The New Perspectives in Jewish Studies Lecture with Tafat HaCohen Bick

The birth of modern Hebrew literature was closely tied from the outset to ideas of secularism and was grounded on western literary assumptions regarding the autonomous self, aesthetics, and the prominence of the desiring subject. Within this framework, Jewish Musar literature and the Musar movement were often depicted as antithetical to literature. While other forms of religious expression, such as Hasidism, could be integrated into the literary revival project, Musar—with its perceived rigidity, meticulous focus on Halakha, and obsessive self-examination—was not considered a fitting component of modern literary discourse. In this lecture, Dr. HaCohen-Bick will explore the intersections between Musar and modern Hebrew literature in the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century, offering a fresh perspective on the tensions between aesthetics and obedience during the formative years of modern Hebrew literature.
Tafat HaCohen-Bick is a scholar of modern Hebrew literature, specializing in the field of secularism and religion. She completed her PhD at the department of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2020). In 2022-2023 she was a fellow at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 2023-2024 she was a visiting scholar in NYU and CUNY. This year she is a Polonsky Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Van-Leer Jerusalem Institute.

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