“Judaism and the Contemporary Pursuit of Happiness” will be the topic of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lecture on Monday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m., at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, of Arizona State University, will discuss happiness as a central concern of Jewish thinkers. She’s a professor of history, director of Jewish studies, and the Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism.
In her book, “Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge and Well-Being in Modern Judaism” (2003), Tirosh-Samuelson shows that rabbinic Judaism regarded itself primarily as a prescription for happiness, and that the discourse on happiness captures the evolution of Jewish intellectual history from antiquity to the 17th century.
Tirosh-Samuelson was born in Kibbutz Afikim, Israel, and served in the Israeli army. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy and mysticism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to joining the faculty of ASU, she taught at Indiana University, Emory University, Columbia University and Hebrew Union College in New York.
In addition to numerous articles in academic journals and chapters in edited volumes, she is the author of “Between Worlds: The Life and Work of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon,” which received a Hebrew University award for the best work in Jewish history for 1991.
For more information, contact Jeanne Davenport at 626-5758 or davenpoj@email.arizona.edu.
