The Difference Between Freedom and Liberation: War, Violence and the State in Tamares, Teitelbaum & Kook with Shaul Magid

In this talk Magid briefly explores the subject of violence and war through the work of three rabbinic thinkers in the twentieth century: Aaron Shmuel Tamares, Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar, and Abraham Isaac Kook. All three have the concept of nationalism in their sights, understanding, as other scholars have argued, that nationalism contains the hazard, even inevitability, of violence, both in its construction and in its maintenance. They each examine violence and war through the lens of nationalism, the nation-state, and Zionism. In each case we find different, yet also overlapping, interpretations of violence refracted through the classical Jewish tradition coupled with the challenges of modern statecraft.
Shaul Magid is Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence at Harvard Divinity School. Magid’s research bridges centuries and disciplines, exploring topics from sixteenth-century Kabbalistic mysticism and Hasidism, including its spiritual ties to Christianity, to contemporary American Judaism, Jewish identity, race, and critical theory. His groundbreaking work engages a broad spectrum of readers, combining deep textual analysis with theoretical sophistication. Magid is the author of eight books and more than 75 scholarly articles. He has also written over 150 essays, offering insight into the cultural, political, and spiritual dimensions of modern Jewish life. Magid is also a Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.