Winner—National Jewish Book Award!
“‘A covenantal vision of life,
with mitzvah (divine commandment) as the central organizing
principle in the relationship between Jews and God, liberates
the intellect and the moral will. I seek to show that a
tradition mediated by the Sinai covenant can encourage the
development of a human being who is not afraid to assume
responsibility for the ongoing drama of Jewish history. Passive
resignation is seen not to be an essential trait of one whose
relationship to God is mediated by the hearing of mitzvot.”
—from
the Introduction
This interpretation of Jewish teaching
will appeal to all people seeking to understand the
relationship between the idea of divine demand and the human
response, between religious tradition and modernity. Hartman
shows that a life lived in Jewish tradition need not be
passive, insulated, or self-effacing, but can be lived in the
modern pluralistic world with passion, tolerance, and
spontaneity.
The Judaic tradition is often seen as
being more concerned with uncritical obedience to law than with
individual freedom and responsibility. In A Living Covenant, Hartman
challenges this approach by revealing a Judaism grounded in a
covenant—a relational framework—informed by the
metaphor of marital love rather than that of parent-child
dependency. This view of life places the individual firmly
within community. Hartman shows that the Judaic tradition need
not be understood in terms of human passivity and resignation,
but rather as a vehicle by which human individuality and
freedom can be expressed within a relational matrix.
“With passion and erudition, David
Hartman argues for a version of Judaism that is at once
faithful to the tradition and fitted to the requirements of
modernity. He writes like Jacob wrestling with the angel, and
the result, for the reader, is an exhilarating
experience.”
— Michael
Walzer, Institute for Advanced
Study, Princeton University
“David Hartman’s wonderful
book should be of interest to everyone who is concerned with
the problem of keeping faith with a religious or national
tradition while also keeping faith with the ideal of
independent thinking, and respecting the pluralism of religious
(and national) forms and visions in the world.”
— Hilary
Putnam, Cogan University Professor,
Harvard University
“Addresses one of the thorniest
dilemmas faced by thoughtful Jews today: How to resolve the
sharp conflict between the uncompromising, absolute demands of
traditional Judaism and the passion for intellectual autonomy
and creativity. This deep philosophical treatise—filled
with new, nuanced interpretations of Torah and
Talmud—reads like a novel that one cannot put down until
reaching the very last page.”
— Judith
Hauptman, Rabbi Philip R. Alstat
Associate Professor of Talmud, The Jewish Theological Seminary;
author, Rereading the Rabbis: A
Woman’s Voice
“I have learned much from this book,
and I appreciate its theological courage and
originality.”
— Rabbi
Harold M. Schulweis, rabbi,
Congregation. Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, Calif.; author, For Those Who Can’t Believe
“This pioneering reading of
traditional Judaism and some of its major contemporary thinkers
continues to inform and stimulate in unique fashion. Jews and
non-Jews, liberals and traditionalists will see classic Judaism
anew in these pages.”
— Eugene
B. Borowitz, Sigmund L. Falk
Distinguished Professor of Education & Jewish Religious
Thought, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of
Religion
“Hartman’s book provides
a rare and hard-to-come-by opportunity to enter the world of
contemporary orthodox/rabbinic/talmudic Judaism at its
heart…. Here is a vigorous ‘internal’ debate
with the marks of authenticity and intellectual energy
sufficient to fascinate and enlighten a wider public.”
—Krister
Stendahl, formerly dean of The
Harvard Divinity School; Bishop Emeritus of Stockholm
