PhD dissertation
Tamara Holkenov successfully defends PhD dissertation on emotional ideals of total devotion
On September 15th, Tamara Holkenov defended her dissertation Scribal Love Vs. Priestly Fear, exploring how rabbinic interpretations of Deuteronomy 6:4–5 shaped contrasting ideals of devotion—love and fear—in late antique Jewish traditions.
On September 15th, PhD fellow in the Total Devotion Project, Tamara Holkenov, successfully defended her dissertation entitled Scribal Love Vs. Priestly Fear: Emotional Ideals of Total Devotion in Midrash Sifre on Deuteronomy, in dialogue with Dr. Ronit Nikolsky, emer. (Groningen), scholar of late antique literary traditions with a focus on cognitive approaches, Prof. emer. Armin W. Geertz, scholar of comparative religion and the cognitive science of religion at Aarhus University, and associate Prof. Reka Forrai (chair), historian and classicist at the University of Southern Denmark, with a particular focus on antique and medieval translation practices.
In her dissertation, Holkenov examines how the rabbinic text Sifre Deuteronomy interprets the biblical verses Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (the opening of the Shema, a central Jewish declaration of faith), as a way of cultivating total devotion, understood as absolute commitment involving emotional intensity, identity fusion, and readiness for costly sacrifice.
The study demonstrates how different Jewish traditions have emphasized contrasting emotional ideals of total devotion. While priestly circles have tended to highlight fear as the path to obedience and purity, scribal circles have traditionally elevated love as the supreme form of attachment to God.
By analyzing these interpretations within their late antique historical and cultural setting, Holkenov demonstrates how rabbinic discourse sought to merge these strands, appropriating priestly motifs while maintaining a scribal framework that privileged love as the dominant emotional ideal of total devotion.