On Personal and Public Concerns Essays in Jewish Philosophy [Hardcover]

Eliezer Schweids career as philosopher, scholar, educator and public intellectual has spanned the history of the State of Israel from the pre-war Yishuv period to the present. In these essays he recalls his formative years in the Zionist youth and the Hebrew University. He reflects on the existential loneliness of the modern Jew. He examines the perennial problem of theodicy through a Jewish lens in its broadest human parameters. Finally, he offers a challenging critique of the postmodern culture of the global village, in which the marketplace and skepticism have crowded out humane values rooted in the traditions of historical culture.On Personal and Public Concerns: Essays in Jewish Philosophy by Eliezer Schweid is a wonderful book for all those interested in a powerful and self-critical analysis of the central problems confronting Jewish existence over the past few decades. The essays contained in this book present in a clear and inspiring manner, the ways in which one of Israels leading thinkers grapples with questions concerning the character and meaning of Jewish existence in times of radical change; the role to be played by Jewish cultural and educational traditions in the formation of a healthy and just society; as well as with such theological issues as the problem of evil and divine justice in Jewish sources and recent history. In these and other areas, the book reflects the thought of one of the contemporary Jewish worlds profoundest intellectuals for whom the universally human and the particularly Jewish are always inextricably tied to each other.Leonard Levin teaches Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York.Eliezer Schweid is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University. He has published more than forty books in general and specific areas of Jewish thought of all periods, and has commented frequently on the relevance of the legacy of Jewish thought to contemporary issues of Jewish and universal hlƒf