Almost Heaven
Well-Known Member
Seventy years after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, at least 20,000 students of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, the largest adult Jewish education network in the world, will begin a course which examines the historical debates about Jewish philosophy and practice brought to light by those texts.
The six-part course, which will begin at the end of October, was created under the guidance and direction of Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman, the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University and a leading expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
On November 29, 1947, the day the partition of Palestine was voted by the United Nations, Hebrew University Professor Eliezer Sukenik obtained what would later become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Professor Schiffman, who was born in 1948, has been working on the Dead Sea Scrolls for close to 50 years since he was a senior in college. In fact, his doctorate was on the Scrolls, although at that time not all the Scrolls were available for study. Schiffman went on to work on a team which published a section of the ancient manuscripts.
The course is titled Great Debates in Jewish History and the first lesson looks at the intense debate from the Second Temple Era over aspects of Jewish ritual and philosophy revealed by the scrolls. Who were these sectarians? Why did they settle at Qumran? What were their beliefs? Against whom were they polemicizing? Participants will have a rare opportunity to study the scrolls texts in their original handwriting to learn the answers to these questions.
Read More....http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/237580
The six-part course, which will begin at the end of October, was created under the guidance and direction of Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman, the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University and a leading expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
On November 29, 1947, the day the partition of Palestine was voted by the United Nations, Hebrew University Professor Eliezer Sukenik obtained what would later become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Professor Schiffman, who was born in 1948, has been working on the Dead Sea Scrolls for close to 50 years since he was a senior in college. In fact, his doctorate was on the Scrolls, although at that time not all the Scrolls were available for study. Schiffman went on to work on a team which published a section of the ancient manuscripts.
The course is titled Great Debates in Jewish History and the first lesson looks at the intense debate from the Second Temple Era over aspects of Jewish ritual and philosophy revealed by the scrolls. Who were these sectarians? Why did they settle at Qumran? What were their beliefs? Against whom were they polemicizing? Participants will have a rare opportunity to study the scrolls texts in their original handwriting to learn the answers to these questions.
Read More....http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/237580