Commandment and Community: New Essays in Jewish Legal and Political Philosophy

by Daniel H. Frank (Editor)

Overview

This book is divided into two parts, "Judaism and Political Praxis" and "Halakha and the Political Order." The first part is concerned with issues at the interface of Jewish political theory and practice: a Jewish philosophy of justice, the formulation of a practical philosophy based on traditional Jewish sources, and the need for greater political activism among Jews. The second part presents both systematic and historical studies. It includes the strategies used to determine the meaning and intelligibility of texts and norms in the rabbinic tradition, trends in the history of Jewish political thought, and the connectedness of law and morality in traditional Judaism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438403199
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	07/01/1995
Series:	SUNY series in Jewish Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	299
File size:	958 KB

About the Author

Daniel H. Frank is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky. He is the editor of Autonomy and Judaism: The Individual and the Community in Jewish Philosophical Thought and A People Apart: Chosenness and Ritual in Jewish Philosophical Thought, both published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART 1. JUDAISM AND POLITICAL PRAXIS

Toward a Jewish Philosophy of Justice

Lenn E. Goodman

Is a Jewish Practical Philosophy Possible?

Oliver Leaman

Reason in Action: The "Practicality" of Maimonides's Guide

Daniel H. Frank

Jewish Tradition and National Policy

Elliot N. Dorff

PART 2. HALAKHA AND THE POLITICAL ORDER

Underdetermination of Meaning by the Talmudic Text

Aryeh Botwinick

Nachmanides's Conception of Ta'amei Mitzvot
and Its Maimonidean Background

Josef Stern

The Attitude Toward Democracy in Medieval
Jewish Philosophy

Abraham Melamed

Abravanel and the Jewish Republican Ethos

Reuven Kimelman

Spinoza's Challenge to the Doctrine of Election

David Novak

Morality and War: A Critique of Bleich's Oracular Halakha

Noam J. Zohar

Response to Noam Zohar 

J. David Bleich

Reply to David Bleich 

Noam J. Zohar

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

"The intersection of politics and Judaism is a subject to which ever greater attention is being paid, not much of it as intelligent and well grounded as the essays in this book." — Menachem Kellner, University of Haifa, Israel

From the Publisher