A Living Covenant

David Hartman

Description

“‘A covenantal vision of life, with mitzvah (divine commandment) as the central organizing principle in the relationship between Jews and God, liberates the intellect and the moral will. I seek to show that a tradition mediated by the Sinai covenant can encourage the development of a human being who is not afraid to assume responsibility for the ongoing drama of Jewish history. Passive resignation is seen not to be an essential trait of one whose relationship to God is mediated by the hearing of mitzvot.”
—from the Introduction

This interpretation of Jewish teaching will appeal to all people seeking to understand the relationship between the idea of divine demand and the human response, between religious tradition and modernity. Hartman shows that a life lived in Jewish tradition need not be passive, insulated, or self-effacing, but can be lived in the modern pluralistic world with passion, tolerance, and spontaneity.

The Judaic tradition is often seen as being more concerned with uncritical obedience to law than with individual freedom and responsibility. In A Living Covenant, Hartman challenges this approach by revealing a Judaism grounded in a covenant—a relational framework—informed by the metaphor of marital love rather than that of parent-child dependency. This view of life places the individual firmly within community. Hartman shows that the Judaic tradition need not be understood in terms of human passivity and resignation, but rather as a vehicle by which human individuality and freedom can be expressed within a relational matrix.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Israel
• David Hartman
• Hebrew school
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 11 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580237451
• Langue: English

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JEWISH LIGHTS BOOKS BY DAVID HARTMAN
A Heart of Many Rooms: Celebrating the Many Voices within Judaism
A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism
From Defender to Critic The Search for a New Jewish Self
The God Who Hates Lies Confronting & Rethinking Jewish Tradition
Love and Terror in the God Encounter: The Theological Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
In memory of our beloved Aharon (Ahrala) Katz, who died in devotion to his country and people.
Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace; be one who loves his fellow men and draws them near to the Torah. (Ethics of the Fathers 1:13)
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One THE HUMAN BEING IN JUDAISM
1. Fundamentals of a Covenantal Anthropology
2. Assertion Versus Submission: The Tension Within Judaism
3. "Halakhic Man": Soloveitchik's Synthesis
4. Ethics and Halakhah
5. Human Beings in the Presence of God
6. The Spirit of Judaic Prayer
Appendix: Halakhic Critique of Soloveitchik's Approach to Prayer
7. Individual and Community in Prayer
Part T wo THE COVENANT AND THE LIVING GOD OF HISTORY
8. Rabbinic Responses to Suffering
9. The Rabbinic Renewal of the Covenant
10. Two Competing Covenantal Paradigms
11. The Celebration of Finitude
12. The Third Jewish Commonwealth
Postscript
Notes
General Index
Index of Jewish Sources

About the Author
Copyright
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Acknowledgments
T HIS WORK HAS BEEN GERMINATING for over twenty-five years. To acknowledge all those who have been helpful in extending my spiritual horizons would be impossible. The process began while I was still a rabbi in North America. The questions and concerns of a community that experienced modernity in all of its forms yet sought anchorage in the Jewish halakhic tradition were a challenge I could not ignore, and served as an important catalyst for my earliest thinking about Judaism.
Nor could the work have been completed had I not had the privilege of participating in the rebirth of the Jewish people in Israel, with its joys and sufferings, its hopes and disappointments. The knowledge that I can no longer speak of Judaism from the framework of a pulpit, but must enter into the total living experience of a nation and attempt to make sense of how Judaic spirituality can live in this new society, has been central to my work as a Jewish philosopher.
In the Israeli context, Jewish ideas may touch on life and death issues. The way one does Jewish theology and religious anthropology may decide the future existence of one s own children and grandchildren. To philosophize in this context is both a privilege and an awesome responsibility. How does one express gratitude to a people that had the courage to expose their religion to the severe test of a total Jewish society? Without that courage, I doubt if I would have felt the urgency to provide new directions for Judaism as a living covenant.
Among specific individuals who have helped me, Shlomo Pines, one of the world s greatest authorities on Maimonides, has been both a source of support and a constant challenge in my attempt to bring Maimonides into the contemporary philosophical discussion. So much of my thinking on Maimonides has emerged from the long hours of discussion over the past eighteen years with Professor Pines. His openness to new possibilities in appreciating Maimonides is a testimony to how scholarship and philosophy can merge.
The manuscript was read carefully by the senior research fellows of the Shalom Hartman Institute, who explored, criticized, and challenged every line. To live in their midst is to live within a community of keen talmudic and philosophic minds who unite commitment and concern for the quality of Jewish life in Israeli society with a profound grasp of philosophy and halakhah. I have learned a great deal from them. I cannot imagine what this book would have been like had it not gone through the intellectual furnace of their criticism. I am particularly grateful to David Dishon and Noam Zion, who paid special attention to the internal structure of this work.
In my philosophical inquiry, I have benefited from discussions with Warren Harvey, Larry Kaplan, Sanford Levinson, Avishai Margalit, Sidney Morgenbesser, Richard Popkin, Joseph Raz, Nathan Rotenstreich, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer. Moshe Greenberg and Yochanan Muffs have influenced my perception of the wide range of theological and anthropological motifs present in the Bible. Moshe Idel read the entire manuscript and was helpful in the chapter on Maimonides and Nachmanides.
Emanuel Green s insights into Judaism and the human condition have contributed greatly to my attempt to keep Judaism in touch with reality.
Paul van Buren and the Christian theologians who participated in the Contemporary Theology Seminar of the Shalom Hartman Institute suggested important ways of making the book more intelligible to those who are not at home in the Jewish halakhic tradition.
I have been fortunate to have two fine editors in Jerusalem, Malcolm Lowe and Arnold Schwartz. Both have carefully worked with me over the multiple drafts of this work. The style, rigor, and coherence of the argument have benefited immensely from their devoted efforts. Ruth Sherer, my secretary, has typed and retyped the manuscript many times. Her patience is endless, and her devotion is deeply appreciated.
It was also fortunate that Laura Wolff of The Free Press was the editor who took the manuscript under her wing. Her suggestions added to the clarity and tightness of the argument.
The writing of this work was made possible by the continuous concern and support of the leadership of our institute-Sol Lederman, Bob Kogod, and Tom Taras-and the devotion of the board and many friends of the institute. Their friendship and encouragement through the writing of this book were of great importance to me.
This work has been written in memory of my beloved son-in-law, Aharon (Ahrala) Katz, who was killed in the tragic Lebanese war. Born in Ranana, Israel, to Michael and Tziporah Katz, he attended Midrashat Noam, excelled in the sciences, and was a brilliant student of Talmud when, at the age of eighteen, he gave up a promising intellectual career to enter the Israeli Air Force. He believed that the commandment of the hour was to provide for the security of his people. He served with great distinction in the Israeli Air Force for fourteen years, being decorated with the highest medal for his efforts in the Yom Kippur war. Gentleness and courage merged in his soul. I have never met another human being who cared so much for human life and was so able to rejoice at the well-being of others. His joy at our Shabbat table was contagious. He had an amazing capacity for empathy and self-transcendence. Aharon taught us that strength and bravery can grow in the soul of a human being filled with tenderness and love. He was genuinely a man of faith. His love for his children, Yishai and Amitai, his joyful delight at their growth, his love for my daughter, Devorah, were a privilege to behold and to share. His deep faith in Torah and in the significance of our national renaissance refuses to leave me and often prevents me from sinking into despair and disillusionment. He became my son-in-law in marrying my daughter, but truly he was my teacher who helped me to appreciate the vitality and latent spiritual powers present in Israeli society. This work was written in his memory and hopefully mirrors his belief in the new possibilities for the future.
My family s love and concern during our great bereavement, the strength that one draws from living with honest people, and the support of their love through the most agonizing period of my life are something for which I am eternally grateful
Introduction
O NE OF THE CENTRAL critiques of Judaism found in Western thought has focused upon its alleged excessive concern with the law. 1 Judaism has been accused of legalism, meaning a concern with externals and lack of inward passion. It has been identified with formalism and soulless regimentation. Its supposed behavioral conformism is said to have reduced the spiritual life of the individual and the passion for God to minor and insignificant roles.
This characterization of Judaism grows from a kind of theological critique that contrasts the God of love with the God of justice, grace with law, and deplores the sense of guilt that accompanies a spiritual life which focuses upon accepting the yoke of the commandments. 2 Spinoza wrote in the spirit of this critique when he distinguished between a religion characterized by emphasis on ceremonial law and external obedience and a religion of inwardness and piety. Since, argued Spinoza, Mosaic law had no inherent spiritual significance outside of a political commonwealth, the Torah was adhered to in exile more with a view of opposing the Christians than of pleasing God. According to Spinoza, the image of a person committed to the Torah who builds one s life around the normative guidelines of Judaism reflected a slavish orientation to life. 3
This then was the object of the ceremonial