A Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute

Monday, September 30, 2024
9:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m. ET
Online

JTS is partnering with the Shalom Hartman Institute for a full day of learning to honor the memory of the six hostages murdered last month, show solidarity with the 101 hostages still in captivity, and call for their return.

At 3:00 p.m. ET, Dr. Burton Visotzky, Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies Emeritus at JTS, will be offering a learning session, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: The Death of Moses in the Torah and the Midrash.” The program will also include speakers from Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Hadar, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Hebrew College, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Yeshivat Maharat, and more.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: The Death of Moses in the Torah and the Midrash

Dr. Burton Visotzky, Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies Emeritus at JTS

3:00–4:00 p.m. ET

The death of Moses is found in Deuteronomy 32. There, God commands Moses to ascend a mountain and die. In Deuteronomy 34, Moses does so, with nary a complaint. Yet in the Midrash on Proverbs, Moses dramatically confronts God and resists dying.

We will discuss these two very different accounts of the death of Moses in light of Elizabeth Kuebler Ross’ five stages of grief, spelled out in her classic book, On Death and Dying.

This session is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Visotzky’s cousin Hersh Goldberg Polin (z”l).