The Lyons Lecture in Judaic Studies presents "The God of Judaism is a God of Love"
Date: Thursday, Feb 19, 2026
Start time: 6:00 p.m.
End time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Jefferson Hotel | 101 W Franklin, Richmond, VA
Audience: Free and open to the public
It is one of the last acceptable prejudices in American culture: the God of the "Old Testament" is a God of vengeance, focused on strict justice rather than mercy, given to anger rather than love. This perception is as mistaken as it is widespread. In this lecture, we'll encounter a series of biblical texts that make the stunning claim that what makes God unique, what makes God God, is God's unfathomable capacity for love, mercy, and forgiveness. We'll explore the common complaint that a God of love is (too) anthropomorphic, and we'll ask whether belief in a God of love is still plausible in this day and age.
Speaker
Rabbi Shai Held -- philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar-- is president and dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of "Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence" (2013), "The Heart of Torah" (2017), and "Judaism is About Love" (2024) and he is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld.
Sponsor(s): Lyons Chair, Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, Center for the Study of Global Religions and Spiritualities
Event contact: Samuel J. Kessler, kesslers2@vcu.edu