Jewish Thought

The Torah teaches us to value human life -- as part of a sustainable world.

Nachman Krochmal pioneered the idea of historical-critical study of Judaism in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia

How the balance of keva (routine) and kavanah (intention) inform Judaism and the thought of Abraham Joshua Heschel.

The deviant use of human freedom, not God, is the source of evil and suffering.

According to some thinkers, the events of the Nazi era initiated changes in the nature of Judaism.

The development and expansion of the Jewish Enlightenment.

The philosophers and mystics of the Middle Ages suggested an array of solutions to the problem of suffering.

At Sinai, the Israelites pledged their allegiance to God and accepted the punishments that would result if they betrayed God.

The new academic study of Judaism examined Jewish religion from the scholarly perspectives of theology, literature, and history.

Most (but not all) rabbinic authorities consider "partial birth abortion" on the same terms as other abortions.

In Judaism, the question of when "ensoulment" takes place is both unanswerable and irrelevant to the issue of abortion.

Though Hasidism is not a homogenous philosophy, there are certain ideas common to its many subgroups.