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Leaving no philosophical stone unturned
By David Stromberg
Tags: Ultra-Orthodox, philosophy

It's difficult to maintain a single conversational thread with Shlomo Felberbaum. His erratic speech can change course from European films, to classical music, to political issues, to pop culture to religious commentary - all in what feels like a single sentence. But when leading what he calls "close-reading seminars" at Barbur, a gallery in Jerusalem's Nahlaot neighborhood run collectively by a group of artists, his pace makes an about-turn - it can take more than two hours to read a single page of Plato.

"Close reading is just reading," says the 46-year-old instructor. "If you're not reading closely, you might as well throw in the towel," he adds. During the interview he constantly makes fast-paced smart-alecky remarks under his breath - "All wisdom is bunk," he'll suddenly say, or "This is all about personal enrichment - I mean money."

Felberbaum provides weekly workshops at Barbur in English to a group of up to 10 people interested in ancient philosophical texts, translating the original ancient Greek or Latin text on the spot. Anyone can join the workshops, which take no fees and rely on donations. "What I'm doing wouldn't be so strange if people weren't so unused to thinking and communicating," he says. According to Felberbaum, we're too used to skimming over or disagreeing with things we don't understand.
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Felberbaum moved from Brooklyn to the Bait v'Gan neighborhood of Jerusalem five years ago, sixteen years after becoming ultra-Orthodox. Aside from teaching, he's one the partners in an eclectic, multi-media company called Lost Trails. The company's mainstay is its independent record label, which has recorded and released folk music from Mediterranean and Eastern European countries.

Reason versus revelation

Felberbaum grew up in a secular household in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and eventually went to study classics at NYU, where his interest in philosophy deepened. After learning Greek and Latin he came upon the works of Rambam, the medieval Jewish thinker. Beyond wisdom, it became a question of faith - the difference between unaided reason and belief in revelation. "It came down to a choice: Plato, Aristotle, or Torah," he says. He chose Judaism.

Despite becoming observant, Felberbaum never closed the door on these historical figures. "You have to know what you're up against," he jokes. "Which thinkers can we consider if we're looking for a description of the way things are?" He believes there is wisdom in these non-Jewish ancient texts that merit consideration. "It's a horrifying thought to some that there were people around 2,500 year ago who were smarter than we are today. After the enlightenment, there was a notion that all prior thought was wrong because it was based on something that was no longer valid. This 'progress' made it seem as though nothing these thinkers said was still relevant."

Felberbaum met Yanai Segal, one of the artists who founded Barbur, at an art exhibit at the Barbur gallery. Segal later invited Felberbaum to give his close-reading seminars at the gallery. "The best way to engage a text is not through an academic buffer," explains Segal. "Most people in academia try to hide the fact they don't have any insights by frightening you with their jargon. Shlomo is a rare person who is concerned with spreading and sharing his immense knowledge and less so with having an academic career."

Segal, a painter who doesn't consider himself religiously observant, is a regular participant in the seminar, as is Micha Danziger, who studies medical engineering at Machon Lev, an institute of technology that also incorporates yeshiva-style religious learning. "We get clarity on the subjects we read," says Micha, who describes himself as Dati Leumi (religious Zionist), about the seminar. "The way Shlomo reads these philosophers - who seem like they're in the clouds - helps us strip away layers and approach the truth."

But not all participants - who have included people Felberbaum met at bus-stops - are interested in this kind of careful analysis as an approach to the truth. "I drive some of them crazy," he says." According to him, the idea of the truth is itself unpopular. "I mention the word 'truth' and people think I'm insane. They don't like to read for the author's intention, which the modern conception tries to convince us we just can't do."

Though he finds the term "Haredi" problematic, Felberbaum is deeply observant of Jewish law, and says philosophical understanding is not the same as belief in revelation. "Being Platonic isn't compatible with being an observant Jew," he says, meaning that unaided reason based on human insights and wisdom is fundamentally different than believing in a law pronounced by God. "You have to consider both. One requires the other." He goes even further: "It's interesting to consider revelation as the end result of reason and philosophy."

Segal points out that while he himself is far from choosing to be observant, he finds that with Felberbaum it's a way of remaining open to certain larger questions. "A big part of being Jewish is thinking deeply about things." he says, "I chose art and painting at a young age, but I also see that religious observance is one way of moving through life with these questions."
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