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12 pages, 343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Talmudic Rabbi as Triage Officer: Decision-Making in Times of COVID-19

by George Y. Kohler

Religions 2024, 15(3), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030344 - 13 Mar 2024

Viewed by 659

The essay outlines a four-phase triage process made by a fictive Talmudic rabbi working on an equally fictive hospital COVID-19 ward. The rabbi bases his decision on four different Talmudic texts, proceeding one by one, with each text building on the preceding one, [...] Read more.

The essay outlines a four-phase triage process made by a fictive Talmudic rabbi working on an equally fictive hospital COVID-19 ward. The rabbi bases his decision on four different Talmudic texts, proceeding one by one, with each text building on the preceding one, until he is ready to allocate his scarce medical resources to one of the patients, thus being forced to deny them to others. Along the way, the paper will examine how this Talmudic reasoning can also be applied to the patient, or even a potential patient, clarifying the demands of the individual’s ethical responsibility to avoid triage situations in the first place through social distancing and even more so through getting vaccinated. The paper argues that the rabbi has a number of Talmudic tools at hand that make his decision easier, not because he strictly follows Jewish law, but because of the rich experience standing behind Jewish legal traditions, making a universally valid ethical justification of difficult decisions possible. The essay proposes that including such theological material in triage guidelines would help make those decisions more acceptable in the long run, especially for societies in which religious traditions still play a certain role in the cultural consciousness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

18 pages, 332 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Torah Trumps Life: Reflections on Uncivil Religion and Haredi Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Zachary J. Braiterman

Religions 2023, 14(7), 946; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070946 - 24 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1181

Abstract

As if by design, crisis reveals basic structural fault lines. In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, non-Haredi Jews expressed surprise and even outrage about the ultra-orthodox Haredi response to the pandemic. It was not understood how large-scale violations of public health protocols [...] Read more.

As if by design, crisis reveals basic structural fault lines. In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, non-Haredi Jews expressed surprise and even outrage about the ultra-orthodox Haredi response to the pandemic. It was not understood how large-scale violations of public health protocols comported with the legal-halakhic principle of Pikuaḥ Nefesh (saving human life). In this essay, I explore Hasidic response to COVID-19 as reported in the secular and Haredi press and in emergent social science literature about this crisis. I place Haredi response to crisis in relation to the clash between two sets of values: the value of saving human life and the value of intensive Talmud study (talmud Torah) and ritual-communal practice. In what Robert Cover called a paideic nomos, there are more important things than human life. What we see already in the Babylonian Talmud is the profound ambiguity of paideic norms vis-à-vis the larger public good. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

21 pages, 994 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“God Has Wrapped Himself in a Cloak of Materialism”: Marxism and Jewish Religious Thought in the Early Soviet Union

by Isaac Slater

Religions 2023, 14(5), 673; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050673 - 18 May 2023

Viewed by 1433

Abstract

Jewish religious life in the Soviet Union is typically the subject of dichotomous depictions that offer only a superficial rendering of this rich and complex environment. This paper aims to complicate this image by pointing out several religious thinkers who engaged with Communist [...] Read more.

Jewish religious life in the Soviet Union is typically the subject of dichotomous depictions that offer only a superficial rendering of this rich and complex environment. This paper aims to complicate this image by pointing out several religious thinkers who engaged with Communist and Marxist ideas and incorporated them into their religious thought, while upholding rabbinic culture. Among the figures and themes examined are Alter Hilewitz’s (1906–1994) Hasido-Marxism, Rabbi Avraham Yosef Guttman’s (1870–1940) crisis of faith, and Shmuel Alexandrov’s (1865–1941) use of Russian Nietzscheanism. Alexandrov was also the narrator who revealed these fascinating ideas to us in a rare collection of his letters, which possesses both a philosophical and a theological nature. These letters, which have received very little attention in previous studies, provide a small window into the conflictual world of rabbis and yeshiva students in the first decade of the Soviet Union. Reviewing the ideas generated in a struggle to make sense of one of the great crises of modern Judaism, and pondering questions of historical perspective and how empathy may distort it, this article wishes to go beyond the image of a defensive preservation of religious life and to re-envision this unique and innovative period of Jewish thought. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

12 pages, 768 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Difficult Jewish Texts and Contemporary Political Crisis

by Emily Filler

Religions 2023, 14(5), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050652 - 15 May 2023

Viewed by 1897

Abstract

This essay considers the phenomenon of public Jewish biblical quotation, such as, for instance, “justice, justice shall you pursue,” in times of contemporary political crisis. I argue that these references tend to employ a sanitized and selective hermeneutics which overlooks and bypasses the [...] Read more.

This essay considers the phenomenon of public Jewish biblical quotation, such as, for instance, “justice, justice shall you pursue,” in times of contemporary political crisis. I argue that these references tend to employ a sanitized and selective hermeneutics which overlooks and bypasses the violent or otherwise “difficult” themes of these works and suggest that there is a parallel between our refusal to come to terms with the frequent violence in many texts, and our inability to acknowledge the intensity and scope of the “real world” crises we employ these texts to respond to. Delving into the complex biblical narrative of Korach as an example, I propose that particular attention to difficult texts invites Jewish communities not only to confront the darker parts of the textual tradition, but also provides a communal model for acknowledging the true depths of a crisis, textual or political, instead of turning quickly to palliative solutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

20 pages, 662 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Ark and Other Bubbles: Jewish Philosophy and Surviving the Disaster

by Dustin Atlas

Religions 2022, 13(12), 1152; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121152 - 25 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1292

Abstract

The story of Noah is the story of a near-total biocide. And yet, in popular imagination, it appears as more of a floating petting zoo, a charming menagerie that follows the far more serious Edenic storylines of Genesis 1–5. In this paper, the [...] Read more.

The story of Noah is the story of a near-total biocide. And yet, in popular imagination, it appears as more of a floating petting zoo, a charming menagerie that follows the far more serious Edenic storylines of Genesis 1–5. In this paper, the ark, and midrash it inspired, acts as a guide for a set of speculations and arguments about the role Jewish philosophy might play during the present ecological disaster. These speculations are guided by the following claim: Jewish philosophy best responds to ecological crises when it does not attempt to provide an ecological ethics “out of the sources of Judaism”—making expansive normative and metaphysical claims—but instead explores enclosures and spaces; when it thinks about our relation to disasters, rather than trying to prevent or solve them. In other words, there is an element of Jewish thought which attempts to think enclosures and protect small but important things in the midst of disasters, and it is this I wish to highlight. My goal is to demonstrate that this kind of thinking presents viable possibilities for ecological thought. Specifically, I will argue that Mara Benjamin’s work gives us an indication of where such philosophy can go and how it might get there. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

16 pages, 293 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“There Is No ‘Away:’” Ecological Fact as Jewish Theological Problem

by Mara H. Benjamin

Religions 2022, 13(4), 290; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040290 - 28 Mar 2022

Viewed by 2611

Abstract

The “second law of ecology”—that all matter remains part of the earthly ecosystem—poses a theological challenge to Jewish monotheisms. Climate change has further underscored the urgency of understanding and acting in light of the interconnected materiality of the world. Yet Jewish theological discourse [...] Read more.

The “second law of ecology”—that all matter remains part of the earthly ecosystem—poses a theological challenge to Jewish monotheisms. Climate change has further underscored the urgency of understanding and acting in light of the interconnected materiality of the world. Yet Jewish theological discourse has remained largely detached from broader planetary conditions and from the metabolization of these conditions in the environmental humanities. The few contemporary Jewish theologians who recognize ecological crisis as worthy of comment have largely responded to it by propping up apologetic accounts of Jewish theology and ethics that rely on a construction of the divine as outside of the world. I argue that ecological crisis reveals the inadequacy of extant approaches to Jewish theology, which either promote ethical monotheism and a stewardship model of relation to the nonhuman world or claim to promote divine immanence while nonetheless reinscribing human dominion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

10 pages, 241 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Jacob Gordin: The Religious Crisis in Jewish Thought

by Ori Werdiger

Religions 2022, 13(1), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010044 - 01 Jan 2022

Viewed by 2024

Abstract

This article offers an English translation of an essay published in 1946 by Jacob Gordin (1896–1947), a Russian-Jewish philosopher of religion, who is considered the founding figure of the postwar Paris School of Jewish Thought (École de pensée juive de Paris). In “The [...] Read more.

This article offers an English translation of an essay published in 1946 by Jacob Gordin (1896–1947), a Russian-Jewish philosopher of religion, who is considered the founding figure of the postwar Paris School of Jewish Thought (École de pensée juive de Paris). In “The Religious Crisis in Jewish Thought”, Gordin presented a sweeping meta-narrative of the history of Jewish thought, formulated as a history of repeated “religious crises”, both existential and intellectual. In Gordin’s condensed narrative, these crises could be detected in the life and philosophy of the most canonical Jewish thinkers inside and outside the tradition: from Abraham the biblical patriarch to Hermann Cohen, through a diverse list including the rabbinical sage Elisha Ben-Abuyah, Philo, Halevi, Maimonides, and Spinoza. In an introduction to Gordin’s text, I provide a brief biography, locate Gordin in existentialist discourse of the early postwar years, and discuss the affinities between Gordin’s “The Religious Crisis” and Levinas’s and Sartre’s early reflections on the Jewish question. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

15 pages, 369 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Therapeutic Medium?: Crisis and History in Oracula Sibyllina 4

by Miguel M. Vargas

Religions 2021, 12(11), 915; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110915 - 21 Oct 2021

Viewed by 1526

Abstract

This article argues that the oracles of Oracula Sibyllina 4 interpreted and responded to specific crises facing ancient Mediterranean Jewish and pagan communities. With this in mind, it advances the idea that the text can be read as a Jewish reaction to the [...] Read more.

This article argues that the oracles of Oracula Sibyllina 4 interpreted and responded to specific crises facing ancient Mediterranean Jewish and pagan communities. With this in mind, it advances the idea that the text can be read as a Jewish reaction to the fall of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE, which is a reading that recent scholarship has been hesitant to accept. Rather than read Oracula Sibyllina 4 as a reflection of the author’s pre-existing views, the present article approaches the text as a creative medium through which a new historical consciousness was crafted, one that accommodated the fall of the temple and the events surrounding its destruction. To do so, the article briefly contextualizes the text to demonstrate that crisis-mediation was an expected task of ancient Sibylline literature, then proceeds to interpret the contentious passages that have led scholars to offer alternative readings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

27 pages, 4767 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Yedidyah Ha-Alexandri and the Crisis of the Modern Jewish Age: Philo of Alexandria as an Exemplary Ḥasid in Naḥman Krochmal’s Thought

by Ze’ev Strauss

Religions 2021, 12(6), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060377 - 22 May 2021

Viewed by 2513

Abstract

The present article sets out to answer the question of the extent to which Naḥman Krochmal’s reappraisal of Philo of Alexandria in the light of his Jewish faith reflects a deep spiritual crisis that was engulfing the Maskilic world: the encroaching expansion of [...] Read more.

The present article sets out to answer the question of the extent to which Naḥman Krochmal’s reappraisal of Philo of Alexandria in the light of his Jewish faith reflects a deep spiritual crisis that was engulfing the Maskilic world: the encroaching expansion of modern Hasidism with its transformed understanding of traditional Judaism among Eastern European communities. To this end, a major component of Krochmal’s Jewish historical thought as expressed in his masterful unfinished work Guide of the Perplexed of the Modern Age can be revealed. The examination employs two methods in order to uncover the intent behind Krochmal’s fragmentary presentation of Philo: exploring his utilization of Dähne’s Geschichtliche Darstellung der jüdisch-alexandrinischen Religionsphilosophie to demonstrate the congruence of Philo’s thought with Tannaitic ethics and drawing on similar depictions of Philo found among his circles and pupils. The study claims that Krochmal’s revival of Philo as a key Jewish thinker is politically mobilized for an ideological assault on the Hasidim, with whom the Maskilim had ongoing conflicts. Reconstructing his portrayal of Philo as a paragon of Second Temple Judaism, the paper argues that Krochmal projects his own spiritual crisis from the Maskilic settings of nineteenth-century Galicia onto the Jewish reality of first-century Alexandria, thus reproducing a valiant image of Philo as the embodiment of the Maskilic consciousness that was grappling with the ancient, overly theoretical Hasideans of his days. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis)

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