידי ביטוי כוחות בטבע האדם שהם יותר אנושיים ופחות מבטאים את דרישת האל. בדיקה של דימוי הגוף ומאפייניו פותחת צוהר להבנת הקיום האנושי הליטאי.
בחלקו הראשון של הספר המחבר מגדיר את "בעיית הגוף" ואת הדרכים להתמודד עמה, ומציג קולות שונים הרואים בגוף מרחב שדרכו האדם יכול להכיר את עצמו. חלקו השני עוסק בתיאורי הגוף האידאלי וכיצד הרבנים מאמנים את גופם להיות כזה. באמצעות התחקות אחר סיפורי ה"גדולים" (הצדיקים), נבחנות הדרכים שבהן מנהיגי הקהילה עיצבו את גופם מגיל צעיר, ואת יחסם אל גופם הבוגר ולעתים הנכה. כמו כן מתבררת פרשנות של קולות חרדים המהללים את הגוף ומבקשים לחקות את דימויו האירופאי האצילי בן הזמן. בפרקי המבוא נבחנות הסוגות הנידונות בספר: ספרות המוסר וספרות ה"גדולים" לאחר השואה, סוגות שהמחקר כמעט ולא עסק בהן עד כה.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-stone/
Published in the HuffPost on 11.18.2015
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yakir-englander/give-israel-hope-not-more_1_b_8592172.html
The blog was published in Times of Israel, October 9, 2015. http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bearing-the-sign-of-peace/
Joining David Bryfman on this week's episode of Adapting is Dr. Yakir Englander of the Israeli American Council to discuss what it means to build a vibrant Israeli-American Jewish community, one where, the relationship is mutual: Israelis learn from their American peers and Americans learn about Israeli culture, demonstrating an education of Klal Yisrael (all of the Jewish people).
APPLE: https://apple.co/3YSKNCg
SPOTIFY: https://spoti.fi/3Fupgc6
Speakers:
Yakir Englander, author, former HDS Women's Studies in Religion Program Research Associate (2014-15), current National Senior Director of Leadership at the Israeli-American Council
Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC Berkeley, currently Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professor in Talmudic Civil Law, Harvard Law School
Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WMtOhlev1G5WeBx4yogWV?fbclid=IwAR3ccK_Is1QmsX-3lT63dHENTSTrmRZMo0PqRK0cv-W3FYXIVmhbUSf5Mz4
Questions and dialogue about the meaning of masculinity(ies) are slowly coming into our culture and communities. It was a gift to be interviewed by Mickey A. Fehér for his podcast. We spoke about the Hasidic/Israeli secular images of manhood, the decision of the rabbis to create a new model of man in ancient Judaism and why the Zionist movement saw the need to change it. We also spoke about the role of masculinity in Peace work and activism, in nonviolent communication and about the need to bring more sensuality and not only sexuality to the lives of contemporary men.
Early on in her clinical practice, psychoanalyst Pilar Jennings was presented with a particularly difficult case: a six-year-old girl who, traumatized by loss, had stopped speaking. Challenged by the limitations of her training to respond effectively to the isolating effect of childhood trauma, Jennings takes the unconventional path of inviting her friend Lama Pema--a kindly Tibetan Buddhist monk who experienced his own life-shaping trauma at a very young age--into their sessions. In the warm therapeutic space they create, the young girl slowly begins to heal. The result is a fascinating case study of the intersection of Western psychology and Buddhist teachings. Pilar's To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (Shambala, 2017) is for therapists, parents, Buddhists, or any of us who hold out the hope that even the deepest childhood wounds can be the portal to our capacity to love and be loved.
A dialogue with Zaina Arafat, the writer of You Exist Too Much. We spoke about the meaning of being a second generation of a Palestinian immigrant. On gender, anorexia, and queerness. On the wish to be free and not always to remember. On Islam and secularity. The symbol of Palestine as a mother and the meaning of having an hybrid identity.
On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother's response only intensifies a sense of shame: "You exist too much," she tells her daughter. Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East--from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine--Zaina Arafat's debut novel traces her protagonist's progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as "love addiction." In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her. Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much (Catapult, 2020) is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings--for love, and a place to call home.
"לרפא עולם שבור – חיבור בין עולמות"
שיעסוק בהגותו ובתפיסת עלומו המביאה קול של תקווה ליחד משותף
בהשתתפות:
הגב' גילה פיין עורכת ראשית של ספרי הרב זקס סעברית. הוצאת מגיד.
הגב' סיוון רהב מאיר אשת תקשורת ופובלציסטית
ד"ר מיכל ביטון חוקרת במכון שלום הרטמן
בהנחיית: ענת קציר מנחת גוונים ותלמידת רבנות
זרקור:
גברת עומר ינקבליץ -- שרת התפוצות
מר אלן זקס אחיו של הרב ז"ל – בשם המשפחה
ד"ר עליזה לביא ח"כ לשעבר, חוקרת וסופרת
הרב מנחם בומבך המדרשה החסידית, מוסדות חינוך נצח
הרב ד"ר רפאל זרום דיקן בית הספר למדעי היהדות בלונדון
הארוע יתקיים ביום ראשון, דצמבר 13, 10 שעון מערב, 1 שעון מזרח
להרשמה: iachome.org/limmud