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Torah and the Pleasure Principle

The Philosophy of Judaism and Joy

By William Kolbrener

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Torah and Pleasure Principle

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Topics: Pleasure; Delight; Fun, Baal Teshuvah, Translation, Hellenists, Freud, Dr Sigmund, Septuagint

Professor William Kolbrener tells his personal story of spiritual growth and asks the deep philosophical question, "Can you be Jewish and still follow your bliss?"

By William Kolbrener More articles... |

An American born writer and scholar, with degrees from Oxford and Columbia, William Kolbrener lives in Jerusalem and is professor of English Literature at Bar Ilan University. His Milton’s Warring Angels, an internationally acclaimed work on the author of Paradise Lost, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1997, and he co-edited a volume on the British proto-feminist Mary Astell Ashgate in 2008. Kolbrener’s scholarship has been recognized by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, the Einstein Forum, the Milton Society of America, and the Society for Early Modern Women. William Kolbrener’s newest book, Open Minded Torah: Of Irony, Fundamentalism and Love was published by Continuum in spring 2011.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:

Posted: Aug 12, 2011

o sweet spontaneous ...

: (fiddlesticks!!)

thanks prof. Kolbrener, for this fullness of pomegranate; not just one seed, a whole cross-section!! i quite enjoyed this re-envisioning of ah ah ah ... post-diluvian rainbow!

made me ask myself, just what was G'd's reason to give us the Flood? Was G-d ultimately asking us to look beyond the pairing of our animalistic souls towards a new covenant?

'neshamah' plasticity?; ... sounds like the beginning of a discussion on re re re - reincarnation!

this really is a mind opening website!!

shalom & i hope to read your book, soon.

Posted By C. Nielson, Aarlanderveen, Holland

Posted: Aug 12, 2011

Torah and the Pleasure Principle

Thanks for your lecture Prof.

Posted By Giuseppe Mondelli

Posted: Aug 1, 2011

The pursuit of authenticity and connection.

Thank you so much, Professor Kolbrener, for your enlightening lecture.
I discovered , for my own pursuit, the God of Israel in relation to His People, and he was the loving God of Israel. For that reason I can fully understand your vision and insight about our pursuit of authenticity and joy in the Jewish religion, and the need for connection.
I also felt an identification of our highly regarded tradition but be oppened to the new and change especially at our challenging times.
Thank you so much. Shalom!

Posted By Celia Leal da Costa, São Paulo, Brazil

Posted: Aug 1, 2011

Thanks for the class

thanks for the class. used a lot of words but it seemed there was one missing. thoughts and thinking is ok too "Not that there is anything wrong with that" lol.

Posted By John Smith, Fort Lauderdale, FL