The Binding Of Isaac, Religious Murders & Kabbalah: Seeds Of Jewish Extremism And Alienation?

Book Summary

The author focuses on a number of pertinent questions that help explain how to create a Jewish ethical and moral society: What really happened at the binding of Isaac? How was the traditional interpretation of this pivotal moment in Jewish history misapplied in Christian theology and Jewish martyrology? Is there even a case for religious murders in Jewish thought and in the growing appeal of Jewish mysticism? What are the underlying premises of Jewry's claim to the Divinely Promised Land? Have the Jewish people forfeited this claim by its failure to pursue an active program of nationalism? How has Judaism developed from its rational, cultural, classical interest in every aspect of God's creation to its current, largely insular, rigid and kabbalistically oriented Orthodoxy, in which even Divine miracles and magic are claimed by certain sages? What has precipitated the gulf within Orthodoxy between the Hasidic-kabbalistic sects and the Modern Orthodox? These, and other modern-day questions, including the proper relationship between religion and the State, are analyzed and fully discussed in this groundbreaking volume.

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