Haim Watzman
When do religions based on text and revelation turn fundamentalist and extreme? When their adherents take their holy books and divine messages to be sources of infallible wisdom that needs no human mediation. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other creeds can all inspire their adherents to take individual responsibility for weighing competing moral values, but [...]
Revelation and Law: Elijah and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi
September 19th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Judaism and Religion
Tags: Christianity·Islam·Judaism·Justice·law·rabbinic
Disavow, Renounce, Didn’t Hear
April 29th, 2008 · 19 Comments · Judaism and Religion, Politics and Policy
Gershom Gorenberg
Just in case I’m ever struck by the mad thought of running for political office in Israel, I’d like to set the record straight: I don’t agree with the prophet Isaiah’s political views. He doesn’t speak for me. No way.
It’s true that I’ve enjoyed some of his sermons, and I took some comfort from [...]
Tags: class warfare·Isaiah·Israel·Justice·Wright
Marching up J Street, Passing Marty Peretz in a Shtreimel
April 17th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Judaism and Religion, Politics and Policy
Much as I’ve come to disagree with Marty Peretz, I admit that I hesitate viscerally before criticizing him. Marty opened the pages of the New Republic to me in the 1990s. So attacking him feels like an act of ingratitude, if not a minor violation of oedipal inhibitions toward a one-time mentor. In his own [...]
Tags: Abraham Joshua Heschel·Ezra Klein·J Street·Justice·Martin Peretz·Tikkun Olam·Zionism
