America the Biblical

The Greeks did not invent equality. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and the gang famously believed that the rich are different from you and me—not merely because they are shaped by their privileges but because they are actually, literally made of superior stuff.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece  Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, Robert W. Wallace,  University of California Press.  Athens may have recognized political equality among citizens, but not just anybody could be a citizen.  SAVE

Americanism: the Fourth Great Western Religion  David Gelernter,  Random House.  "America is no secular republic," Gelernter says; "it's a biblical republic."  SAVE

The Scepter Shall Not Depart from Judah  Alan L. Mittleman,  Lexington Books.  There is a "theological-political predicament" in modern Jews' spiritual dependence on their surrounding political systems.  SAVE

SAVE "America the Biblical"

The Evil Inclination

The yetzer hara, usually translated "evil impulse," is an elusive rabbinic concept. The words derive from God's observation in Genesis 8:21 (paralleled earlier in 6:5) that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."

Evil Urge  Amit Gevaryahu,  Talmud Blog.  A new work tackles one of the most entrenched myths in the academic study of Jewish sources: namely, that Judaism has historically been a sex-positive religion.  SAVE

Bar Mitzvah and Yetzer Hatov  Jeffrey Spitzer,  My Jewish Learning.  In rabbinic texts, the distinction between childhood and young adulthood is the birth of the good inclination.  SAVE

Good and Evil  Virtual Jewish Library.  Maimonides integrated the "good inclination" and "evil inclination" in his Aristotelian theory of the soul; Kabbalah reads the concepts in cosmic terms.  SAVE

SAVE "The Evil Inclination"

Reconstructionist rabbinical students.

Reconstructing Judaism

At a time when all three major Jewish denominations in America—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—find themselves in a state of deep internal fracture, a fourth and much smaller movement, Reconstructionism, has just voted to create a unified body to coordinate the activities of its lay and rabbinical arms.

Reconstructing Halakhah  Daniel Goldman Cedarbaum,  Reconstructionism Today.  Religious law is an essential component of Jewish life, but the traditional system must be brought into line with contemporary democratic sensibilities.  SAVE

Dim-Sum Jews  Ben Weiner,  Zeek.  As a respite from the Chinese-buffet model of optional Jewishness, a young rabbi turns wistfully to the "thickness" and "dense particularity" of cultural Yiddishkeit. (PDF, 2010)  SAVE

SAVE "Reconstructing Judaism"

Yoram Hazony.

The Bible and the Good Life

What manner of work is the Hebrew Bible? The 17th-century freethinker Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza had an answer. As part of his war to emancipate philosophy from the influence of religion, he reduced the biblical message to, in effect, one word: obedience.

The Biblical Century  Yoram Hazony,  Jerusalem Letters.  In the universities, the door is open for a real change in the standing of the Hebrew Bible, and of Judaism more generally.  SAVE

SAVE "The Bible and the Good Life"

Louis Jacobs.

The Reluctant Renegade

Since its founding, Conservative Judaism in the U.S. has defined itself in sharp contrast to Reform, pursuing a more religiously centrist and Zionist middle course. Its UK parallel, Masorti ("traditional") Judaism, was born as a secession movement from Orthodoxy—inspired by theologian Louis Jacobs.

Between Maimonides and Jacobs  Neil Gillman,  Conservative Judaism.  No other contemporary theologian has explored the issue of revelation as thoroughly or systematically.  SAVE

Ask the Rabbi  louisjacobs.org.  In the last year of his life, Jacobs answers questions on law, community, and fundamentalism with his characteristic humor and humanity. (Video; 2006)  SAVE

Against Capitulation  Michael Harris,  Jewish Quarterly.  From a modern Orthodox perspective, it is Jacobs himself who fails adequately to respond to the challenge of biblical criticism.  SAVE

SAVE "The Reluctant Renegade"