Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University.
United States
£ GBP
Jewish ecological discourse has shown that Judaism harbours deep concern for the well-being of the natural world. However, the movement has not articulated a Jewish theology of nature, nor has it submitted the sources of Judaism to a systematic, philosophical examination. Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word intends to contribute to the nascent discourse on Judaism and Ecology by clarifying diverse conceptions of nature in Jewish thought and by using the insights of Judaism to formulate a constructive Jewish theology of nature.
The 21 contributors consider the Bible and rabbinic literature, examine the relationship between the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of revelation in the context of natural law, and wrestle with questions of nature and morality. They look at nature in the Jewish mystical tradition, and they face the challenges to Jewish environmental activism caused by the tension between the secular nature of the environmental discourse and Jewish religious commitments.
Preface
Lawrence E. Sullivan
Series Foreword
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
Introduction. Judaism and the Natural World
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
I. Constructive Jewish Theology of Nature
A Kabbalah for the Environmental Age
Arthur Green
Toward a Jewish Theology of Nature
Michael Fishbane
II. The Human Condition: Origins, Pollution, and Death
The Ecology of Eden
Evan Eisenberg
How Much Is Too Much? Conventional versus Personal Definitions of Pollutions in Rabbinic Sources
Eliezer Diamond
Jewish Death Practices: A Commentary on the Relationship of Humans to the Natural World
David Kraemer
Response. Mastery and Stewardship, Wonder and Connectedness: A Typology of Relations to Nature in Jewish Text and Tradition
Eilon Schwartz
Ill. The Doctrine of Creation
Nature’s Answer: The Meaning of the Book of Job in Its Intellectual Context
Stephen A. Geller
Creation in the Bible and in the Liturgy
Neil Gillman
The Doctrine of Creation and the Idea of Nature
David Novak
Response. Natural and Supernatural Justice
Jon D. Levenson
IV. Nature and Revealed Morality
Concepts of Torah and Nature in Jewish Thought
Shalom Rosenberg
Respect for Nature in the Jewish Tradition
Lenn E. Goodman
What Are the Ethical Implications of Jewish Theological Conceptions of the Natural World?
Moshe Sokol
Response. Construction, Discovery, and Critique in Jewish Ecological Ethics
Barry S. Kogan
V. Nature in Jewish Mysticism
Mirror of Nature Reflected in the Symbolism of Medieval Kabbalah
Elliot R. Wolfson
Nature, Exile, and Disability in R. Nahman of Bratslav’s "The Seven Beggars"
Shaul Magid
Early Hasidism and the Natural World
Jerome (Yehudah) Gellman
Response. The Textualization of Nature in Jewish Mysticism
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
VI. From Speculation to Action
Reverence and Responsibility: Abraham Joshua Heschel on Nature and the Self
Edward K. Kaplan
Can Judaism Make Environmental Policy? Sacred and Secular Language in Jewish Ecological Discourse
Tsvi Blanchard
Jewish Environmentalism: Past Accomplishments and Future Challenges
Mark X. Jacobs
Select Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University.
