To Be a Jew deals with the question of the meaning and rationale that the writer Joseph Chayim Brenner attributes to Jewish existence. Many of Brenner's readers assumed that Brenner completely negated Jewish existence and sought to form a new way of life completely disconnected from the traditional Jewish existence. In contrast to this perception, Avi Sagi proves that not only did Brenner not reject the value of the Jewish existence, but the core of his creation was written out of a deep Jewish commitment. Brenner's greatest innovation is found in his new conception of Jewish existence. To be a Jew, according to Brenner, involves the willingness to discover solidarity with actual Jews, to participate in a society in which Jews can live a free life and to fashion their culture as they wish. Sagi presents the idea that Brenner's is not a Utopian, but a realistic, conception of Jewish existence. Thus this unique conception of Jewish existence is founded on an infrastructure of existential thought.

Of all Judaic rituals, that of giyyur is arguably the most radical: it turns a Gentile into a Jew - once and for all and irrevocably. The very possibility of such a transformation is anomalous, according to Jewish tradition, which regards Jewishness as an ascriptive status entered through birth to a Jewish mother.What is the internal logic of the ritual of giyyur, that seems to enable a Gentile to acquire an 'ascribed' identity? It is to this question, and others deriving from it, that the authors address themselves.Interpretation of a ritual such as giyyur is linked to broad issues of anthropology, religion and culture: the relation of 'nature' and 'culture' in the construction of group boundaries; the tension between ethnicity and religion; the interrelation of individual identity and membership in a collective. Fully aware of these issues, this groundbreaking study focuses upon a close reading of primary halakhic texts from Talmudic times down to the present as key to the explication of meaning within the Judaic tradition.In our times, the meaning of Jewish identity is a core issue, directly affecting the public debate regarding the relative weight of religion, nationality and kinship in determining basic aspects of Jewish life throughout the world. This book constitutes a seminal contribution to this ongoing discussion: it enables access to a wealth of halakhic sources previously accessible only to rabbinic scholars, fleshes out their meanings and implications within the cultural history of halakha, and in doing so situates halakha at the nexus of contemporary cultural discourse.The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between Jewish classical sources and the modern world, to enrich the meanings of Jewish thought and to explore the varieties of Jewish life.

In this groundbreaking study, Avi Sagi outlines a broad spectrum of answers to important questions presented in Jewish literature, covering theological issues bearing on the meaning of the Torah and of revelation, as well as hermeneutical questions regarding understanding of the halakhic text.This is the first volume to attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the available views and theories concerning the theological, hermeneutical, and ontological meaning of dispute as a constitutive element of Halakhah. It offers an attentive reading of the texts and strives to present, clearly and exhaustively, the conscious account of Jewish tradition in general and of halakhic tradition in particular concerning the meaning of halakhic discourse.The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between Jewish classical sources and the modern world, to enrich the meanings of Jewish thought and to explore the varieties of Jewish life.

The book grapples with one of the most difficult questions confronting the contemporary world: the problem of the other, which includes ethical, political, and metaphysical aspects. A widespread approach in the history of the discourse on the other, systematically formulated by Emmanuel Levinas and his followers, has invested this term with an almost mythical quality-the other is everybody else but never a specific person, an abstraction of historical human existence. This book offers an alternative view, turning the other into a real being, through a carefully described process involving two dimensions referred to as the ethic of loyalty to the visible and the ethic of inner retreat. Tracing the course of this process in life and in literature, the book presents a broad and lucid picture intriguing to philosophers and also accessible to readers concerned with questions touching on the meaning of life, ethics, and politics, and particularly relevant to the burning issues surrounding attitudes to immigrants as others and to the relationship with God, the ultimate other.

The relationship between morality and religion has long been controversial, familiar in its formulation as Euthyphro's dilemma: Is an act right because God commanded it or did God command it because it is right. In Morality and Religion: The Jewish Story, renowned scholar Avi Sagi marshals the breadth of philosophical and hermeneutical tools to examine this relationship in Judaism from two perspectives. The first considers whether Judaism adopted a thesis widespread in other monotheistic religions known as 'divine command morality,' making morality contingent on God's command. The second deals with the ways Jewish tradition grapples with conflicts between religious and moral obligations. After examining a broad spectrum of Jewish sources-including Talmudic literature, Halakhah, Aggadah, Jewish philosophy, and liturgy-Sagi concludes that mainstream Jewish tradition consistently refrains from attempts to endorse divine command morality or resolve conflicts by invoking a divine command. Rather, the central strand in Judaism perceives God and humans as inhabiting the same moral community and bound by the same moral obligations. When conflicts emerge between moral and religious instructions, Jewish tradition interprets religious norms so that they ultimately pass the moral test. This mainstream voice is anchored in the meaning of Jewish law, which is founded on human autonomy and rationality, and in the relationship with God that is assumed in this tradition.

This book offers a new insight into the political, social, and religious conduct of religious-Zionism, whose consequences are evident in Israeli society today. Before the Six-Day War, religious-Zionism had limited its concern to the protection of specific religious interests, with its representatives having little share in the determination of Israel's national agenda. Fifty years after it, religious-Zionism has turned into one of Israeli society's dominant elements. The presence of this group in all aspects of Israel's life and its members' determination to set Israel's social, cultural, and international agenda is indisputable. Delving into this dramatic transformation, the book depicts the Six-Day War as a constitutive event that indelibly changed the political and religious consciousness of religious-Zionists. The perception of real history that had guided this movement from its dawn was replaced by a "sacred history" approach that became an actual program of political activity. As part of a process that has unfolded over the last thirty years, the body and sexuality have also become a central concern in the movement's practice, reflection, and discourse. The how and why of this shift in religious-Zionism - from passivity and a consciousness of marginality to the front lines of public life - is this book's central concern. The book will be of interest to readers and scholars concerned with changing dynamic societies and with the study of religion and particularly with the relationship between religion and politics.

This book deals with the meaning of identity in general and Jewish identity in particular. Different notions of Jewish identity have been formulated in the history of Jewish thought, many of them supporting a rigid and one-sided view of it. Relying on a cultural historical analysis of various theoretical and empirical dimensions of this concept, the book shows that the term Jewish identity denotes a field covering a broad range of options for Jewish existence. Common to all is the affirmation of Jewish identity, but not necessarily one single approach as the sole possible course of Jewish life.

The widespread view is that prayer is the center of religious existence and that understanding the meaning of prayer requires that we assume God is its sole destination. This book challenges this assumption and, through a phenomenological analysis of the meaning of prayer in modern Hebrew literature, shows that prayer does not depend at all on the addressee humans are praying beings. Prayer is, above all, the recognition that we are free to transcend the facts of our life and an expression of the hope that we can override the weight of our past and present circumstances.

The religious-Zionist community in Israel developed as an attempt to combine Jewish Law commitment with the values of modernity, two networks of meaning coexisting in tension and not easily reconciled. This book develops a new paradigm for reading religious cultures through a description and analysis of the sexuality discourse as it emerges in the virtual exchange in the Religious-Zionist writings. This is a new endeavor in the study of religious-Zionism or of modern Orthodoxy, centering on the body as the realm of confrontation and considering aspects such as homosexuality, lesbianism, masturbation, and relationships between the sexes.

Faith: Jewish Perspectives explores important questions in both modern and premodern Jewish philosophy regarding the idea of faith. Is believing a voluntary action, or do believers find themselves within the experience of faith against their will? Can faith be understood through other means (psychological, epistemic, and so forth), or is it only comprehensible from the inside, that is, from within the religious world? Is a subjective experience of faith fundamentally communicative, meaning that it includes intelligible and transmittable universal elements, or is it a private experience that we can point to or talk about through indirect means (poetic, lyrical, and so forth), but never fully decipher? This book presents various manifestations of the concept of faith in Judaism as a tradition engaged in a dialogue with the outside world. It will function as an opening and an invitation to an ongoing conversation with faith.

'Faith: Jewish Perspectives' explores important questions in both modern and premodern Jewish philosophy regarding the idea of faith. Is believing a voluntary action, or do believers find themselves within the experience of faith against their will? Can faith be understood through other means (psychological, epistemic, and so forth), or is it only comprehensible from the inside, that is, from within the religious world? Is a subjective experience of faith fundamentally communicative, meaning that it includes intelligible and transmittable universal elements, or is it a private experience that we can point to or talk about through indirect means (poetic, lyrical, and so forth), but never fully decipher? This book presents various manifestations of the concept of faith in Judaism as a tradition engaged in a dialogue with the outside world. It will function as an opening and an invitation to an ongoing conversation with faith.

This book offers a new insight into the political, social, and religious conduct of religious-Zionism, whose consequences are evident in Israeli society today. Before the Six-Day War, religious-Zionism had limited its concern to the protection of specific religious interests, with its representatives having little share in the determination of Israel's national agenda. Fifty years after it, religious-Zionism has turned into one of Israeli society's dominant elements. The presence of this group in all aspects of Israel's life and its members' determination to set Israel's social, cultural, and international agenda is indisputable. Delving into this dramatic transformation, the book depicts the Six-Day War as a constitutive event that indelibly changed the political and religious consciousness of religious-Zionists. The perception of real history that had guided this movement from its dawn was replaced by a "sacred history" approach that became an actual program of political activity. As part of a process that has unfolded over the last thirty years, the body and sexuality have also become a central concern in the movement's practice, reflection, and discourse. The how and why of this shift in religious-Zionism - from passivity and a consciousness of marginality to the front lines of public life - is this book's central concern. The book will be of interest to readers and scholars concerned with changing dynamic societies and with the study of religion and particularly with the relationship between religion and politics.

"Jewish Religion after Theology" offers an account of attempts to deal with this question in contemporary Jewish thought. It points to a post-theological trend that shifts the focus of the discussion from metaphysics to praxis, and examines the possibilities of establishing a religious life centered on immanent-practical existence. Key questions considered include the possibility of toleration and pluralism in Jewish religion and the perception of the Holocaust as a theological or religious-existential problem. Professor Avi Sagi teaches philosophy at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he is also the founding director of a graduate program on Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies. Sagi is senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He has published extensively on continental philosophy, philosophy of religion and ethics, Jewish philosophy, philosophy and sociology of Jewish law. Among his books: Religion and Morality (with Daniel Statman); Kierkegaard, Religion, and Existence: The Voyage of the Self; Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd; The Open Canon: On the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse; Tradition vs. Traditionalism.

In the last three decades, Israel has been undergoing a dramatic revolution: the hegemonic secular Zionist ethos that founded it is cracking, and various sub-groups seek to realize their specific identity in the public sphere. Ultra- Orthodox, Arabs, Mizrahim, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and others are rejecting the peripheral status that had ranked them according to their proximity to the principles of this ethos and insist on their own voice. Israeli society has consequently become a seething entanglement of confl icts and identity struggles. This book is one of the first attempts to examine various aspects of the current multicultural transformation of Israeli society. It deals with fundamental questions such as the character of Israel as a Jewish state, the status of minorities and their right to self-realization, and the farreaching influence of the multicultural turn on a variety of legal and social dimensions. Theoretical questions are reconsidered in light of specific case studies in Israel, off ering a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary discussion of multicultural theories and their application.

Avi Sagi's book ponders one of the most intriguing shifts in modern Jewish thought: from a metaphysical and theological standpoint toward a new manner of philosophizing based primarily on practice. Different chapters study this great shift and its various manifestations. The central figure of this new examination is Isaiah Leibowitz, whose thoughts encapsulate more than any other Jewish thinker this stance of religion without metaphysics. Sagi explores corresponding issues such as observance, the possibility of pluralism, the meaning of penance without messianic suppositions, and pragmatic coping with theodicy after the Holocaust, presenting the different possibilities within this great alteration in Jewish thought. Avi Sagi (Ph.D. Bar Ilan University, 1988) is a Professor at Bar Ilan University and Senior Research Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem. His recent books include Circles of Jewish Identity (with Zvi Zohar), Tel Aviv, 2000; Elu va Elu A Study on the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse, Tel Aviv, 1996

The relationship between morality and religion has long been controversial, familiar in its formulation as Euthyphro's dilemma: Is an act right because God commanded it or did God command it because it is right. In Morality and Religion: The Jewish Story, renowned scholar Avi Sagi marshals the breadth of philosophical and hermeneutical tools to examine this relationship in Judaism from two perspectives. The first considers whether Judaism adopted a thesis widespread in other monotheistic religions known as 'divine command morality,' making morality contingent on God's command. The second deals with the ways Jewish tradition grapples with conflicts between religious and moral obligations. After examining a broad spectrum of Jewish sources-including Talmudic literature, Halakhah, Aggadah, Jewish philosophy, and liturgy-Sagi concludes that mainstream Jewish tradition consistently refrains from attempts to endorse divine command morality or resolve conflicts by invoking a divine command. Rather, the central strand in Judaism perceives God and humans as inhabiting the same moral community and bound by the same moral obligations. When conflicts emerge between moral and religious instructions, Jewish tradition interprets religious norms so that they ultimately pass the moral test. This mainstream voice is anchored in the meaning of Jewish law, which is founded on human autonomy and rationality, and in the relationship with God that is assumed in this tradition.

This is an exploration of the existentialist Jewishness which is advocated, promoted and displayed in Brenner's writings. "To Be a Jew" deals with the question of the meaning and rationale that the writer Joseph Chayim Brenner attributes to Jewish existence. Many of Brenner's readers assumed that Brenner completely negated Jewish existence and sought to form a new way of life completely disconnected from the traditional Jewish existence. In contrast to this perception, Avi Sagi proves that not only did Brenner not reject the value of the Jewish existence, but the core of his creation was written out of a deep Jewish commitment. Brenner's greatest innovation is found in his new conception of Jewish existence. "To be a Jew", according to Brenner, involves the willingness to discover solidarity with actual Jews, to participate in a society in which Jews can live a free life and to fashion their culture as they wish. Sagi presents the idea that Brenner's is not a Utopian, but a realistic, conception of Jewish existence. Thus this unique conception of Jewish existence is founded on an infrastructure of existential thought. The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which provides new directions for modern Jewish thought and life and which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between classical sources and the modern world. This book series reflects the mission of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralistic research and leadership institute, at the forefront of Jewish thought and education. It empowers scholars, rabbis, educators and layleaders to develop new and diverse voices within the tradition, laying foundations for the future of Jewish life in Israel and around the world.

Of all Judaic rituals, that of giyyur is arguably the most radical: it turns a Gentile into a Jew once and for all and irrevocably. The very possibility of such a transformation is anomalous, according to Jewish tradition, which regards Jewishness as an ascriptive status entered through birth to a Jewish mother.What is the internal logic of the ritual of giyyur, that seems to enable a Gentile to acquire an ascribed identity? It is to this question, and others deriving from it, that the authors address themselves.Interpretation of a ritual such as giyyur is linked to broad issues of anthropology, religion and culture: the relation of nature and culture in the construction of group boundaries; the tension between ethnicity and religion; the interrelation of individual identity and membership in a collective. Fully aware of these issues, this groundbreaking study focuses upon a close reading of primary halakhic texts from Talmudic times down to the present as key to the explication of meaning within the Judaic tradition.In our times, the meaning of Jewish identity is a core issue, directly affecting the public debate regarding the relative weight of religion, nationality and kinship in determining basic aspects of Jewish life throughout the world. This book constitutes a seminal contribution to this ongoing discussion: it enables access to a wealth of halakhic sources previously accessible only to rabbinic scholars, fleshes out their meanings and implications within the cultural history of halakha, and in doing so situates halakha at the nexus of contemporary cultural discourse.

In this groundbreaking study, Avi Sagi outlines a broad spectrum of answers to important questions presented in Jewish literature, covering theological issues bearing on the meaning of the Torah and of revelation, as well as hermeneutical questions regarding understanding of the halakhic text.This is the first volume to attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the available views and theories concerning the theological, hermeneutical, and ontological meaning of dispute as a constitutive element of Halakhah. It offers an attentive reading of the texts and strives to present, clearly and exhaustively, the conscious account of Jewish tradition in general and of halakhic tradition in particular concerning the meaning of halakhic discourse. The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies publishes new research which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between Jewish classical sources and the modern world, to enrich the meanings of Jewish thought and to explore the varieties of Jewish life.

This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present s unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing through an ongoing dialogue between present and past. The Jewish philosophers discussed in this work Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, David Hartman, and Eliezer Goldman ascribe compelling canonic status to the tradition, and the analysis of their thought discloses the tension between these two models. The book carefully traces the course they have plotted along the various interpretations of tradition through their approach to Scripture and to Halakhah.

This book is an original philosophic exploration of the meaning of Kierkegaard's life, his thought, and his works. It makes a bold case for Kierkegaard's recognition of the concrete existence of the individual, including Kierkegaard himself, as crucial to the spiritual life. Written with delicate insight, and beautifully translated from Hebrew, this work offers valuable new turns to understanding the puzzling life-work of a modern giant of spiritual reflection.