Dr. Shraga Bar-On
M.A. in Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (with distinction)
B.Ed. and teacher’s certificate, Herzog College, Alon Shvut (with distinction)
Dr. Shraga Bar On teaches Talmud and Jewish thought at Shalem College. A scholar in Jewish thought, he serves as head of the research center at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Bar On holds a Ph.D. in Jewish thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on Jewish thought and identity, and deals with a wide range of periods and topics: Second Temple literature, rabbinic thought, medieval literature, literature of the revival generation, and contemporary Jewish identity.
In addition to teaching and research, he is active in the field of Jewish regeneration in Israel, and took part in the establishment of the Israeli Rabbinical Seminary and in the development of Jewish-Israeli leadership programs.
Selected Publications
Books
Lot-Casting, God, and Man in Jewish Literature: From the Second Temple Period to the Renaissance. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2020. [Hebrew]
Refereed Articles in Journals
“Between Torah Study and Social Justice in a Talmudic Aggadah,” Reshit: Studies in Judaism 4 (2020), pp. 80-103 [Hebrew]
“The Land of God to the Sons of God: Deuteronomy 32: 8-9 and the Inheritance of the Land of Israel,” Tarbiz 85 (2018), pp. 29-63 [Hebrew] (with Yakir Paz)
“The Art of the Chain Novel in B. Yoma 35b: Reconsidering the Social Values of the Babylonian Yeshivot,” Hebrew Union College Annual 88 (2018), pp. 55-88.
“’The Lord of All’ and ‘The Creator of the World’: Aleinu le-Shabeach as an Anti-Binitarian Prayer,” Jewish Studies 52 (2017), pp. 19-46. [Hebrew] (with Yakir Paz)
“’A New God who would Stop the Agony of Humanity’: Reuben Rubin’s ‘The Godseekers’ Wood Carvings and the Role of Art in Jewish Renaissance,” Kathedra 154 (2015), pp. 55–84. [Hebrew]
“The Yom Kippur Lots: Rationalism, Manticism and Mysticism," Kabbalah 28 (2012), pp. 163–189. [Hebrew]
“‘The Thirst’: Hillel Zeitlin in Search of God,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 22 (2010), pp. 543–584. [Hebrew]
“‘The Lord’s Portion is Israel’: The Myth of the Election of Israel by Lot and the Gnostic-Christian-Pagan-Jewish Polemic,” Tarbiz 79 (2010), pp. 23–61. [Hebrew] (with Yakir Paz)
Refereed Articles in Books
“‘If You Seek to Take Advice from the Torah, It Will Be Given’: Jewish Bibliomancy through the Generations,” in Unveiling the Hidden – Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices Among Jews between Qumran and the Modern Period, ed. Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Leiden: Brill, 2021), pp. 161-191.
“Revelation as Heresy: Mysticism and Elisha ben Abuyah’s Apostasy in Classic Rabbinic Literature,” in Canonization and Alterity: Heresy in Jewish History, Thought and Literature, ed. Gilad Sharvit and Willi Goetschel (Berlin: De Gruyter 2020), pp. 51–83. (with Eugene D. Matanky)
“Bibliomancy in Jewish Tradition: The Lot attributed to the Gaon of Vilna (Goral Hagra),” in Myth, Ritual and Mysticism: Studies in Honor of Professor Ithamar Gruenwald (=Te'uda XXVI), ed. Gideon Bohak, Ron Margolin, and Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2014), pp. 521-585. [Hebrew]
“Hillel Zeitlin in Search of God: An Analysis of Zeitlin's Meditation ‘The Thirst’,” in Faith: Jewish Perspectives, ed. Dov Schwartz and Avi Sagi (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2013), pp. 478–499.
“The Ill Yearnings for Meaning: On the Story of Three by Aharon Appelfeld,” in Twenty-four New Readings in Appelfeld Stories, ed. Avidov Lipsker and Avi Sagi (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2011), pp. 207–33. [Hebrew]