Observation ·
Where Are We Now?
By Leon R. KassWhy do we suddenly care so much about Israel or Jewish survival? Is it only the Jew as eternal victim that we cherish? Hardly—it is the Jewish way of living that matters.
Leon R. Kass
Leon R. Kass is dean of the faculty at Shalem College, professor emeritus in the College and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and scholar emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute. A physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, he served from 2001-2005 as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics.
Latest Content
Observation ·
Halkin Puts Everything in Its Place
By Leon R. KassIn his new essay collection, my friend Hillel Halkin offers an autobiographical overview, unorthodoxly given, in a lifetime’s worth of literary attempts.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Completing Creation
By Leon R. KassAfter the golden calf, something wondrous happens. Leon Kass walks us through what that is in this final installment of our series on Exodus.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Moses and the Levites
By Leon R. KassWhy does Moses order every Levite to practice fratricide?
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: The Place Where God Dwells
By Leon R. KassThis week, we learn that God wants to be known not only as the Israelites' deliverer from bondage but also as an immediate and permanent presence in their lives.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Questions to Ask about the Tabernacle
By Leon R. KassDoes the preservation of the covenant depend upon repeated revelations and direct divine encounters, or are there more permanent ways?
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Israel’s Obligations to the Stranger
By Leon R. KassOne cannot exaggerate the importance of the Bible's novel—even revolutionary—teaching about the outsider who lives among the Israelites.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: What Is the Covenant?
By Leon R. KassGod’s proposed covenant does not look to men of virtue or point to rule by philosophers or kings or prophets. The covenant is made with each and every person.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: The Meaning of Amalek
By Leon R. KassWhy is the Lord so adamant about obliterating Amalek, and why does He make His intentions known?
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Knowledge of the Divine
By Leon R. KassThis week, Kass looks at what the ten plagues of Egypt reveal about the God who metes them out.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: What Is Egypt?
By Leon R. KassThis week, we look at the religious, political, and cultural matrix out of which Israel emerges, and the human alternative against which Israel will be defined.
Observation ·
Reading Exodus with Leon Kass
By Leon R. KassRead along with one of our time's great readers of the Bible as he works his way through the book of Exodus.
Response ·
There’s No Need to Feel Sorry for God (or for Leon Kass)
By Leon R. KassCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Monthly Essay ·
The People-Forming Passover
By Leon R. KassThere's a great deal more at stake in Exodus than getting the slaves out of Egypt. What might it be?
Response ·
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
By Leon R. KassCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Monthly Essay ·
The Ten Commandments
By Leon R. KassWhy the Decalogue Matters
