The Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought
 
The Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, established in 1999, is dedicated to the research and teaching of the primary texts in Jewish thought from the Second Temple period till the present. The emphasis of the department is on an in-depth textual study of these texts in light of the intellectual-cultural milieu in which they were written. The department offers B.A., M.A. (either with thesis or without) and Ph.D degrees. Six full-time (as well as several part-time) faculty members teach in the department. They rank among the world's leading scholars in the field. Affiliated with the department is the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, which sponsors a host of activities and offers Ph.D. scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships to study in the department.
 
Areas of Study:
Halakhic and Midrashic Thought
The literature of the religious sects in the period of the Second Temple; halakhic and aggadic thought in the Talmud and in classical midrash; medieval and modern halakhic thought.; the development of the liturgy; halakhah and social issues and more.
 
Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Medieval Jewish philosophy from R. Saadiah Gaon to Spinoza: Jewish Neo-platonism; R. Judah Halevi; Maimonides; Jewish Aristotelianism and its opponents; Karaite thought; medieval Jewish polemical literature; medieval Jewish philosophical exegesis of the Bible; medieval philosophical ethical literature and more.
 
Jewish Mysticism
Mysticism in classical rabbinic literature; Heikhalot literature and the Book of Creation; mystical literature of Hasidei Ashkenaz; the Zohar; the kabbalistic literature of Provence and Spain; Lurianic Kabbalah and its influence; Sabbatianism and its aftermath; Hasidism; kabbalah in North Africa and the Near East; the messianic idea in Jewish mysticism; contemporary Jewish mysticism and more.
 
Modern Jewish Thought
Jewish thought from Moses Mendelssohn and the German Enlightenment till the present: Herman Cohen; Martin Buber; Franz Rosenzweig; Emmanuel Levinas; the ideological foundations of the Science of Judaism; modern Jewish religious movements; Zionistic ideology and its opponents; Jewish social thought; Holocaust theology