Zvi Zohar: „The Rabbi and the Sheikh: A Tale of an Inter-Faith Quest and Human Relationship in 18th-Century Damascus“

Pražské centrum židovských studií FF UK a Ústav Blízkého východu a Afriky FF UK srdečně zvou na hostovskou přednášku „The Rabbi and the Sheikh: A Tale of an Inter-Faith Quest and Human Relationship in 18th-Century Damascus“, kterou prosloví prof. Zvi Zohar (Bar-Ilan University). Přednáška a diskuse budou v angličtině.

An amazing account, published in 1842 by a leading Sephardic rabbi of Jerusalem, paints a fascinating picture of a personal, intellectual and spiritual relationship between rabbi Moshe Galante (chief rabbi of Damascus in the late 18th century) and a contemporary Muslim Sufi Sheikh. The course of that relationship, culminating in a joint mystic-spiritual journey, provides insights relevant to Muslim-Jewish religious encounter and dialogue then – and now. We will read the original text (in Prof. Zohar’s English translation) and discuss its implications.

Professor Zvi Zohar is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Jewish Studies. At the Shalom Hartman Institute, Prof Zohar heads the Alan A and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Contemporary Halakha. Professor Zohar’s main area of research is the history and development of halakha from the earliest times to present. He has a special interest in the halakhic writings of Sephardic and Mizrahi rabbis in modern times. He has published over 60 scholarly articles in Hebrew, English and French, as well as several book-length studies in Hebrew, including: Tradition and Change: Halakhic Responses of Middle Eastern Rabbis to Legal and Technological Change; The Luminous Face of the East – Studies in the Legal and Religious Thought of Sephardic Rabbis of the Middle East; and A Socio-Cultural Drama in Aleppo in the French Mandatory Period. His previous publication with Continuum [written with Avi Sagi] is Transforming Identity, on the history and development of Judaic norms concerning conversion.