Tag Archives: ethics

Care for a Corpse (Gemilut Chasadim) Flowers (Cornovirus)

Readers of ethics and Jewish ethics, in particular, should recognize in the remarkable story about this woman and this powerful act of caring for a corpse one of the greatest acts of kindness marked in rabbinic sources that one person … Continue reading

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(Hey Joggers) A Little Social Etiquette, Please

Just now, I was out walking the dog, startled. “Sorry,” said the youngish woman running past me from behind, way too close, not wearing a mask, and just a little too quick for me to say, “FUCK! REALLY?”

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(Maimonides Says) Cultivate the Middle Way (Hilkhot Deot) (Coronavirus)

At the time of a global health pandemic, where better to turn than to the Great Eagle? Hilkhot Deot is a moral-medical compendium, famous for its elaboration upon the Aristotelean mean. But that’s not the half of it. The larger … Continue reading

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Pikuach Nefesh Is/Is Not An Overriding Halakhic Value

I’ll might take this post down because maybe I’m getting it terribly wrong. But I’m going to give it a shot. The principle of Pikuch Nefesh (saving life) is a well-known and a cardinal principle of Jewish law. The notion … Continue reading

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(People Are Jerks) Street Corner Conversation (Honking Horns)

[2 pedestrians waiting at foot of the off-0ramp from the Queensboro Bridge.] [Guy honks car horn.] Pedestrian 1: That’s not going to get him anywhere. Pedestrian 2: I know. P1: People are jerks. P2: Yeah, right! [P1 and P2 start … Continue reading

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(Hashtag) Heteronomy @ the AJS (Martin Kavka)

The slightest correction to a Martin Kavka hashtag: #WeAreTooOldForHeteronomyAtTheAJS#NotEvenAsAPaperTopic  

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Teshuva Love-Sick (Maimonides)

Proving something about the sensual, even arabesque, core at the heart of Maimonidean rationalism by way of proving R. Akiva’s dictum that the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies is some over the top love-sick camp from Maimonides … Continue reading

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(Hertz Pentateuch) Bourgeois Social Order (Sotah)

Having committed to keep track of the Hertz Pentateuch commentary (1936), I would have been remiss not to include a note on the commentary to the Sotah passage in Numbers, chapter 5. As it turns out and on closer inspection, … Continue reading

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(Kiddush/Chillul Ha-Sehem) Jewish Respectability Ethics (Hertz Pentateuch)

A standout moment in the classic Hertz Pentateuch commentary from 1936, a fixture in the liberal synagogue for the better part of the 20th century, is the appeal to respectability, phrased in terms of kiddush Ha’Shem, the hallowing/sanctification of  God’s … Continue reading

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Jewish Ethics & the Hertz Pentateuch

You know he was going to make a big deal of the so-called Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-22) and there he was. The Hertz Pentateuch tags chapter 19 as “A Manual of Moral Instruction.” These chapters are for Hertz more than … Continue reading

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