Shalom Sadik

Shalom Sadik (born April 6, 1980) is a scholar of Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages. He is a member of the Jewish Thought Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and has published articles and books on the subject. He has been honored with various academic awards in recognition of his work, which focuses on topics such as free will, the philosophy of Maimonides, the philosophy of the Jewish Apostate in Spain and natural-Law.

Sadik was born to Jaque and Chantal^[1] in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 6, 1980, the first-born before his two sisters. At 14, he, alongside his family, immigrated to Israel. He studied at Hartman High School in Jerusalem, and upon completing his studies there, he began attending Yeshivat Otniel. In 1999, as part of the Yeshiva Hesder program, he enlisted in the Nahal Haredi as a teacher.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, during his military service, Sadik began studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish History at the Israeli Open University. Upon completing his military service and alongside his studies at the Yeshiva of Otniel, Sadik continued to pursue his bachelor's degree in 2003.^{[citation needed]} Subsequently, Sadik began studying for a second degree in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University. His thesis, under the supervision of Catarina Rigo, was entitled "Man's Will and God's Knowledge in the Thought of Rabbi Isaac Pulgar". Sadik completed his degree with high honors in 2006 and was awarded the Ben-Zvi Institute Prize for his thesis.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, Sadik commenced his doctoral studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His dissertation, under the supervision of Daniel Lasker, was "Trinity and Determinism in the Thought of Abner of Burgos".^[2] He completed his doctorate in 2011 and was awarded the Pines Prize, the Toledano Prize for Young Researchers, the Warborg Prize, the KKL Prize and the Ben-vi Institute Prize for his dissertation.^{[citation needed]} Following his doctorate, Sadik undertook a post-doctoral research at the Cohn Institute at the Tel Aviv University (2011–13) under the supervision of Joseph Schwartz.^[3] Concurrently, Sadik lectured at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut (2011-2017), served as a visiting lecturer at the Bar-Ilan University (2011–12), and then a visiting lecturer at th Hebrew University (2014). In 2013, Sadik was accepted as a Polonsky Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and conducted research there until 2016. In 2016, Sadik was awarded the Alon Fellowship and appointed a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.^[4] In 2022, Sadik was appointed as an Associate Professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

In 2018, Sadik published an article in Abia, the students magazine of Otniel Yeshiva. In the article, Sadik asserted the existence of an implicit covenant between religious conservatives, who hold positions that "fundamentally oppose the philosophical interpretation of religion... [and] argue that religion has a clear and independent metaphysical message" and atheists.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the article Sadik called for including in the religious society those who adhere to the observance of commandments, even if they do not believe in personal Divine providence, divine Torah, or any personal conception, and argued that throughout the generations, great rabbis have held this view. Sadik's article sparked a stormy controversy within^[5][6] and outside^[7][8] the Otniel Yeshiva and led to the resignation of Rabbi Shmuel Ariel from the Otniel Yeshiva.

• Academic publications by Shalom Sadik in Academia.edu