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Podcast: Jewish Ideas to Change the World
Episode: Samuel Fleischacker - Existentialist Messianism
Description: Professor Samuel Fleischacker, the LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois-Chicago, presents his lecture "Existentialist Messianism" before a roundtable audience at Temple Chai (www.templechai.com/) in Phoenix, AZ.
ABOUT THIS LECTURE: Martin Buber ended a 1909 lecture he gave in Prague with a parable suggesting that each of us is responsible for bringing the Messiah. Some years later, Franz Kafka – who may have been in Buber’s audience – wrote a famous story that echoes Buber’s parable in striking ways. A little later, Walter Benjamin wrote what looks like a riff on it. We’ll look at all three texts, plu...