Orthodox Judaism is tough. There are so many required rituals, it can drive you crazy if you’re not born into it. One thing that keeps me going is inspiring Torah study and my favorite teacher for the past decade is historian Marc B. Shapiro.
I’ve often gotten discouraged with my Judaism. I feel like I’m just doing things by rote. It’s so hard. I feel like my mind is dying. Then I put on a Marc Shapiro lecture and I get excited again about Torah.
The years 2001-2009 were a wilderness for me Jewishly. I just lost almost all of my enthusiasm for my religion. I kept practicing it because I believed in it but I had lost my joy. One thing that kept me going was reading and listening to Marc Shapiro.
Marc B. Shapiro (Hebrew: מלך שפירא, born 1966) holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton and is the author of various books and articles on Jewish history, philosophy, and theology. His writings often challenge the bounds of the conventional Orthodox understanding of Judaism using academic methodology while adhering to Modern Orthodox sensibilities. Shapiro is a popular on-line lecturer for Torah in Motion and often writes for the Seforim Blog.
Shapiro received his BA at Brandeis University and his PhD at Harvard University, where he was the last of the students of the late Prof. Isadore Twersky. His father is Edward S. Shapiro who has published books on American Jewish history.
[edit]Books authored
- Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966 (London, 1999)
- The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides‘ Thirteen Principles Reappraised (Oxford, 2004)
- Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox (Scranton, 2006)
- Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters (Scranton, 2008)
- Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History (scheduled for 2013)
- Ed. Kitvei Ha-Gaon Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, 2 vols (Scranton, 1999, 2004)
[edit]External resources
- Shapiro posts at the Seforim Blog
- Shapiro lecture at Yeshiva University – A Non-Orthodox Traditional Approach: Reflections on the Authority of the Moroccan Rabbinate
- Shapiro lecture – Sephardic and Ashkenazic Approaches to Halakhah
- Shapiro lecture – Eliezer Berkovits’ Halakhic Vision for the Modern Age
- Shapiro lecture – Some Recent Discussions of Jewish Dogma
- Shapiro lecture – Some Recent Discussions of Jewish Dogma (video)
- Marc B. Shapiro lectures at Torah in Motion
- Marc B. Shapiro archive at YU Torah Online
- “Response to a Hagiographer’s Review”
- “The Moroccan Rabbinic Conferences”
- “Glatt Kosher is Not All It is Cut Out To Be”
- “המחלוקת על הרבנות בפרנקפורט”
- “Mi-Yosef ad Yosef Lo Kam ke-Yosef”
- “?האם יש מקום להתיר את הפלגש”
- “Talmud Study in the Modern Era: From Wissenschaft and Brisk to Daf Yomi”
- “נשים במרוקו – עדותו של הרב שלמה משאש זצ”ל”
- “‘Confrontation’: A Mixed Legacy”
- “The Lithuanian Yeshivot: Yesterday and Today”
- “Of Books and Bans”
- “בענין לימוד תורה בליל ניטל”
- Review of David Zohar’s book on R. Hayyim Hirschensohn
- “אודות הפולמוס בענין אתרוגי קורפו”
- “Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg on the Limits of Halakhic Development”
- “Maimonides Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?”
- “Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer’s Program of Torah u-Madda”
- “Rabbi David Zevi Hoffmann on Torah and Wissenschaft”
- “Scholars and Friends: Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg and Professor Samuel Atlas”
- “Torah im Derekh Eretz in the Shadow of Hitler”
- “Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Friedrich von Schiller”
- כתבי הגאון רבי יחיאל יעקב וויינברג, חלק א
- כתבי הגאון רבי יחיאל יעקב וויינברג, חלק ב
- “אגרת בקורת על ישיבת אייזנשטט”
- “Rabbi Joseph Messas”
- “האם מותר להכנס לכנסיה”
- Review Essay of Avi Sagi and Zvi Zohar, Transforming Identity
- Review of Shaul Stampfer, Families, Rabbis and Education
- Review of Hayim Tawil and Bernard Schneider, Crown of Aleppo
- “האם יש חיוב להאמין שהזוהר נכתב על ידי רבי שמעון בן יוחאי”
- Credo 13 television series
- Jewish Press interview
- Luke Ford’s excerpts from Shapiro’s lectures and blogs
- Yiddish site devoted to Shapiro
- Marc B. Shapiro’s website
