Dissertations and Thesis Writing

Dissertations and Thesis Writing

The department is devoted to the research and teaching of all fields of Jewish thought from the classical period until modern times, including the study of Kabbalah and Chassidism. Special emphasis is placed on research with a philosophical emphasis , together with the study of mysticism in its various forms,  and interreligious relations.

The Department for Jewish Philosophy? – Specializations. The department of Jewish Philosophy specializes in several arenas of research: Medieval Jewish philosophy – notably the writings of Saadia Gaon, Yehuda Ha-Levi, the philosophies of Maimonides, Hasdai Crescas ; The world of Kabbalah and Chassidism – from the study of the Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah until the Chassidic thought of the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman from Bratslav and Menachem Mendel Shneerson and others.   Modern Jewish philosophy is also one of our key areas of specialization, spanning the pantheistic thought of Spinoza, the conceptualization  of Judaism in the thought of Moses Mendelssohn, the Torah U-Maddah position of Samson Raphael Hirsch and through until the ethical monotheism of Hermann Cohen. In addition, the department concentrates on the Philosophy of Halakhah and Rabbinic literature of all periods. Scholarly emphasis is also placed on more recent developments of Jewish thought: the ideas of Rabbi Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook and his school of thought, the dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber, the Jewish existentialism of Joseph Dov Soloveitchik through until ethical aspects of  the thought of Franz Rosenzweig, Emanuel Levinas or Jacques Derrida. Special attention is given to the contextualization of Jewish philosophy within the research of area of the Study of Religion in general, often including research into Christian scholasticism and Islamic philosophy. The department attributes great significance to the comparative research of Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism, as well as to the exposure of the exciting dialogue and intersections between Jewish thought and Western and Eastern general philosophy and theology, and the historical contexts in which multiple fields of religious thought flourished