A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism
"'A covenantal vision of life, with mitzvah (divine commandment) as the central organizing principle in the relationship between Jews and God, liberates the intellect and the moral will. I seek to show that a tradition mediated by the Sinai covenant can encourage the development of a human being who is not afraid to assume responsibility for the ongoing drama of Jewish history. Passive resignation is seen not to be an essential trait of one whose relationship to God is mediated by the hearing...
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This interpretation of Jewish teaching by one of today's leading thinkers in the Jewish world will appeal to all people seeking to understand the relationship between the idea of divine demand and the human response, between religious tradition and modernity. The Judaic tradition is often seen as being more concerned with uncritical obedience to law than with individual freedom and responsibility. In A Living Covenant, Hartman challenges this approach revealing a Judaism grounded in a covenant-a relational framework-informed by the metaphor of marital love rather than that of parent-child dependency. This view of life places the individual firmly within community. Hartman shows that the Judaic tradition need not be understood in terms of human passivity and resignation, but rather as a vehicle by which human individuality and freedom can be expressed within a relational matrix. "With passion and erudition, David Hartman argues for a version of Judaism that is at once faithful to the tradition and fitted to the requirements of modernity. He writes like Jacob wrestling with the angel, and the result, for the reader, is an exhilarating experience." --Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton "This deep philosophical treatise-filled with new, nuanced interpretations of Torah and Talmud-reads like a novel that one cannot put down until reaching the very last page." --Judith Hauptman, Rabbi Philip R. Alstat Associate Professor of Talmud, The Jewish Theological Seminary; author of Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice "I learned much from this book, and I appreciate its theo-logical courage and originality." --Harold M. Schulweis, Rabbi, Cong. Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, Calif.; author of For Those Who Can't Believe Library Journal Hartman's 1985 National Jewish Book Award-winning title presents a modern interpretation of traditional Judaic thought on prayer, the nature of god and humankind's relation to that being, tragedy and suffering, and the necessity (or not) of redemption.
\ Library JournalHartman's 1985 National Jewish Book Award-winning title presents a modern interpretation of traditional Judaic thought on prayer, the nature of god and humankind's relation to that being, tragedy and suffering, and the necessity or not of redemption.\ \
