Must a Jew Believe Anything?

by Kellner, Menachem

• ISBN13: 9781904113386
• ISBN10: 1904113389
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-26
• Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press

Summary

The crucial question for today's Jewish world, Menachem Kellner argues, is not whether Jews will have Jewish grandchildren, but how many different sorts of mutually exclusive Judaisms those grandchildren will face. Kellner's short, brisk, and accessible book examines how the split that threatens the Jewish future can be avoided. The first six chapters of this strongly argued book analyse what religious faith means in classical Judaism and will be of interest to anyone seeking lucid insights into the nature of Judaism. The final chapter builds upon the conclusions of the first six in order to argue for a new way of construing the relationship of Orthodoxy to non-Orthodox Jews and institutions. Kellner argues that the Orthodox practice of framing the debate with non-Orthodox movements in terms of dogmatic fidelity contrasted with heresy is not the traditional Jewish approach, and that the debate could well be framed in other ways, ways that would allow all Jews to work together towards a less polarized Jewish future. Undoubtedly, Must a Jew Believe Anything? has the potential to make a difference to how Orthodoxy understands itself and its relationship to other Jewish movements in the modern world. For the second edition, the author has added a substantial Afterword, reviewing his thinking on the subject and addressing the reactions to the original edition.

Author Biography

Menachem Kellner is Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(10)
1 Two Types of Faith	11	(15)
Faith, Belief, and Trust	12	(2)
Emunah in the Torah	14	(2)
Theology and the Torah	16	(8)
Classical Judaism and the Absence of Dogma	24	(2)
2 Rabbinic Thought	26	(18)
Testing for 'Required Beliefs'	26	(7)
An Objection: Mishnah Sanhedrin x.1	33	(5)
A Defence of Dogma	38	(2)
Heretics and Sectarians	40	(3)
A 'Theology' of Action	43	(1)
3 Why Judaism Acquired a Systematic Theology	44	(8)
Behaviour and Belief	44	(2)
Extrinsic Reasons for the Lack of Systematic Theology in Judaism	46	(3)
Why Systematic Theology Developed among the Jews	49	(1)
The Importation of Theology	50	(2)
4 Maimonides: Dogma without Dogmatism	52	(14)
Maimonides' Dogmas	52	(4)
Maimonides on Inadvertent Heresy	56	(2)
Maimonides on Conversion and the Nature of Faith	58	(2)
Maimonides on Leaving Judaism	60	(1)
Maimonides' 'Non-dogmatic' Dogmas: Science and Religious Faith	61	(2)
Maimonides on Truth	63	(1)
The Logic of Righteousness: Reason and Faith	64	(2)
5 Maimonides: Impact, Implications, Challenges	66	(21)
The Impact	66	(5)
The Implications	71	(6)
Challenges to Maimonides	77	(5)
Was Maimonides Inconsistent? The Karaites	82	(5)
6 Heresy-hunting	87	(23)
Orthodoxy and Heresy	87	(3)
Theology and Halakhah: A Category Mistake	90	(2)
Three Contemporary Orthodox Statements	92	(1)
Freedom of Enquiry	93	(2)
The Illegitimacy of the Non-Orthodox	95	(2)
Inclusivism	97	(2)
The Three Statements: A Critique	99	(5)
Why has Maimonides' Position become Dominant?	104	(4)
The Maimonidean Bind	108	(2)
7 How to Live with Other Jews	110	(17)
Asking the Right Question	110	(2)
So Who or What is a Jew Anyway?	112	(2)
Non-Orthodox Jews and Judaisms	114	(5)
Maimonides and the Objectivity of Truth	119	(8)
Afterword	127	(22)
APPENDIX 1 Maimonides on Reward and Punishment	149	(15)
APPENDIX 2 The Thirteen Principles	164	(11)
APPENDIX 3 Yigdal and Ani ma'amin	175	(2)
Note on Transliteration	177	(1)
Note on Citation of Classical Sources	178	(1)
Glossary	179	(3)
Biographical Notes on Jewish Thinkers	182	(3)
Bibliography	185	(12)
Index	197