The genius of Judaism
| Full title: |
The genius of Judaism / Bernard-Henri Lévy ; translated by Steven B. Kennedy. |
|---|---|
| Alternative titles: |
L'esprit du judaïsme. English |
| Main author: | Lévy, Bernard Henri. (Author) |
| Other authors: | Kennedy, Steven, 1952- (Translator) |
| Format: | Book |
| Edition: |
2017 Random House trade paperback edition. |
| Summary: |
"An incisive and provocative look at the heart of Judaism. For more than four decades, Bernard-Henri Levy has been a singular figure on the world stage--one of the great moral voices of our time. Now Europe's foremost philosopher and activist confronts his spiritual roots and the religion that has always inspired and shaped him--but that he has never fully reckoned with. The Genius of Judaism is a breathtaking new vision and understanding of what it means to be a Jew, a vision quite different from the one we're used to. It is rooted in the Talmudic traditions of argument and conflict, rather than biblical commandments, borne out in struggle and study, not in blind observance. At the very heart of the matter is an obligation to the other, to the dispossessed, and to the forgotten, an obligation that, as Levy vividly recounts, he has sought to embody over decades of championing lost causes, from Bosnia to Africa's forgotten wars, from Libya to the Kurdish Peshmerga's desperate fight against the Islamic State, a battle raging as we speak. Levy offers a fresh, surprising critique of a new and stealthy form of anti-Semitism on the rise as well as a provocative defense of Israel from the left. He reveals the overlooked Jewish roots of Western democratic ideals and confronts the current Islamist threat while intellectually dismantling it. Jews are not a chosen people, Levy explains, but a treasure whose spirit must continue to inform moral thinking and courage today."--Publisher. |
|---|---|
| Other authors: | Kennedy, Steven, 1952- (Translator) |
| Language: | English French |
| Published: |
New York :
Random House,
2017.
|
| Classmark: |
QO296.09 /748377 |
| Subjects: | |
| ISBN: |
9780812982510 0812982517 |