Judaism and the Pursuit of Wisdom: Torah vs. Higher Education
This course is an inquiry into the relationship between Torah study and the pursuit of knowledge. Torah stands at the center of Judaism. It serves as the law that guides Jewish life and as the object of intellectual contemplation. Jewish thinkers disagree over the religious significance of “outside” knowledge knowledge that is apparently external to Torah (e.g., mathematics, the natural sciences, philosophy, history, psychology). Some religious thinkers oppose the study of these subjects and therefore, oppose higher education. Others view the pursuit of knowledge as a religious mandate and therefore endorse higher education as a Jewish obligation. This course analyzes the debate to understand the basis of the disagreement, assesses the merits of each camp and develops a distinctive approach to the relationship between Torah and the pursuit of knowledge.
Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig
Itamar Rosensweig is a maggid shiur (professor of Jewish law and jurisprudence) at Yeshiva University, a dayan (rabbinic judge) and chaver beit din at the Beth Din of America, and the rav of the Shtiebel of Lower Merion. He holds a secondary appointment as an assistant professor of philosophy at Yeshiva College and serves as the chair of Jewish studies at the Sy Syms School of Business. He received his semikha, Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin, from RIETS, where he was a fellow of the Wexner Kollel Elyon and editor-in-chief of the Beit Yitzchak Journal of Talmudic and Halakhic Studies.
He received his B.A., with honors, in physics and philosophy from Yeshiva University and an M.A. and Ph.D in medieval Jewish history from YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School. He also holds an M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
