Exploring the holiday of Purim and Book of Esther through Jewish philosophy, history, law, mysticism, midrash, and manuscripts.

Sunday 9 March (week 8), 14:00-17:00

Programme:

13:00 Buffet lunch
14:00 Rabbi Eli Brackman (Oxford University Chabad Society) – Purim in the drashot of R. Joshua ibn Shuaib (1280-1340) found in the Oxford MS. Opp. 722
14:20 Moshe Tzvi Wieder – The Shehechiyanu blessing: On Corruptions to the Talmudic Text
Moshe Tzvi Wieder lives in Israel and is author of ‘The Hebrew prayer book (Siddur) from Its Sources’ which combs through the history of the Jewish prayer book and evolution, offering intimate access to the source material that is the basis for the modern Jewish prayer book.
14:40 Solomon Summer – Why Purim is the most important Yom Tov (Festival)
Solomon Summer is an undergraduate student at Exeter College, Oxford
15:00 Dr Ros Abramsky – The dream and the prayer
Ros Abramsky is an Oxford researcher who studied Crystallography at Birkbeck, where she taught Science Communication, as well as at Imperial College. She completed her PhD in Information Science from Loughborough University.
15:20 Professor Naftali Loewenthal – Which Face should Judaism Present to the World: Reflections on Purim
Naftali Loewenthal is Associate Professor (Teaching) at the Dept of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL. He is author of Communicating the Infinite: the Emergence of the Habad School (Chicago, 1990) and Hasidism beyond Modernity, Studies in Habad Thought and History (Littmann Library).
15:40 Dr Israel Sandman (University College London) – “My senses have been stripped”: The Lubavitcher Rebbe reads the Talmudic story of Rabba’s and Rabbi Zera’s Purim Banquet (Bavli, Megillah 7b)
Dr Israel Sandman researches Hebrew manuscripts and premodern Jewish thought. Currently, he is at UCL, cataloguing and researching the Correspondence of Hakham Moses Gaster, Chief Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation one century ago.
16:00 Samuel Zahn – A Torah for Every One: Chassidus, Mysticism, and Integration Sam Zahn is currently pursuing a Masters in Jewish Studies at Oxford. His work focuses on the interaction between Judaism and Western society in Modernity. He is a graduate of the Schwarzman Scholars program, the Truman Scholars program, and the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program at Tsinghua University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively. He has the Chabads of Oxford, Beijing, and Chapel-Hill/Durham to thank for great experiences and furthering his Ahavas Yisrael.
16:20 Professor Eliezer Segal – Is Esther among the Prophets?
Eliezer Segal is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary, specializing in Rabbinic Judaism. Originally from Montreal, he holds a BA degree from McGill University (1972) and MA and PhD in Talmud from the Hebrew University (1976, 1982). Some of his recent books include: The Most Precious Possession (2014), Teachers, Preachers and Selected Short Features (2019), The Times of Our Life: Some Brief Histories of Jewish Time (2019), Beasts that Teach, Birds that Tell: Animal Language in Rabbinic and Classical Literatures (2019)

RSVP for lunch and/or handouts in advance: mailto:info@oxfordchabad.org

Join Zoom Meeting: us02web.zoom.us/j/82700353624?pwd=ftVbdThlCDapiv0IVaL5UPsaarxFJq.1
Meeting ID: 827 0035 3624 / Passcode: 214028

Participants are welcome to attend all or any part of the programme.