Judaism Is About Love
Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A profound, startling new understanding of Jewish life, illuminating the forgotten heart of Jewish theology and practice: love.
A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held—one of the most important Jewish thinkers in America today—recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. Blending intellectual rigor, a respect for tradition and the practices of a living Judaism, and a commitment to the full equality of all people, Held seeks to reclaim Judaism as it authentically is. He shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true Jewish faith, animating the singular Jewish perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.
Ambitious and revelatory, Judaism Is About Love illuminates the true essence of Judaism—an act of restoration from within.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Judaism is not what you think it is," according to Rabbi Held (Abraham Joshua Heschel) in this paradigm-shifting study. Pushing back against notions that Christianity is defined by belief and Judaism by action, Held asserts that Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics champion "the heart and the deed, not one or another," and that both are rooted in love of "God, the neighbor, the stranger." Those "three dramatic love commands" mandated by the Torah and the two added by rabbinic tradition (love all humans; respond to others' suffering with "compassionate feeling and compassionate action") are "so central to Jewish life that... everything else grows out" of them. The author uses these principles to tackle a host of ethical considerations, including Judaism's particular obligation to the poor and, in an especially potent section, in what circumstances it's required to love one's enemy. Woven in is a mention of the author's mother, a child of European refugees whose "post-Holocaust anger almost consumed" her. Held avoids dogmatism and is never anything less than transparent, admitting that he can sometimes accept that God loves humanity despite its "cruelty and callousness," and at other times finds the idea "hopelessly naive." Ultimately, Held draws profound meaning from Judaism and its promise that "we are capable of living lives animated by love, mercy, compassion, and generosity." This has the power to reshape Jews' views of their faith.
