Admiel Kosman ( he, אדמיאל קוסמן; born in 1957) is an Israeli poet and professor of
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
.
Biography
Admiel Kosman was born in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
to an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
Jewish family. His father hailed from a German Jewish family living in France, and his mother immigrated from Iraq.
[Poetry International Web: Admiel Kosman](_blank)
After serving in the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
in an artillery unit and attending
Yeshivat Hakotel
Yeshivat HaKotel ( he, ישיבת הכותל, lit=Yeshiva of the Western Wall) is a religious Zionist Hesder yeshiva situated in the Old City of Jerusalem. The yeshiva's building is located opposite the Temple Mount and overlooks the Kotel (W ...
in the Old City of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, he studied graphic art and pottery at the
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest ...
. He did his Ph.D. in
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
at
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...
in
Ramat Gan
Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...
.
Kosman has four children from his first marriage.
Since relocating to Berlin, Kosman is a professor of Religious and Jewish Studies at
Potsdam University and the academic director of
Abraham Geiger Reform Rabbinical Seminary.
Kosman is the author of eight books of poetry. His poems often deal with the tension between his religious faith and artistic sensibilities. Kosman has also written three volumes of
post-modern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
scholarship on
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
in traditional Jewish texts. In 2000, he was invited by
Nobel Prize–winning Polish poets
Czeslaw Milosz and
Wislawa Szymborska to participate in an interfaith festival in
Cracow, Poetry – between Prayer and Song.
Awards
Kosman has been awarded national prizes for poetry including the
Bernstein Prize
The Bernstein Prize is an annual Israeli literary award for writers 50 years of age and younger. The prize is awarded by the Bernstein Foundation, named after Mordechai Bernstein, who left money in his estate to establish a foundation in order to ...
(original Hebrew-language poetry category), the
Prime Minister's Prize (1976) and the
Brenner Prize
The Brenner Prize is an Israeli literary prize awarded annually by the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and the Haft Family Foundation.
It was founded in the name of the author Yosef Haim Brenner
Yosef Haim Brenner ( he, יוֹסֵף חַ ...
.
Published work
Poetry
*''And Then the Act of Poetry'', 1980
e-Aharei Mora`ot Ma`ase Ha-Shir*''The Prince's Raiment'', 1988
igdei Nasich
* ''Soft Rags'', 1991
martutim Rakim
*''What I Can'', 1995
a Ani Yachol
*''We Reached God'', 1998
iganu Le-Elohim
*''Forty Love Poems and Two Additional Love Poems to God'', 2003
rbaim Shirei Ahava Ve-Shnei Shirei Ahava Nosafim Le-Elohim*''Proscribed Prayers'', Siddur Alternativi, Seventy One New Poems), Hakibutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv 2007
*''You’re Awesome!'' (Ktaim Itcha), Hakibutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv 2011
*''Approaching You in English: Selected Poems of Admiel Kosman'', translated by Lisa Katz and Shlomit Naim-Naor (Zephyr Press, 2011)
Books and articles
* Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism (Studia Judaica; de Gruyter, New York and Berlin, 2012)
* "The Story of a Giant Story - The Winding Way of Og King of Bashan in the Jewish Aggadic Tradition", in: ''
HUCA'' 73, (2002) pp. 157–190.
Men’s World: Reading Masculinity in Jewish Stories in a Spiritual Context.Ergon, Würzburg 2009.
* "Two Women Who Were Sporting with Each Other": A Reexamination of the Halakhic Approaches to Lesbianism as a Touchstone for Homosexuality in General, (with Anat Sharbat), ''
HUCA'' 75, (2004), pp. 37–73
*''Men’s Tractate: Rav and the Butcher and other Stories – On Manhood, Love and Authentic Life in Aggadic and Hassidic Stories'', Keter, Jerusalem 2002
Admiel Kosman (Admiel_Kosman) : Poetry, Prose, Biography, comments, texts
/ref>
*
Treading toward sanctity
Musings and meditations on close to a century's worth of discussions occasioned by Van Gogh's series of paintings of worn shoes. Was the artist's statement primarily aesthetic, or political, or was it religious? In: Ha-Aretz (19.11.2009)
See also
* The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself
''The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself'' is an anthology of modern Hebrew poetry, presented in the original language, with a transliteration into Roman script, a literal translation into English, and commentaries and explanations.
Two editions of this bo ...
References
External links
* https://admiel1kosman.wordpress.com/. The Blog of Admiel Kosman
* https://uni-potsdam.academia.edu/admielkosman Admiel Kosman's page in academia
Interview with Admiel Kosman
Home Libraries, Vered Lee, Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
.
Homepage of Prof. Admiel Kosman at the University of Potsdam
Review by E.C. Belly on Kosman`s new book
In: Words without Borders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosman, Admiel
1957 births
Living people
Israeli Orthodox Jews
Talmudists
Israeli poets
Bernstein Prize recipients
Brenner Prize recipients
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design alumni
Israeli people of German-Jewish descent
Israeli people of Iraqi-Jewish descent
People from Haifa
Bar-Ilan University alumni