R. Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica (1801-1854) was the founder of the Izhbitza-Radzyn dynasty of Hassidism and the author of the biblical commentary Mei HaShiloach. A masterfully broad thinker, he was able to open up the biblical text to a wide variety of quite radical interpretations which sometimes seem to subvert or even reverse what we may feel to be the “intention” of the text, in aid of asking and answering big existential questions, most notably that of what God beyond those things God requires of us, really wants of us. We will examine an apparently straightforward biblical narrative, one where the heroes and the villains are seemingly clearly demarcated, and then proceed to pull it apart in a radical fashion, in the inimitable manner of the Mei HaShiloach.
This talk can stand alone,
or it may appear as part of the series
"A Glimpse Behind the Curtain: The Hidden World of Hassidism"
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