The Fourth Paths of Judaism
According to Rabbi Hartman, the Torah provides the Jewish community with a historical memory of a living God who selected the Jewish people from among the nations through whom which He would be sanctified in history.
Furthermore according to Rabbi Hartman, the essential question in Judaism is not the nature of what is good. This is already established as it states in the Tanakh where it states "It has been told you, O man, what is good and what the Lord does require of you." (Micah 6:8). Rather the principal concern is the ability to embody the will of God in action. God therefore is revealed in the life history of the Jewish community.
The individual member within the Jewish community understands the primary role of the community in shaping his or her spiritual identity. To separate oneself from the community is to cut oneself off from the God of Israel and hence the God of history. The divine will, history, community, and action are dominant and interconnected in organizing the principles of daily Jewish life.
All this Hartman states in order to try to establish a framework for understanding Maimonides (the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Medieval period) in his book Torah and Philosophical Quest, and the complicated struggle or tension Maimonides may have encountered in living a devout Jewish life while simultaneously remaining true to his philosophical quest for universal truth and reason.
In the normative Jewish community, the question has always been, how does one live a Jewish life and engage or respond to the challenges and confrontation of the truth claims, philosophy, lifestyle, etc. presented by the outside world? There have been four responses to the general question of Jewish interaction with the non-Jewish world which reflects the manner in which Jews have sought to react to the challenges presented by dominant societies throughout the centuries. The responses to this question have been the way of insulation, the way of dualism, the way of rejection, and the way of integration.
For normative Judaism, the challenge of embracing Jerusalem or Athens (in a metaphorical sense) was a real issue of tremendous significance. While Hellenism is a historical phenomenon, it serves to represent the ever present struggle toward assimilation and potential abandonment of Judaism by Jews caught between two competing worlds.
Furthermore according to Rabbi Hartman, the essential question in Judaism is not the nature of what is good. This is already established as it states in the Tanakh where it states "It has been told you, O man, what is good and what the Lord does require of you." (Micah 6:8). Rather the principal concern is the ability to embody the will of God in action. God therefore is revealed in the life history of the Jewish community.
The individual member within the Jewish community understands the primary role of the community in shaping his or her spiritual identity. To separate oneself from the community is to cut oneself off from the God of Israel and hence the God of history. The divine will, history, community, and action are dominant and interconnected in organizing the principles of daily Jewish life.
All this Hartman states in order to try to establish a framework for understanding Maimonides (the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Medieval period) in his book Torah and Philosophical Quest, and the complicated struggle or tension Maimonides may have encountered in living a devout Jewish life while simultaneously remaining true to his philosophical quest for universal truth and reason.
In the normative Jewish community, the question has always been, how does one live a Jewish life and engage or respond to the challenges and confrontation of the truth claims, philosophy, lifestyle, etc. presented by the outside world? There have been four responses to the general question of Jewish interaction with the non-Jewish world which reflects the manner in which Jews have sought to react to the challenges presented by dominant societies throughout the centuries. The responses to this question have been the way of insulation, the way of dualism, the way of rejection, and the way of integration.
For normative Judaism, the challenge of embracing Jerusalem or Athens (in a metaphorical sense) was a real issue of tremendous significance. While Hellenism is a historical phenomenon, it serves to represent the ever present struggle toward assimilation and potential abandonment of Judaism by Jews caught between two competing worlds.
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