Conscience

Harold M. Schulweis

Description

A Profound and Stirring Call to Action in Our Troubled World—from One of America's Great Religious Leaders

"Conscience may be understood as the hidden inner compass that guides our lives and must be searched for and recovered repeatedly. At no time more than our own is this need to retrieve the shards of broken conscience more urgent."
—from the Introduction

This clarion call to rethink our moral and political behavior examines the idea of conscience and the role conscience plays in our relationships to government, law, ethics, religion, human nature and God—and to each other. From Abraham to Abu Ghraib, from the dissenting prophets to Darfur, Rabbi Harold Schulweis probes history, the Bible and the works of contemporary thinkers for ideas about both critical disobedience and uncritical obedience. He illuminates the potential for evil and the potential for good that rests within us as individuals and as a society.

By questioning religion's capacity—and will—to break from mindless conformity, Rabbi Schulweis challenges us to counter our current suppressive culture of obedience with the culture of moral compassion, and to fulfill religion’s obligation to make room for and carry out courageous moral dissent.

Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Judaism and Conscience 3
A Word about Conscience 5

1. Conscience Confronts God 7
Abraham and Moral Audacity 8
Moses Nullifies God's Law 10
Moses Cites Scripture to God 12
Moses Frees God 14
Four Dissenting Prophets 16
Hannah Hurls Words Toward Heaven 17
The Psalmist Awakes the Slumbering 19
Natural Moral Sensibility 20

2. Human Conscience and Divine Legislation 23
Rabbinic Legal Conscience 26
Laws That Never Were and Never Will Be 27
The Rebellious Son 28
Idolatrous Cities, Leprous Houses 30
Capital Punishment 30
Sotah: The Ordeal of Jealousy 31
Illegitimacy: When Conscience Fails 32
The Chained Woman 33
Maimonides: Within the Letter of the Law 34
The Myth of Absolute Immutability 35
Moral Relativism 36
The Fear of God and the Fear of Torah 38
What Is Meant by Conscience as "Fear of God" 40
Matters of Temperament 42

3. Conscience and Covenant:
Vertical and Horizontal 45
The God of the Philosophers 45
The Duality in One Covenant 46
The Vertical Covenant 48
Statutes 50
The Consolations of Obedience 52
The Horizontal Covenant of Conscience 53
Legends of Conscience 54

4. Against Conscience 59
The Myth of Gyges 61
Freud: The Truth about Human Nature 62
Nietzsche: The Craftiness of Conscience 63
Social Darwinism and Conscience 64
Theological Suspicions 66
Judaism: The Morality of Theistic Humanism 68

5. Witness to Goodness 71
Ben Gurion's Search for Morale 73
To Discover Conscience in Hell 75
An Entire Village: The Conspiracy of Goodness 77
Stefa Krawkowska: The Heroism of Hiding 78
Seven Sisters and a Mother Superior 79
Diplomat Rescuers 80
Aristides de Sousa Mendes: Undiplomatic Diplomacy 82
Sempo Sugihara 85
Conversation with a German Pastor 87

6. The Conscience of an Anti-Semite 91
The Enigma of Anti-Semitic Rescuers 92
Zophia and Zegota 94
Motivations for Altruism 96
The Ambiguity of Good and Evil 97
Capturing the Evil Tempter 98

7. Cultivating Conscience 101
Obedience and Authority 101
Abu Ghraib and the "Prison" of Stanford 103
The Milgram Experiment 106

8. The Bridge across the Rivers of “Either-Or” 109
Either-Or: The Way Options Are Shared 110
Not in Heaven But on Earth 112
Abraham Isaac Kook: The Art of Reconciliation 114
Facing God 115
What Can Religion Do? 118
The Pedagogy of Conscience 119
The Habit of Conscience 120
Heroes of Conscience 121
Transmitting Conscience 123
The Many Faces of Conscience 124
The Pendulum of Duty 126

Notes 127

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Jewish thought
• Harold M. Schulweis
• Jewish ethics
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion
• Conscience

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 07 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781580236423
• Langue: English

Extrait

C ONSCIENCE
The Duty to Obey and
the Duty to Disobey
Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
JEWISH LIGHTS Publishing
Woodstock, Vermont
Praise for Conscience The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey
In Conscience , Rabbi Harold Schulweis displays a singular talent for weaving together a vast range of resources to speak of conscience and its demands. The result inspires an aesthetic appreciation of the intellectual depth and the human passions Rabbi Schulweis possesses. Much more importantly, Rabbi Schulweis employs these talents and this wisdom to provoke genuine moral concerns in his readers, and to convince them that their deeds can and must make a difference in the world.
-D R . D AVID E LLENSON , president, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
In this book, conscience is rightly presented as the basis of law and of life, as that internal moral sense by which we discern thoughtfully and responsibly when to obey and when to disobey.
-J UNE O C ONNOR , professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside; past president, Society of Christian Ethics
In this powerful and illuminating work, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, one of the most passionate voices of moral courage in our time, introduces us to the great Jewish tradition of dissent. The duty to disobey, Rabbi Schulweis insists, is as crucial to ethical life as the duty to obey. This work is sure to open eyes and hearts to the hidden call of conscience.
-R ABBI N AOMI L EVY , author, To Begin Again and Talking to God
In today s age caught between moral relativism and moral absolutes, this deeply spiritual and unabashedly human text emphasizes the importance of the call to individual conscience. It provides important guideposts for doing good when all around is moral collapse or blind conformity, and shines a light into the contemporary darkness and gives us all hope that we may find our way with courage and conviction.
-A BRAHAM H. F OXMAN , national director, Anti-Defamation League; author of The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control
Rabbi Harold Schulweis, a towering giant of conscience, has tirelessly redirected Jews and Christians to the core of God s concern-justice, compassion, selflessness, inclusion. In this extraordinary meditation, he blazes a pathway yet again, reminding us of the crucial role played by conscience in traditional and contemporary Jewish thought. Hooray for Harold Schulweis-the world is better because of him!
-R ABBI B RADLEY S HAVIT A RTSON , dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and vice president, American Jewish University
With this brilliant, inspiring and provocative synthesis of ancient texts, three millennia of philosophical wisdom and today s most urgent moral challenges, Rabbi Schulweis confirms his position as one of contemporary Jewry s most creative minds and powerful prophetic voices. His reconciliation of individual moral conscience with God s commandments and Judaism s legal tradition provides, at once, a distinctly Jewish and a bracing universal call to arms for a religiously authentic social justice activism.
-R ABBI D AVID D AVID S APERSTEIN , director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Nothing less than a handbook for living in a time of terrorism and religious fundamentalism. How do religious believers discern what is immoral in their religion, and how can they find the strength of conscience and character to oppose those divine commandments, and those divine leaders, who are wrong? If you don t think the answer to this question matters, you aren t watching the news.
-R OB E SHMAN , editor-in-chief, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Engaging and clear style, this book documents the long Jewish concern for acting on conscience together with its critical importance for combating immoral laws, orders, and concepts of God and people. Teaches us how to cultivate a keen sense of conscience without abandoning social order. This is Judaism as it was meant to be understood and practiced.
-R ABBI E LLIOT N. D ORFF , author, The Way Into Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World)
A timely and important reminder to us all who abide by faith and are committed to act according to its tenets that action in the name of religion must be rooted in morality; besides worship of one God this is the main purpose of religion. For all of us, conscience must remain the safeguard against being blinded by faith.
-N AZIR K HAJA , MD , chairman, Islamic Information Service
This book simmers with righteous indignation. Rabbi Schulweis has penned a searing indictment of those of us who use religion to avoid the claims of conscience.
-R ABBI N EIL G ILLMAN , author, The Way Into Encountering God in Judaism
The pendulum of religion in our time has moved to the right, and Rabbi Schulweis offers a brilliant alternative to authoritative religion. If one is faced with the choice between the God of mercy and justice or the Bible, Harold Schulweis says choose God. It is a gem of a book.
-G EORGE F. R EGAS , rector emeritus, All Saints Church, Pasadena, California
An inspiring journey through classical Jewish texts, psychological studies, and the moving narratives of moral heroes of our time. On one of the greatest existential issues that individuals and societies face, Rabbi Schulweis gives us not only his usual compelling teaching, but also that rarest of gifts-renewed faith in the possibility of human goodness.
-G ORDON T UCKER , senior rabbi, Temple Israel Center, White Plains, New York
Rabbi Schulweis has written the right book at the right time. His thorough examination of the role of one s moral conscience with and without the interference of one s religious faith is deeply thought provoking and profoundly relevant.
-J AY S ANDERSON , CEO, Jewish Television Network
A most learned and intelligent discussion by one of the wisest spokesmen for the Jewish faith in the modern world. Rabbi Schulweis analysis of the concept of conscience offers a most useful key to understanding how people can and do behave morally despite (rather than because of) their system of beliefs.
-N ORBERT M. S AMUELSON , Harold and Jean Grossman Professor of Jewish Studies, Arizona State University
Dedicated to Rabbi Steven and Linda Jacobs with profound friendship.
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Judaism and Conscience
A Word about Conscience
1. Conscience Confronts God
Abraham and Moral Audacity
Moses Nullifies God s Law
Moses Cites Scripture to God
Moses Frees God
Four Dissenting Prophets
Hannah Hurls Words Toward Heaven
The Psalmist Awakes the Slumbering
Natural Moral Sensibility
2. Human Conscience and Divine Legislation
Rabbinic Legal Conscience
Laws That Never Were and Never Will Be
The Rebellious Son
Idolatrous Cities, Leprous Houses
Capital Punishment
Sotah: The Ordeal of Jealousy
Illegitimacy: When Conscience Fails
The Chained Woman
Maimonides: Within the Letter of the Law
The Myth of Absolute Immutability
Moral Relativism
The Fear of God and the Fear of Torah
What Is Meant by Conscience as Fear of God
Matters of Temperament
3. Conscience and Covenant: Vertical and Horizontal
The God of the Philosophers
The Duality in One Covenant
The Vertical Covenant
Statutes
The Consolations of Obedience
The Horizontal Covenant of Conscience
Legends of Conscience
4. Against Conscience
The Myth of Gyges
Freud: The Truth about Human Nature
Nietzsche: The Craftiness of Conscience
Social Darwinism and Conscience
Theological Suspicions
Judaism: The Morality of Theistic Humanism
5. Witness to Goodness
Ben Gurion s Search for Morale
To Discover Conscience in Hell
An Entire Village: The Conspiracy of Goodness
Stefa Krawkowska: The Heroism of Hiding
Seven Sisters and a Mother Superior
Diplomat Rescuers
Aristides de Sousa Mendes: Undiplomatic Diplomacy
Sempo Sugihara
Conversation with a German Pastor
6. The Conscience of an Anti-Semite
The Enigma of Anti-Semitic Rescuers
Zophia and Zegota
Motivations for Altruism
The Ambiguity of Good and Evil
Capturing the Evil Tempter
7. Cultivating Conscience
Obedience and Authority
Abu Ghraib and the Prison of Stanford
The Milgram Experiment
8. The Bridge across the Rivers of Either-Or
Either-Or: The Way Options Are Shared
Not in Heaven But on Earth
Abraham Isaac Kook: The Art of Reconciliation
Facing God
What Can Religion Do?
The Pedagogy of Conscience
The Habit of Conscience
Heroes of Conscience
Transmitting Conscience
The Many Faces of Conscience
The Pendulum of Duty
Notes
About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to Stuart M. Matlins, publisher of Jewish Lights, for his patient and wise counsel; to Jane Jacobs, who typed and read the manuscript with punctuations of candor and concern; and Malkah, whose loving support remains indispensable.
I NTRODUCTION
Two cautionary observations by two contemporary social critics haunt the subject of this study. Addressing the human condition in history, C. P. Snow writes, When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more heinous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than ever have been committed in the name of rebellion. History testifies to the damning terror brought upon civilization, in the name of obedience to authority. Conversely, the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm commented wryly that human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience. Fromm s reference to the Garden of Eden and the hell of genocide traces an ominous trajectory. The pervasive culture of total obedience to authority continues to cast its lugubrious shadow over a civilization in which 50 million human beings were systematically slaughtered by other human beings in the course of the twentieth century.
The admonitions of S