Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, one of the most respected spiritual leaders and teachers of his generation, has been a rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, for close to forty years. He is the founding chairman of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, an organization that identifies and offers grants to those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews threatened by the agents of Nazi savagery. He is also the founder Jewish World Watch, which aims to raise moral consciousness within the Jewish community. Synagogues and other religious institutions are now supporting this effort across the country. Rabbi Schulweis is the author of many books, including: Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey (Jewish Lights); Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion, For Those Who Can’t Believe, Finding Each Other in Judaism, In God’s Mirror, and two books of original religious poetry and meditation—From Birth to Immortality and Passages in Poetry. His Evil and the Morality of God is regarded as a classic.
Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A case for conscience as the source of common ground
Oct 30 2008
By Maxwell Grant
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Drawing on Scripture, Talmud, history and literature, Rabbi Harold Schulweis has written a short book that celebrates the role of conscience as the essence of religion -- both in Judaism, specifically and religion, generally.
Highly readable with short chapters and "pull quotes" (those boxes with a quotation from the text set in the margin of a page), the book seems designed for faith-based study groups in synagogues. Schulweis writes very clearly and uses quotations thoughtfully -- even a group with people of different ages and from very different walks of life would be able to read it together easily.
Schulweis argues emphatically against a literal reading of Scripture. Specifically, he shows how Judaism has a rich tradition of reading the Bible that is willing to challenge even the words on the page in the name of the values that God stands for. Even explicit laws can be retired in the name of deeper principles.
The challenge for faithful people, he argues, is to seek to live under the direction of those deeper principles, and to build a world that is based upon them.
It is a good book, but not a great one. Simply, it is too short, and it leaves the reader wanting more...actually, a little too much more.
Nevertheless, fans of Schulweis' work, especially the magnificent "For Those Who Can't Believe," will be glad to have another useful, thought provoking volume to add to their libraries.
Highly readable with short chapters and "pull quotes" (those boxes with a quotation from the text set in the margin of a page), the book seems designed for faith-based study groups in synagogues. Schulweis writes very clearly and uses quotations thoughtfully -- even a group with people of different ages and from very different walks of life would be able to read it together easily.
Schulweis argues emphatically against a literal reading of Scripture. Specifically, he shows how Judaism has a rich tradition of reading the Bible that is willing to challenge even the words on the page in the name of the values that God stands for. Even explicit laws can be retired in the name of deeper principles.
The challenge for faithful people, he argues, is to seek to live under the direction of those deeper principles, and to build a world that is based upon them.
It is a good book, but not a great one. Simply, it is too short, and it leaves the reader wanting more...actually, a little too much more.
Nevertheless, fans of Schulweis' work, especially the magnificent "For Those Who Can't Believe," will be glad to have another useful, thought provoking volume to add to their libraries.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great moral leader's wonderful words
Feb 16 2009
By A. S. Krantz
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rabbi Harold Schulweis is one of the greatest living rabbis. His insights on human behavior, morality and G-d are valuable for Jew and Gentile alike. This slim book is a pleasure to read. I am privileged to call him my rabbi and have a signed copy of his great book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
It Depoends What You Want
Sep 10 2012
By MARK LIEBERMAN
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a serious discussion on Jewish attitudes toward obeying and disobeying Torah commandments. It covers the bases very thoroughly and without any particular bias. It's eclectic and well documented. Best of all, it's clear and concise. However, it doesn't offer any fresh point of view or much in the way of modern viewpoints. If your looking for a survey of attitudes, this does the job. If you are looking for guidelines for spiritual actions, this is the wrong book.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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