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Freedom


AIPAC and the Secret Worlds of Peoplehood AIPAC and the Secret Worlds of Peoplehood
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

No cause, force or organization, brings Americans, primarily Jews but also Christians, together like the cause of Israel as managed by AIPAC.
Who Says There Are No Coincidences? Who Says There Are No Coincidences?
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 by David Glasner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In certain Orthodox circles, the idea that there are no coincidences has become a principle of faith.  But it contradicts a more fundamental Jewish doctrine: human free will.
Who’s Sadat?  Or, Defining Israel Literacy Upward Who’s Sadat? Or, Defining Israel Literacy Upward
Monday, March 4, 2013 by David B. Starr | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

American Jewry is becoming less and less well informed about Zionism and Israel.  Can anything be done to reverse this decline?
The Covenantal Thought of David Hartman The Covenantal Thought of David Hartman
Thursday, February 21, 2013 by Ari Ackerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

By treating the covenant between God and the Jewish people as a partnership, David Hartman found room for autonomy alongside halakhic observance.
Theology, Identity, and Covenant Theology, Identity, and Covenant
Friday, February 15, 2013 by David Hartman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

David Hartman, who passed away on Sunday, was among the foremost Jewish theologians of his generation. Here, we reprint some of his thoughts on God and the Jewish people. 
The Month of Return The Month of Return
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Tevi Troy and Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Jewish month of Av will soon become Ellul, and mourning for the destruction of the Temples will give way to repentance for our sins.  It is time for introspection; and, as we contemplate our relationships with others and with the Divine, questions about penitence, forgiveness, change, and mortality itself inevitably arise.
Repentance = Freedom? Repentance = Freedom?
Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In the thick of the month of Ellul, nearing Rosh Hashanah, penitence is or should be in the air. Also recently marked was the 75th yahrzeit of the great mystic, jurist, and theologian Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935).  As it turns out, Kook's  teachings on the meaning of repentance are among his most striking, stamped with his distinctive mix of piety and audacity. In his eyes, teshuvah, generally translated as "repentance" but literally and more powerfully "return," signifies not only a deepened and renewed commitment to religion and commandments but, paradoxically, nothing less than a new birth of freedom.
Editors' Picks
"The Myth of Mental Illness" Holly Case, Aeon. Jewish psychiatrist Thomas Szasz denounced his field as "a threat to civil liberties" and stated that "Freud and the psychoanalysts" had replaced "the totalitarian leader and his apologists."
Misreading Passover David Hartman, Hartman Institute. "I dreamed that when the calendar turned to Passover, the dominant discussions in the culture would be about subjugation, alienation, and human dignity.  But what do we talk about instead?  Recipes."
Isaiah Berlin's Liberal Zionism Arie Dubnov, Jewish Chronicle. An advocate of individual liberty, Isaiah Berlin defended Zionism not for liberating the Jewish nation but for giving individual Jews a choice: whether to live in Israel or the Diaspora.
Moses’ Choice Gil Student, Torah Musings. Moses was chosen to lead Israel not only by God but, the Gemara says, by his mother.  Still, unlike his enslaved brethren and even Pharaoh, Moses had the freedom to choose.