The Talmudic tradition states that God must be blessed after witnessing beauty – that he must be shown gratitude with a special blessing recited for this specific occurrence. It is clear that this blessing also applies to beautiful people. In this lecture we will read a story from the Talmud, examining it through the perspective of Sigmund Freud, while imagining for a moment that the father of psychoanalysis accepted Martin Buber's assumptions concerning religion.

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The lecturer's argument is that the author of the Talmudic story was able to use such a perspective to witness the divine in its revelation to man in the course of everyday life.

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Admiel Kosman, an Israeli poet, is a full Professor for Jewish Studies at Potsdam University as well as the academic director of Geiger College, a training school for liberal rabbis, in Berlin. He is the author of dozens of articles and several books in the field of Talmudic research, and of collections of Hebrew verse. His books include, among others: Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism (de Gruyter, 2012) and in Hebrew Masechet Shalom ("Tractate Peace: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Light of Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources"), while his most recent collection of poetry is Approaching You in English: Selected Poems (English; trans. Lisa Katz: Zephyr Press, 2011). Another collection of poems, So Many Things Are Yours (trans. Lisa Katz), is now in print. Aus dem Zwischen des Hohelieds: ausgewählte Gedichte" (trans. Edith Lutz, Pop Verlag, Ludwigsburg 2019), in German, is also available.

The Talmudic tradition states that God must be blessed after witnessing beauty – that he must be shown gratitude with a special blessing recited for this specific occurrence. It is clear that this blessing also applies to beautiful people. In this lecture we will read a story from the Talmud, examining it through the perspective of Sigmund Freud, while imagining for a moment that the father of psychoanalysis accepted Martin Buber's assumptions concerning religion.

‍

The lecturer's argument is that the author of the Talmudic story was able to use such a perspective to witness the divine in its revelation to man in the course of everyday life.

‍

Admiel Kosman, an Israeli poet, is a full Professor for Jewish Studies at Potsdam University as well as the academic director of Geiger College, a training school for liberal rabbis, in Berlin. He is the author of dozens of articles and several books in the field of Talmudic research, and of collections of Hebrew verse. His books include, among others: Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism (de Gruyter, 2012) and in Hebrew Masechet Shalom ("Tractate Peace: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Light of Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources"), while his most recent collection of poetry is Approaching You in English: Selected Poems (English; trans. Lisa Katz: Zephyr Press, 2011). Another collection of poems, So Many Things Are Yours (trans. Lisa Katz), is now in print. Aus dem Zwischen des Hohelieds: ausgewählte Gedichte" (trans. Edith Lutz, Pop Verlag, Ludwigsburg 2019), in German, is also available.

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