CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Beit Morasha of Jerusalem - Robert M. Beren College
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought

Invites the public to attend its Seventh Annual Conference:

Controversy in Rabbinic Literature:
Its Boundaries, Logic, and Hermeneutic Status

Sunday-Tuesday, December 12-14, 2004
Beit Morasha of Jerusalem
Kiryat Moriah Campus, Talpiot, Jerusalem

Hebrew version (HTML): http://www.geocities.com/okutner/progheb.html

For further details please contact: hazal@bmj.org.il



Sunday, December 12
9:30-11:30 Albert Baumgarten (Bar Ilan University), Chair
Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Beit Morasha), Controversy In Rabbinic Literature: Polysemy and Complex Valuation
Eszter Fuzessy (University of Chicago), Differentiating Inter-religious from Intra-religious Polemics in Rabbinic Literature - Methodological Considerations
Rella Kushelevsky (Bar-Ilan University) The Role of Controversy in Forming the Identity of the Sage

12:00-14:00 Hanna Safrai (Shalom Hartman Institute), Chair
Yohanan Silman (Bar-Ilan University), "Both Are the Living Words of God"
Harry Fox (University of Toronto), Controversy for the Sake of Heaven or to Annul?
William Kolbrener (Bar-Ilan University), "Chiseled From All Sides": Hermeneutics and Controversy in the Rabbinic Tradition (English)


Monday, December 13
9:30-11:30 Leib Moscowitz (Beit Morasha and Bar Ilan University), Chair
Menahem Kahana (Hebrew University), The Structuring of Controversy in the Mishna and Its Goals
Meir Lichtenstein (Yeshivat Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Dati, Ein Tzurim), Amoraic Invention of Tannatic Controversies
Noam Zohar (Bar-Ilan University), The "Innovative Controversy": Revolution and Respect for Tradition Among Tannaim

12:00-14:00 Galit Hasan-Rokem, (Hebrew University), Chair
Dina Stein (University of California, Berkeley), Domestic Controversies: Everyday Hermeneutics
Nili Ben-Ari (Emek Ha-Yarden College) Rabbinic Controversy in Aggada in the Beit Midrash
Rina Lapidus (Bar-Ilan University), Halakhic and Aggadic Controversies on How To Obey Commandments


Tuesday, December 14
9:30-11:30 Shlomo Zalman Havlin (Bar-Ilan University), Chair
Yehuda Brandes (Beit Morasha), Ideological Background of Amoraic Rules for "Pesak"
Michael Chernick (Hebrew Union College, New York), Controversy in Divine and Celestial Torah
Tamas Turan (Hebrew University), The Imagined Midrashic Controversy in the Talmuds: Its Forms, Assumptions and Development

12:00-14:00 Joshua Levinson (Hebrew University), Chair
Marc Hirshman (Hebrew University), Controversy in Bereishit Rabba and Vayikra Rabba: A Reappraisal
Nachman Levine (Michigan Jewish Institute), Controversy as Metaphor in the Aggadic/Halakhic Story
Daniel Nikritin (Bar-Ilan University), "Torah Without and We're Within?": To Disagree and Belong

14:30-16:00 Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Beit Morasha), Chair
Hemi Avneri (Beit Morasha), Urbanism as a Factor in Halakhic Homogeneity and Heterogeneity
Yitzhak Roness (Beit Morasha), Human Relations During Controversy Chayuta Deutsch (Beit Morasha), Matrona and the Rabbis: Study, Polemic or Controversy?