When tracing the development of Western political thought, professors usually start with ancient Greece, turn left at Rome, zip past the Middle Ages, then go straight to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.
They almost always forget to make one stop: the Torah.
That’s the world according to Sheldon Rothblatt. A professor emeritus of history at U.C. Berkeley, Rothblatt has a longstanding fascination with the impact the Torah, Talmud and other Jewish texts have had on political history.
He’ll shed light on the subject when he speaks Sept. 15 at the East Bay Jewish Forum, an annual series that offers erudite speakers on a variety of topics. It is run by the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay.
The series will take place twice a month for a total of 11 meetings September through December at Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland; the series’ winter portion, to be held at another location, is in the planning stages.
The lineup of fall topics includes everything from love in the biblical world to Muslim impressions of Israel to the story of Bulgarian Jews during World War II.
Speakers include Lehrhaus Judaica Executive Director Jehon Grist, San Francisco State University Jewish studies professor Fred Astren, Boalt Hall law professor Jesse Choper and Yiddish translator Ken Blady.
Mervyn Danker, American Jewish Committee regional office director, will deliver the series’ opening lecture on Sept. 8, titled “The State of the Jewish World.”
Rothblatt is not new to the forum lineup, but he is excited to offer his views on what the Torah contributed to political science. The Jewish sages had plenty to say on the subject, he says.
The Jewish sages, he notes, “don’t write treatises. We tell stories, but those stories are incredible political. The talmudic commentators asked the questions: What is personal freedom? Is there a Jewish conception of liberty? Where does authority lie in society? What should be the average view towards authority? All have gone into the making of Western thought.”
He cites Moses as an example. The biblical founder of the Israelite nation and the most revered person in Judaism, Moses was no king, no god — but a mere human being.
That ran counter to the norms of the ancient world, which elevated leaders, such as the Pharaohs, to godlike status.
“Why wasn’t Moses set up as a kind of Egyptian God King?” Rothblatt asks. “That’s [a practice that] the Orient knew. That’s what the Greeks knew. Not in Judaism. Moses is immediately separate, human, vulnerable and never perfect.”
Rothblatt’s field of specialty during his tenure at U.C. Berkeley was modern British history (for him, “modern” begins around the 12th century). He also has studied the history of world universities and the history of ideas.
A graduate of U.C. Berkeley and King’s College, Cambridge University, Rothblatt has taught in Australia, Austria, Sweden and Norway, as well as at various prestigious American universities. Among his many honors, he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Britain, and was knighted by the King of Sweden.
Retirement offered him the chance to stroll down other paths, including the history of writing, of cities and of the Jews.
“I feel confident dealing with Jewish topics in the context of broader teaching I do,” Rothblatt says. “Jewish people are chameleons, taking on the protective coverings of the societies of which they are part.”
The East Bay Jewish Forum will begin its fall schedule Sept. 8. All lectures at 10 a.m. Thursdays at Temple Beth Abraham, 327 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. $10, or $80 for all 11 lectures. Information: (510) 318-6456.