Description:
Includes contemporary Jewish political practice, and both systematic and historical treatments of issues in Jewish political theory and legal thought.
This book is divided into two parts, "Judaism and Political Praxis" and "Halakha and the Political Order." The first part is concerned with issues at the interface of Jewish political theory and practice: a Jewish philosophy of justice, the formulation of a practical philosophy based on traditional Jewish sources, and the need for greater political activism among Jews. The second part presents both systematic and historical studies. It includes the strategies used to determine the meaning and intelligibility of texts and norms in the rabbinic tradition, trends in the history of Jewish political thought, and the connectedness of law and morality in traditional Judaism.
Brief description: Daniel H. Frank is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky. He is the editor of Autonomy and Judaism: The Individual and the Community in Jewish Philosophical Thought and A People Apart: Chosenness and Ritual in Jewish Philosophical Thought, both published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"The intersection of politics and Judaism is a subject to which ever greater attention is being paid, not much of it as intelligent and well grounded as the essays in this book." -- Menachem Kellner, University of Haifa, Israel