Reading in Song of Songs and Qohelet

Catalog description

This course examines fundamental dimensions of the human experience—love, aging, mortality, and selfhood—through a close critical reading of the Song of Songs and Qoheleth. Students will engage with the structure, purpose, and theological outlook of each book while grappling with their profound reflections on the complexity of being human and the search for lasting fulfillment. Equally important, we will consider how love and death open the possibility of life beyond life—an encounter with the reality of the holy. The course will also explore how to bring these texts into contemporary discourse, guided by AJR values of critical rigor, inclusivity, and commitment to pluralistic Jewish and broader communities.