Tag Archives: ethics

Moral Meaning and the Holocaust (James Loeffler)

Posted on April 27, 2022 by zjb

This piece here by James Loeffler on the one and the many and the Holocaust and comparative analysis is superbly nuanced. Of particular interst is Raphael Lemkin and the formulation of intenrational protocols defining genocide. While I do not necessarily … Continue reading →

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(Civic Judaism) You Know How The Jews Stick Together (Cicero Pro Flacco)

Posted on February 11, 2022 by zjb

The Jews of ancient Rome were probably a pretty tough group of people. More essential than belief in God, Cicero was onto something when he wrote about them, that Jews stick together. His comment in Pro Flacco is arguably anti-Jewish. … Continue reading →

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Ethics ex Nihilo (Inventing Jewish Ethics)

Posted on February 8, 2022 by zjb

Published by the good people at the Journal for Jewish Ethics where I argue that modern Jewish ethics is a lot like an AMC Gremlin: About longer arcs of Jewish tradition, there is simply too much to say in these … Continue reading →

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(Haredi) Religion & State in Israel (Coronavirus)

Posted on October 1, 2020 by zjb

  What is especially fine about the analysis here are the distinctions drawn between [1] first wave (spring 2020) and second wave rates and patterns of infection, [2] Hasidic and non-Hasidic (Litvak) and Sephardic Haredi communities, [3] demographic circumstance (large … Continue reading →

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(ימים נוראים‎) Questions About Haredi Judaism In the Age of Coronavirus (חילול השם)

Posted on September 29, 2020 by zjb

  In the study of modern Jewish thought and philosophy there is a line of argument relating to the need to broaden the canon to include East European, i.e. Haredi Jewish perspectives. In terms of intellectual history, this is a … Continue reading →

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(Against Submission) Alan Brill reviews/interviews Aaron Koller- Unbinding Isaac

Posted on July 20, 2020 by zjb

With his flair for conceptualization and contextualization, Alan Brill reviews here Aaron Koller, Unbinding Isaac: The Significance of the Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought. Alongside a compelling interpretation of the actual text of the Binding of Isaac and including the … Continue reading →

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Judaism, Pandemic, and Race-Terror (Susannah Heschel)

Posted on June 18, 2020 by zjb

Simply one of the best things out there from a Jewish perspective tying together into a single word a response to the Coronavirus pandemic and to the pandemic of anti-black racism in America. Susannah Heschel posted it here at Immanent … Continue reading →

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Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch on Philosophy of Halakhah

Posted on June 8, 2020 by zjb

Liberal Orthodoxy —Alan Brill on Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch on the Philosophy of Halakhah, ethics, Maimonides, religious pluralism, religion and state with references to and links to primary sources.

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(Notre Dame) It’s Moral To Risk Human Life (Coronavirus & Religion)

Posted on May 26, 2020 by zjb

We are in our society regularly willing to take on ourselves or impose on others risks — even lethal risks — for the good of society. We send off young men and women to war to defend the security of … Continue reading →

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Care for a Corpse (Dignity) Coronavirus

Posted on May 17, 2020 by zjb

“There has to be some dignity in this, otherwise I might as well be a garbage man,” is what the funeral director told the journalist. The photographs by Philip Montgomery that accompany this article here in the NYT about two … Continue reading →

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