Living on the Side of Life: An Interpretation of Jewish Living

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg

EVENT CO-SPONSORED BY: BMH-BJ

ABOUT THE EVENT:

The unique core teaching of  Jewish religion is that the human mission is to fill this world (planet) with life.Judaism predicts that  In partnership with God , humanity can vanquish all the enemies of life in this world -poverty, hunger, oppression/discrimination/unjust inequality, war, sickness. Eventually, in the Messianic age, even death itself can be defeated.
This session will focus on how we should live now until the final redemption is achieved.The answer is: to live on the side of life. Every life behavior , every human action should be shaped and reshaped to insure that we maximize life (or quality of life)in that behavior. No behavior or moment in life is ‘neutral’.We will review every behavior -eating, sleeping, exercise, speaking, befriending, sexuality and communication, having children and raising them, business and professional activity-to see how we can maximize life and minimize death or decay elements in them. This presentation will argue that even religious/ritual activities are intended to lead us to live on the side of life.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

In the words of Professor Steven T Katz, chair of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University, “No Jewish thinker has had a greater impact on the American Jewish community in the last two decades than Rabbi Yitz Greenberg.”

Rabbi Dr. Irving Greenberg (known affectionately as “Rav Yitz”) is perhaps the leading Jewish scholar and theologian of our time. An author of many influential books on Jewish thought, ethics, and philosophy, Rav Yitz is the Past President of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and Past President of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. Prior to these positions he served as Rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, was an Associate Professor of History at Yeshiva University, and the founder, chairman and Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and received ordination from Yeshiva Beis Yosef.

Rabbi Greenberg is a singular leader of contemporary American Judaism, having shown leadership on many vital Jewish communal initiatives spanning from the 1960s to the present. He served as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and has written extensively on the complexity of post-Holocaust theology as well as Jewish pluralism with regard to the theology of Jewish-Christian relations and beyond.