State of Mind: JewishFaith/HumanValues a.s.o.a.o.!


The thesis that Jewish faith is basically commitment to observance of Halakhah as worshipful service of G d has a polemical thrust.

Among others, it is directed against Reform Judaism, which regards Halakhah as a husk hiding the essential core of religion.

Some take it to be morality, others a set of metaphysical beliefs, or even inner individual religious experience.

On Yeshayahu Leibewitz's premises, none of these would be of distinctly religious significance.

However, one cannot argue effectively with people who reject these premises.

YL, therefore, conducts his argument at the historical level.

Given the long history of the Jewish religion, the varying circumstances in which its adherents lived, the movements of Jewish thought in the course of Jewish history, & diverse life style of Jews in different epochs, what is it that fixed the identity of Judaism over the ages?

YL's answer is: the religious practice determined by the Halakhah: no other facet of Jewish religion had its continuity & relative invariance because Jewish theologies were so diverse & so dependent upon the variant philosophic assumptions of different schools & different ages that they can hardly be said to present a significant unity.

Inner religious experience varies from individual to individual: YL seems to feel that it cannot be communicated.
27 feb 2012 - bewerkt op 27 feb 2012 - meld ongepast verhaal
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