Category: General
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Another Strong Endorsement of “Come Now, Let Us Reason Together.”
I’m very pleased to have received a very favorable review of my book from Julian Ungar-Sargon, M.D. Ph.D. Dr. Sargon is a renowned neurologist, specializing in pain management. He was raised in an Orthodox household and is quite familiar with Judaism’s classic sources, including the Kabbalah and other texts of Jewish mysticism. Here is a… Read more
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Rabbinic Judaism was Bold and Innovative!
In stark contrast to today’s Orthodoxy, the Judaism invented by the rabbis following the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE was willing to adapt halakhah (Jewish law) to new social conditions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the dramatic action taken the great sage Yohanan ben Zakkai in nullifying a biblical commandment on… Read more
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Non-Literal Biblical Interpretation
In Chapter 1 of my Come Now, Let Us Reason Together I propose a theological framework for interpreting the Torah (also known as the Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch) that rejects the idea that this foundational text is a factually accurate history of the Jewish people from the dawn of creation until their impending… Read more
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The Oral Law from Sinai
The doctrine of the Oral Law from Sinai is one of the essential theological principles of Orthodox Judaism. The basic idea is that in addition to the written Torah (Pentateuch) handed down by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai, God also conveyed the oral Torah, that explained in detail how the 613 laws of the… Read more
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Strong Recommendation for “Come Now, Let Us Reason Together”
I am very pleased to have received the enthusiastic endorsement of my book, quoted below, from Rabbi Scott A Hoffman Ph.D, the spiritual leader of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Louisville, KY. Rabbi Hoffman received his doctorate in rabbinics from NYU. I am very grateful that he invested his valuable time to read this text carefully… Read more
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Short Video Summary of “Come Now, Let Us Reason Together”
By virtue of its length, this summary will necessarily be conclusory, omitting the many examples, citations to classical sources and modern scholarly ones. Even so, I believe it provides a useful preview of the important themes and arguments presented in my book. https://www.facebook.com/content/insights/?content_id=UzpfSTYxNTcxODkzNTA2NTUzOjEyMjExNTY1Mjk4MjcyOTc4MzoxMjIxMTU2NTI5ODI3Mjk3ODM%3D&entry_point=CometProfileInsightsPressablePostListItem Read more
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My Own Private Judaism
One of the things that occurred to me in the course of researching and writing Come Now, Let Us Reason Together, is that the common, theologically based division of Judaism into three major “movements,” i.e. Orthodox/Conservative/Reform is both artificial and misleading. This construct both badly mischaracterizes the facts “on the ground” and perhaps more importantly… Read more