Essential Essays on Judaism

by Eliezer Berkovits

Essential Essays on Judaism presents 13 of Berkovits' most significant essays, exploring vital issues within Judaism and Jewish society, including: Jewish morality and law, Jewish nationhood, and Jewish theology.

Genres: Judaism, Judaica, Philosophy, Religion

393 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2002

Reviews

[Nathan Elberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice compilation of Berkovits' groundbreaking ideas, by David Hazony. Rabbi Berkovits never got the attention he deserved. Highly recommended.

[Steve Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is a little florid and somewhat sermony at times, but there are a couple of very good essays.

[Simcha York · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Hazony's collection of essays by Eliezer Berkovitz are informed by a powerful intellect and a profound love of humanity. Whether his subject is halachic observance, morality, the Jewish state, or the Holocaust, Berkovitz is a challenging but lucid essayist who never fails to speak to both the mind and the heart. Toward the end of the final essay in this collection - "Faith after the Holocaust" - Berkovitz asks "Is it possible to separate human nature from the nature of the universe and from its meaning?" Though he does not answer this question directly, this essay and the others in this collection constantly challenge the reader to find any compelling argument that would assert otherwise. Despite the variety of subject matter, these essays are all, at their core, meditations on how to maintain , assert, and make sense of one's humanity and Jewishness in the modern world.

[Sam Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book, by an Orthodox Chicago Rabbi who opposed the growing rigor of Orthodoxy, and has much to say on how modern Halachic interpretation lost its way by becoming far more rigid than it was in Europe before the liberation of the Jews. Lovely essays on The Star of Redemption and other matters too. Never heard of the guy before Shalem Institute started promoting him.