“Donniel Hartman suggests a way forward for contemporary Jews by looking back to the foundational stories of Judaism. In the Genesis story, the Modern Orthodox rabbi explains, Jews are Jews by inheritance, not belief. In the Exodus story, Jewishness is aspirational, based on a choice to follow the law—the whole of which is to love thy neighbor as thyself. Throughout history, these Genesis and Exodus narratives have intertwined to constitute “the warp and woof of Jewish identity,” but when one is emphasized more than the other, that collective identity becomes distorted and starts to unravel.”
Read the full review in the Christian Century here.
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