To Hell and Back at TAU
"Hell" would seem to be a strange topic for a public seminar. Yet, a series of lectures
by academicians and laymen -- some addressing concepts of hell from an academic perspective, some as a painful personal experience -- attracted 200-300 participants each week during the semester-long series at TAU's Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities.
The free 14-part lecture series -- hosted by the Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies -- was entitled "Concepts of Hell in Jewish Thought and in Other Cultures." The seminar was part of a public-spirited project initiated by Professors Yehuda Nini and Shlomo Giora Shoham. The goal: to open up philosophical issues and existential quandaries to the general public for examination and discussion -- free of academic considerations such as credits, good marks, or tuition fees.
Prof. Nini explained that "Concepts of Hell" was the fourth seminar within the "Researcher's Wednesday Forum."
Three previous semester-long seminars dealt with other concepts: The first grappled with God's declaration to Moses in Exodus 3:14, Ehiyeh asher ehiyeh ("I am that I am"), and encompassed the attitudes of various doctrines and disciplines towards God (ha-Elohut). The second studied "Concepts of Sin" from various perspectives and disciplines -- from Judaism and Buddhism to Islam and through the prism of psychology, anthropology and biology. And the third -- "Exile and Redemption" (Galut ve-Geulah) -- examined the "ramifications" of sin from different angles. Last semester's focus on hell is viewed as a natural progression -- to be "balanced" by an upcoming series of lectures on "Concepts of Heaven." All the seminars deal with universal problems that have no one answer.
"On the surface, the subjects appear esoteric, but they are issues that touch each and every one of us. We see the seminars as a form of public service," said Prof. Nini.
Some of the lectures on hell addressed the subject from the standpoint of religious doctrine -- hell in Judaism, as reflected in the "Sayings of the Sages"; hell and the demonization of the Jew in German Christian culture; and the Bahai religion's concept of hell.
Prof. Nini opened the series with an address on "Heaven and Hell -- God and the Devil." "The tension between the two is within us. Heaven and hell are not places outside of ourselves. Each of us experiences both poles in an internal day-by-day struggle in decision-making -- between light and darkness, humanity and inhumanity within us."
Three of the gatherings presented hell as a source of "artistic inspiration" -- hell as expressed as a motif in art, within the theater, and literature.
Other speakers dealt with hell on a much more personal level -- literally and figuratively.
This included exploring the existential hell inherent in interpersonal relationships, as reflected in the writings of Buber and others modern philosophers. "When the Other takes away our authenticity, our lives can become a living hell," explained Prof. Shoham -- who closed the series with a lecture on "The Other as Hell."
"The Other can be our parents, our teachers, the System -- even the situation of a creative individual who remains unrecognized by the Establish-ment," warned Shoham. The same dynamics are reflected in the struggle of ideas between
Hassidim-Mitnagdim, Kabbala-Halacha, Rambam-Ramban -- rivalries over ideas that were conducted between dominant conflicting figures in Jewish life."
The gatherings, however, also took participants well beyond polemics and the ivory towers of academia.
Prof. Shoham -- a renowned criminologist who has also been involved at times in the rehabilitation of ex-cons -- brought to the series two former felons. The first shared with the audience the personal hell which imprisons persons locked into substance abuse; the second gave listeners a vivid account of those locked up by society.
"Being in prison is indeed hell-on-earth," noted Prof. Shoham.
Actually, the individual scheduled to talk about substance abuse from the inside fled the country the moment he was "on the outside" -- and had to be replaced by another ex-addict.
Regarding audience make-up, Prof. Nini noted that the participants were mostly older and non-observant, but they came week after week "with the devotion of Hassidim. Discussions at the close of each lecture were animated," he noted.
"Many centered on questions of mysticism and redemption. People arrived eager to listen and participate," added Shoham. The two colleagues hope to publish the contents of the series including deliberations with the audience, a good proportion of which "tried to dress academic questions in current actualities," according to Prof. Nini.
"Questions of sin and conformism, the relationship between man and God are subjects usually addressed on the pulpit and in the yeshiva. But non-observant people also spend time thinking about these issues. I view the response to these series as a very positive phenomenon. After all, these questions are not the sole custody of the religious community," says Prof. Shoham. "We just attack the questions from a different perspective."
Wasn't "war as hell" and "the workplace as hell" -- and even "government as hell" somehow missing from the syllabus?
Prof. Nini replied dryly: "We looked for someone in the civil service with enough humor to lecture on "the System" as hell, but failed to find anyone who thought this was an amusing topic."
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