Religious Education and Sacred Study in the Teachings of Rabbi Yitshak Hutner
Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Religions 2019, 10(5), 327; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050327
Received: 19 April 2019 / Revised: 1 May 2019 / Accepted: 9 May 2019 / Published: 15 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Religious Teaching and Learning)
Rabbi Yitshak Hutner (1906–1980) was a remarkable scholar, an enigmatic religious intellectual and a charismatic teacher. Drawing upon his public discourses and his written letters, I argue that Hutner’s vocabulary—which remained rooted almost entirely in the vocabulary of traditional Talmudism—afforded him a ready garment in which to clothe a syncretic educational theory, which combines Hasidic approaches to spiritual instruction and remakes the traditions of Lithuanian piety and study for his new American audience. The present study interrogates a series of key themes that appear in Hutner’s teachings, all of which pertain to issues of pedagogy and the construction of religious education. The essay advances a historical argument by examining the works of an important and influential modern Jewish thinker, but it is also driven by a constructive question: What does Hutner’s vision of Jewish religious teaching and learning have to contribute to today’s Jewish education, and to the broader world of higher education in North America in particular?
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Keywords:
modern Jewish thought
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mayse, A.E. Religious Education and Sacred Study in the Teachings of Rabbi Yitshak Hutner. Religions 2019, 10, 327. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050327
AMA Style
Mayse AE. Religious Education and Sacred Study in the Teachings of Rabbi Yitshak Hutner. Religions. 2019; 10(5):327. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050327
Chicago/Turabian StyleMayse, Ariel E. 2019. "Religious Education and Sacred Study in the Teachings of Rabbi Yitshak Hutner" Religions 10, no. 5: 327. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050327
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