The Genius of Judaism

The Genius of Judaism

From world-renowned public intellectual Bernard-Henri LÃ©vy comes an incisive and provocative look at the heart of Judaism.

â€œA smart, revealing, and essential book for our times.â€â€”The Washington Post

For more than four decades, Bernard-Henri LÃ©vy has been a singular figure on the world stageâ€”one of the great moral voices of our time. Now Europe's foremost philosopher and activist confronts his spiritual roots and the religion that has always inspired and shaped himâ€”but that he has never fully reckoned with.

The Genius of Judaism is a breathtaking new vision and understanding of what it means to be a Jew, a vision quite different from the one weâ€™re used to. It is rooted in the Talmudic traditions of argument and conflict, rather than biblical commandments, borne out in struggle and study, not in blind observance. At the very heart of the matter is an obligation to the other, to the dispossessed, and to the forgotten, an obligation that, as LÃ©vy vividly recounts, he has sought to embody over decades of championing â€œlost causes,â€ from Bosnia to Africaâ€™s forgotten wars, from Libya to the Kurdish Peshmergaâ€™s desperate fight against the Islamic State, a battle raging as we speak. LÃ©vy offers a fresh, surprising critique of a new and stealthy form of anti-Semitism on the rise as well as a provocative defense of Israel from the left. He reveals the overlooked Jewish roots of Western democratic ideals and confronts the current Islamist threat while intellectually dismantling it. Jews are not a â€œchosen people,â€ LÃ©vy explains, but a â€œtreasureâ€ whose spirit must continue to inform moral thinking and courage today.

LÃ©vyâ€™s most passionate book, and in many ways his most personal, The Genius of Judaism is a great, profound, and hypnotic intellectual reckoningâ€”indeed a call to armsâ€”by one of the keenest and most insightful writers in the world.

Praise for The Genius of Judaism

â€œIn The Genius of Judaism, LÃ©vy elaborates on his credo by rebutting the pernicious and false logic behind current anti-Semitism and defends Israel as the worldâ€™s most successful multi-ethnic democracy created from scratch. LÃ©vy also makes the case for Franceâ€™s Jews being integral to the establishment of the French nation, the French language, and French literature. And last, but certainly not least, he presents a striking interpretation of the Book of Jonah. . . . A tour de force.â€â€”Forbes

â€œArdent . . . LÃ©vyâ€™s message is essentially uplifting: that the brilliant scholars of Judaism, the authors of the Talmud, provide elucidation into â€˜the great questions that have stirred humanity since the dawn of time.â€™ . . . A philosophical celebration of Judaism.â€â€”Kirkus Reviews

â€œLÃ©vy (Left in Dark Times), a prominent French journalist and politically engaged philosopher, turns his observations inward here, pondering the teachings of Judaism and the role they have played in contemporary European history as well as in his own life and intellectual inquiry. . . . [LÃ©vyâ€™s] musings on the meaning of the story of Jonah and the relevance of symbolic Ninevahs in our time are both original and poetic. . . . A welcome addition to his oeuvre.â€â€”Publishers Weekly
Country USA
Brand Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 44941974
ReleaseDate 2017-01-10
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812992724

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	44941974
ReleaseDate	2017-01-10
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812992724

The Genius of Judaism

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