The Coronavirus Has Exposed the Weaknesses of Israeli Ultra-Orthodoxy, but the Only Solution Can Come from Within
Recovering a sense of civic virtue from within the Jewish tradition.
February 3, 2021
In the Hebrew Bible, God repeatedly professes His love for the Jewish people and, moreover, demands that they love him in return. To Jon Levenson, this love bears some similarity to love of a family member—as if God has adopted the descendants of Jacob into His own family—as well as to monogamous romantic love. It also is deeply related to the biblical ideas of chosenness, covenant, and commandment. Thus the love of God requires service to Him rather than mere emotion, and the commandments are neither laws in the modern sense nor moral principles, but expressions of love and reciprocity. (Interview by Johnny Mej. Audio, one hour.)
Recovering a sense of civic virtue from within the Jewish tradition.
The other blockade.
And the forgotten battle that cost Moshe Dayan his eye.
With some help from Maimonides, Aristotle, Dr. Johnson, and Chekhov.
In the Hebrew Bible, God repeatedly professes His love for the Jewish people and, moreover, demands that they love him in return. To Jon Levenson, this love bears some similarity to love of a family member—as if God has adopted the descendants of Jacob into His own family—as well as to monogamous romantic love. It also is deeply related to the biblical ideas of chosenness, covenant, and commandment. Thus the love of God requires service to Him rather than mere emotion, and the commandments are neither laws in the modern sense nor moral principles, but expressions of love and reciprocity. (Interview by Johnny Mej. Audio, one hour.)
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