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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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