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The Jewish Political Tradition

Yale University Press

Contents

Table of Contents for Volumes I-IV...................................................................................xiForeword DAVID HARTMAN..............................................................................................xiiiPreface and Acknowledgments..........................................................................................xviIntroduction: The Jewish Political Tradition MICHAEL WALZER.........................................................xxiThe Selection, Translation, and Presentation of the Texts MENACHEM LORBERBAUM AND NOAM J. ZOHAR.....................xxxiiLaw, Story, and Interpretation: Reading Rabbinic Texts MICHAEL FISHBANE.............................................xxxixList of Abbreviations................................................................................................lviVolume I. AuthorityIntroduction.........................................................................................................3Chapter 1. Covenant: God's Law and the People's Consent..............................................................5IntroductionBiblical CovenantsCovenant and ConsentThe Scope of Covenantal CommitmentChapter 2. Revelation: Torah and Reason..............................................................................47IntroductionNatural Law, Reason, and Revelation: Classical DiscussionsRevelation, Morality, and Ritual: Modern StrugglesChapter 3. Kings.....................................................................................................108IntroductionBiblical Views of MonarchyThe Constitution of MonarchyCritiques of MonarchyThe Realm of Torah and the Realm of PoliticsChapter 4. Priests...................................................................................................166IntroductionIn the Bible: Holy PriestsThe Second Temple: Ruling PriestsFrom Priests to SagesChapter 5. Prophets..................................................................................................199IntroductionThe Prophetic CallingProphecy as Political ChallengeGod's Word: Truth, Falsehood, and InterpretationA Medieval Prophet: The Abulafia ControversyChapter 6. Rabbis and Sages..........................................................................................244IntroductionCustodians of the LawBeyond ProphecyAuthority of the Oral LawMedieval Arguments: Karaites and RabbanitesModern Concerns: Halakhic Innovation and Rabbinic AuthorityChapter 7. Controversy and Dissent...................................................................................307IntroductionMajority and MinorityThe Individual: Knowledge and ResponsibilityThe Rebellious Elder: Institutional AuthorityLiving with DisagreementMedieval Arguments: The Value of UniformityModern Disputes: The Problem of AuthorityChapter 8. The Good Men of the Town..................................................................................379IntroductionTalmudic FoundationsJustifying the Kahal's Authority: Early AshkenazRestricting the Kahal's Authority: Early SpainDeveloped Doctrines of the KahalThe Kahal and the RabbiChapter 9. The Gentile State.........................................................................................430IntroductionLegitimacy of Non-Jewish AuthorityModern Disputes: Civil and Religious LawChapter 10. The State of Israel......................................................................................463IntroductionLegal and Political ContinuityReligious Significance of the StateA Jewish and Democratic StateGlossary of Names....................................................................................................525Glossary of Terms....................................................................................................545List of Commentators.................................................................................................555Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Sources...............................................................................557Index of Names.......................................................................................................5565General Index........................................................................................................571

Chapter One

Introduction

Biblical Covenants

Acceptance of the Torah

1. Exodus 19:7-20:18

The Covenant at Sinai

2. Exodus 24:1-8, 12-18

The Covenant at Moab

3. Deuteronomy 29:1, 9-28; 30:11-20

The Covenant at Shechem

4. Joshua 24:1-28

The Forced Covenant

5. Ezekiel 20:1-6, 10-22, 30-38

Pledging a Renewed Covenant

6. Nehemiah 9:1-8, 24-26, 30-37; 10:1-40

Commentary. Bernard M. Levinson, "The Sinai Covenant: The Argument of Revelation"

Covenant and Consent

Grounds of Obligation

7. Mekhilta Derabbi Yishmael, Bahodesh 5, 6

"A Forceful Disclaimer Regarding the Torah"

8. BT Shabbat 88a

God's Bound Subjects

9. Sifre Numbers 115

Commentary. Michael J. Sandel, "Covenant and Consent"

Offering the Torah to the Nations

10. Sifre Deuteronomy 343

The Scope of Covenantal Commitment

Individual Responsibility

11. BT Sotah 37a-b

The Covenant: Meaning and Intention 12. BT Shevu'ot 29a-b

Future Generations

13. Isaac Abravanel, Commentary on the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy 29

Freedom and Necessity

14. Judah Loew (Maharal of Prague), Tiferet Yisrael, Chapter 32

Covenant as Social Contract

15. Baruch Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, Chapters 5 and 17

Introduction

Many of the central issues of modern consent theory are already posed in biblical and Rabbinic literature. Reading these texts, one has to keep reminding oneself that their authors were not consent theorists and that a covenant with God is not the same thing as a social contract. Contract and convenant indeed have similar effects-creating political unity and moral obligation-and at least some of the writers represented in this chapter seem to believe that the obligation to obey God's law derives, and can only derive, from the people's consent. But God is no equal or near equal, like all the other parties to the social contract; nor do the people, when they consent, "give the law to themselves" (as in Rousseau's version of contract theory)-they accept the law as God gives it. And how free can their acceptance be, when the divine lawgiver is absolute and omnipotent?

In the different midrashic elaborations of the Sinai story, only sampled here, God is sometimes seen persuading the people to accept his law (the prophet Hosea describes him wooing Israel like a lover) and sometimes threatening and coercing them. The first is the more attractive account; the second is theoretically more interesting, for the Rabbis, or some of them, recognize that coerced consent is not morally or legally binding. So they are driven to look for some later occasion when consent is given voluntarily-and they find this only in the next to last chapter of the book of Esther, where the acceptance of the laws of Purim by the exilic community of Persian Jews is taken as a general...