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Teshuva and Heshbon Hanefesh in a Time of Darkness

In an age of divine absence, how can we cultivate a meaningful process of teshuvah that doesn't force easy answers, and at the same time isn't blocked by our defensiveness?
©tomertu/stock.adobe.com
©tomertu/stock.adobe.com
Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel to American Jews, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in American Jewish life. Yehuda led the creation of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America in 2010 as a pioneering research and educational center for the leadership of the North American Jewish community, and teaches in

Moments of crisis and challenging times invite two typical theological responses that are paradoxically at odds with one another: One natural response is alienation from God and a feeling of abandonment, borne of theological uncertainty; the second common response is the craving for, and sometimes the adoption of, a kind of conviction that can get in the way of deep personal introspection.

In an age of divine absence – or at least uncertainty about God’s presence – how can we cultivate a meaningful process of teshuvah that doesn’t force easy answers, and at the same time a culture of heshbon ha-nefesh that isn’t blocked by our impulses to defensiveness?

 

Rabbinic High Holiday Webinar 5775
September 4, 2014

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