Author talk: Dara Horn on "A Guide for The Perplexed" at Yeshiva U Museum, Monday Jan 27

A Guide for the Perplexed – A Conversation with Dara Horn

Monday, January 27, 2014 | 7:30 pm

In her critically acclaimed new novel, A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn uses the Cairo Geniza as the backdrop for a powerful story about our search for knowledge, intimacy and enlightenment. Intertwining the remarkable story of the Geniza's discovery with a dramatic contemporary tale of a futuristic software program that records everything its users do, A Guide is a riveting story and an insightful meditation on the power and limits of human imagination, as well as on the tension between faith and reason.

Join us for a special conversation with the author in combination with a viewing of Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue. Featured in the exhibition are two manuscripts by Moses Maimonides, including a draft of a portion of his Guide for the Perplexed, one of the greatest philosophical works of the Middle Ages – and an inspiration for Horn's novelistic tour-de-force.  Guests are invited to visit the exhibition before the program, beginning at 6:45 pm.

Details:

15 W. 16th Street (just west of Fifth Avenue), Manhattan

Tickets: $10, general; $7 YUM members, students, seniors

For tickets, go to: www.smarttix.com; or call (212) 868-4444

Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue has been organized by the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore and Yeshiva University Museum.

The exhibition and programs are made possible through the generous support of the Leon Levy Foundation, lead sponsor, and The David Berg Foundation, as well as patrons and friends of Yeshiva University Museum.

Threshold to the Sacred explores the artistic character and the religious and cultural setting of a decorated and inscribed medieval wood door from the Holy Ark of Egypt's Ben Ezra Synagogue, site of the discovery of the Cairo Geniza. Featuring beautiful Jewish and Islamic works of art and artifacts, conservation and science research on the ark door, and manuscript treasures from the Cairo Geniza, the exhibition brings to life the remarkable past of the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the panel's expansive communal context.