Is the Human Being Divine? Soul and Body in Jewish Mystical Thought

**REGISTRATION TO THIS EVENT HAS CLOSED. WALK-UPS WELCOME**

Influential kabbalists argued that the soul is the essence of a person and that the soul is a direct emanation from God. So can we claim that there is a true distinction between Divinity and humanity? We will study sources from Kabbalah and Hasidism that develop this subject, seeking to understand how Jewish mystics defined the core of human nature.

ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: Dr. Eitan P. Fishbane is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he teaches students in all five graduate and undergraduate schools. Fishbane earned his Ph.D. and B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University, and he served on the faculties of Carleton College and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion before coming to JTS in 2006. He currently serves on the Faculty Executive Committee and the Rabbinical School Council at JTS, and as Division Chair for Jewish Mysticism at the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). Among his published works are The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar (Oxford University Press, 2018) and As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist (Stanford University Press, 2009). Fishbane was a 2011 recipient of the Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.

LM