Does God make innocent people suffer to win bets with a being called Satan? Is the idea that God loves us absurd and offensive? Is Judaism nothing more than the laws of an ancient kingdom that have been mistaken for a religion? Does God have body parts, romantic relationships, and other human-like characteristics? We will explore ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish thinkers who have answered “yes” to these questions, as well as other Jewish thinkers who have deemed such ideas to be heretical. Throughout, we will wrestle both with diverse voices from the Jewish tradition, and with this overarching question: is there anything that Jews aren’t allowed to believe?

This is a hybrid class, both in-person and on Zoom.