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Radically Inclusive Jewish Culture

3 May Deviant Yeshiva Reads Hermann Cohen

"The great contribution of messianism is its creation of the future..."

The Hague, The Hague

03/05 10:00
Oy Vey’s resident philosopher Yoni Busquila will be leading a series of face-to-face discussions of Jewish philosophical texts at the LJG in Den Haag. The discussions and texts are in English.
In the third session of the 2025 edition of the Deviant Yeshiva, we will be discussing a selection from Hermann Cohen in the text “To Create Messianic Time: A Jewish Critique of Political Utopia” from Ethics of Maimonides. In partnership with the Cultural Committee of LJG in the Hague.

Registration

To participate, send an email with your full name and contact details to reserveringen@ljgdenhaag.nl.

You can also register for the other sessions on Jewish philosophy:

📅 MARCH 1 – Levinas, “Messianic Texts” from Difficult Liberty
📅 MARCH 29 – Walter Benjamin, selection from “On the Concept of History”
📅 MAY 3 – Hermann Cohen, “To Create Messianic Time: A Jewish Critique of Political Utopia” from Ethics of Maimonides
📅 JUNE 7 – Gershom Scholem, “On Jonah and the Concept of Justice”
📅 JULY 12 – A surprise!

All sessions begin bright and early at 10:00 AM. So rise and shine and enjoy a Shabbat discussion with Yoni!

“The great contribution of messianism is its creation of the future…”
— Hermann Cohen

About the Reading Group

The goal of the reading group is to inspire reflection on Jewish themes and questions.

The main theme is messianism and the different approaches to it by Jewish thinkers in the past century.

The four sessions explore the theme of messianism in 20th-century Jewish philosophy:

  • We will begin with Levinas’ interpretation of the Talmud tractate (Sanhedrin) on messianism, where he attempts to define what the concept means in those rabbinical discussions.
  • We will then move on to Benjamin’s classic text on the concept of history, where he takes a kabbalistic approach to the possibility of changing it.
  • The third session will focus on Cohen’s engagement with Maimonides, in which he argues against the idea of messianism as a form of utopia.
  • The final meeting will be a discussion on Scholem’s interpretation of Jonah and the relationship between prophecy and justice.

The meetings take place once a month, and everyone is welcome to join.

We ask participants to register in advance (reserveringen@ljgdenhaag.nl) to receive the texts beforehand, so they can read and bring their questions or responses. The sessions are guided dialogues centered on the texts and their proposals. Participants are not expected to agree with or even like the texts—our only request is that you engage with them and join the conversation.

📩 To reserve your place, send your full name and contact details to reserveringen@ljgdenhaag.nl.

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