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UID:e2f3e447177f5e7474a4bfc617b44010@beitmidrashoz.org
SUMMARY:Reading in Deep Waters: Agnon\, Law\, and the Land - with Shai Gins
 burg
DESCRIPTION:This talk explores S. Y. Agnon’s In the Heart of the Seas\, o
 ften read as a story of Jewish longing for and return to the Land of Israel
 . One of the novella’s central literary devices is its rich network of al
 lusions to religious\, literary\, and philosophical texts. What new possibi
 lities emerge when we consider the full range of sources on which Agnon dra
 ws—not only modern Hebrew literature\, but also the Bible\, the Talmud\, 
 Jewish commentary\, Hasidic tales\, Christian sermons\, European legends\, 
 contemporary English\, French and German literature\, and more?\nThrough th
 ese references\, Agnon complicates the idea of a simple\, redemptive homeco
 ming. Written between 1924 and 1934\, the novella reflects on the harsh rea
 lities of its time: the rise of fascism in Europe\, growing international t
 ensions\, and escalating anti-Jewish discrimination\, culminating in the Na
 zi seizure of power in 1933. It also reflects the tensions surrounding Brit
 ish policy in Mandatory Palestine\, particularly the uncertainty surroundin
 g the territory’s future and the meaning of the promise that it would ser
 ve as a “national home for the Jewish people.” Agnon uses the novella t
 o explore what relationship Jewish literary tradition—and contemporary He
 brew literature in particular—bears to these historical realities.\nThe t
 alk concludes by considering the novella’s reflections on writing and rea
 ding. Does literature simply console its readers\, or can it also reshape i
 nherited religious stories and encourage new forms of thought and action?\n
 Shai encourages you to read the novella beforehand to get the most out of t
 he talk\, although it is not a prerequisite. If you would like to\, it is a
 vailable in English translation as a separate volume\, In the Heart of the 
 Seas\, and in a revised translation in the collection Two Scholars Who Were
  in Our Town and Other Novellas. Or a free PDF version can be found here.\n
 In collaboration with ACJC (Monash's Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisat
 ion)\nAbout the Guest Speaker:\nShai Ginsburg is Associate Professor of Asi
 an and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on m
 odern Hebrew literature\, Israeli cinema\, Jewish intellectual history\, li
 terary theory\, and game studies. He is the author of Rhetoric and Nation:
  The Formation of Hebrew National Culture\, 1880–1990 and coeditor of J
 ews and the Ends of Theory and Bounded Mind and Soul: Russia and Israel\,
  1880–2010. His current work explores the emergence of Hebrew speech at t
 he turn of the twentieth century
LOCATION:Caulfield
DTSTAMP:20261023T093948Z
DTSTART:20261029T083000Z
DTEND:20261029T103000Z
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