Associate Professor
Ehud Benor specializes in Jewish religious thought. He was trained in philosophy, Jewish philosophy, and mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A. 1978; M.A. 1982), and in the study of religion at Harvard (A.M. 1986; Ph.D. 1991). He joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1991. His research focuses on the variety of spiritual meanings Jews have given to their tradition of ritual law. Other areas of interest involve the works of Moses Maimonides, Benedict de Spinoza, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas. Professor Benor currently is working on a book on "Ethical Monotheism" that examines the whole span of the Jewish tradition to determine to what extent Jewish thinkers were willing to think of God as a moral person. Other work in progress focuses on the nature of the Mishna, arguing that it is not a book of religious law, but of condensed instruction for reconstruction of the social, spiritual, and intellectual background for debate of such laws in late antiquity. However, much of his energy has been diverted in the last few years to working out a general theory on the relationship of religion and magic.
2012 Fall
2013 Winter
2013 Spring
