Faith in the Future

Overview

In this book the Chief Rabbi addresses some of the major themes of our time: the fragmentation of our common culture, the breakdown of family and community life, the lack of moral direction, and the waning of religious belief. How, he asks, can we construct a humane social order which honours human dignity and difference, one in which we can be both true to ourselves and a blessing to others? In the confusing state of post-industrial societies in the post-Cold War situation, can we give those who come after us a coherent map of hope?

All those concerned about the state of contemporary society, whether of any faith community of none, will find Faith in the Future profound, challenging and deeply moving.

Index

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A

• Abbahu, Rabbi 158
• Abrabanel (Abarbanel), Don Isaac 111–12
• Abraham 71, 78–9
  • to be a blessing 174
  • and covenant 121
  • and God 43, 48, 173, 181–2
  • has to buy a cave to bury Sarah 180
  • and the ram 158
  • on Sodom 176
  • told to sacrifice Isaac 174–5
  • when asked to give up his child 221, 222
• absoluteness 121
• Acher 187–8
• Acton, Lord 61
• Adam 133
• adultery 37
• After Virtue (MacIntyre) 62–3
• Afula attack 99
• Ahasuerus, King 242
• Akiva, Rabbi 1–2, 164–5, 199
• alienated Jew 188
• Almohads 225
• altruism 21, 195
• Amalekites 217
• America
  • critiques of society 119
  • tension between Orthodoxy and Reform 236
• American Jewry 232–4
• Ammon 217
• Amos 44, 116
• anarchy 49
• anger 221
• anomie 12, 52
• Antiochus IV 190–1
• antisemitism 71, 83, 86
• anti-Zionism 239
• anxiety 84
• apostasy 188
• Arafat, Yasser 5, 87
• Ariès, Philip 216
• Aristotle 62
• Assembly of Jewish Notables 118
• assimilation 118, 233, 235, 241
  • individual and collective 232
  • of lost ten tribes 182
• Assyrians 182
• atonement 165, 166
  • see also Day of Atonement
• Auschwitz 193, 237, 239, 241
• Austin, J.L. 48
• authoritarianism 112
• autonomy 11–12, 18, 117
• aveilut 219
• Avot 45
• ayeka 93–4
• Ayer, A.J. 62

B

• Baal Shem Tov 172
• Baal worship 228–9
• Babel, Tower of 79, 115, 120
• Babylon 181
• Babylonians 182, 189
• Babylonian Talmud 181
• Bachya, Rabbenu 197
• bar Yochai, Rabbi Shimon 88
• Bavaria 150
• BBC Handbook 1928 127
• Beethoven, Ludwig van 162
• Bellah, Robert 60, 63–4
• the bereaved 220
• Berger, Peter 2
• Berlin, Sir Isaiah 124
• Berlin wall 83
• Bevis Marks Synagogue 92
• the Bible 171–2
  • on accurate weights and measures 202–3
  • and Babel 115
  • commanded us to remember 84
  • and covenant 110
  • and crime 32, 33
  • on exodus from Egypt 180
  • faith in peace 98
  • and freedom 49
  • on justice 43
  • and law 44, 47–8, 50, 211
  • leitmotifs of collective Jewish experiences 193
  • and love your neighbour 78–9
  • and morality 62
  • and Moses 85
  • and nature 153
  • and New Year 98
  • and politics 107
  • and the prophets 66
  • and rest 132
  • and the Sabbath 129
  • on strangers 140–1
  • you shall not do what others have done to you 102
  • see also Torah
• birth rate 232, 241
• bitter herbs 139
• blasphemy 119
• Bleak House (Dickens) 26
• blindness 219
• Bloch, Joseph 163
• Bondi, Sir Hermann 121
• bones, vision of the valley of dry 182, 193
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (Wolfe) 119
• book of life 161
• Bosnia 82, 84, 85–6, 91
• bread of affliction 144
• breath 155
• A Brief History of Time (Hawking) 29
• brit 66–7, 109
• Britain
  • crime rate 32
  • and Thatcherism 18
  • see also England
• Broadcasting Act, 1990 128–9
• broken families 56
• Buber, Martin 18, 118, 214
• Bulger, James 12, 13, 14, 15
• Burke, Edmund 34, 212

C

• Cain 85
• calendar, Jewish 129–30, 190
• Calvin, John 179
• Canaan 180–1
• capitalism 195
• care for the elderly 220
• Catholic Church 99–100, 101, 103, 104
• The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Novak) 195
• Catholicism 196
• Catholics 234
• Central Religious Advisory Committee 127–8
• chaos theory 30
• charity 198–9, 220, 221
• cheresh 218
• children 27, 36, 182, 216, 232
  • and Abraham 222
  • at Auschwitz 237
  • and crime 31
  • and divorce 24–5
  • and education 35
  • and the family 28–9, 30
  • handicapped 221
  • lawless 14
  • of mixed marriages 234
  • neglected and abused 52
  • and parents 26
  • and Passover 141, 142
• choice 39–40, 56, 67, 68, 117
• Christianity
  • and conversion 183
  • and the Holocaust 71
  • and Jews 103
  • and reconcilation with Judaism 75–6
• Christian tradition 39
• chronological systems 130
• chukkim 210
• Churchill, Winston 85
• citizenship 119
• civic duty 61
• civil society 50
• civil wars 82, 186
• Clinton, President 97
• closed period 127–8, 129, 130
• coercion 123–4
• cohanim 164
• collective assimilation 232
• collective good 34, 58
• collective memory 131
• collective redemption 166
• collective responsibility 165–6
• collective time 130, 135
• collectivism 19
• Cologne 150
• commandments 47
• common good 6–7, 12, 46, 54, 57, 60
• communism 18, 83
• communities 6–7, 19
  • definition 56
  • helping others 57–8
  • local 34
  • and responsibility 60, 220–1
• community care 221
• community service 14
• community time 135
• community work 60–1
• compassion 79
• competition 203
• confession 165
• conflicts 12, 44, 59
  • in the Bible 85
  • ethnic 84
  • and the family 23
  • and marriage 22
  • and religion 72–3, 78
• consent 110
• conservation 212
• consolation 190
• conspicuous consumption 200
• contract 67
• conversion 118, 163, 183, 225
• conversos 225–8, 230
• courage 98
• covenants 11, 43–4, 47, 48, 57, 105, 121
  • definition 66–7, 109–10
  • with God 48, 115–16, 120, 238
  • of life 176
  • at Mount Sinai 242
  • and providence 194
  • renewed 240
• creation 73, 90, 109, 132, 133
• crime 31–3, 35, 36, 56, 71
• crimes against humanity 85, 86
• Cromwell, Oliver 139
• crown of government 111, 112
• Culture of Complaint (Hughes) 119
• curses 93
• cyclical time 145

D

• darkhei shalom 80
• David, King 89, 93, 217
• Day of Atonement 128, 156–7, 162–8
• Days of Awe 93, 156
• deaf-mutes 223
• death 175
• debts 140
• delegation 108
• democracy
• and freedom 41
• Greek 114
• and religion 106–7, 112–13
• Dennis, Norman 26–7
• Desert Islands Discs 118
• despair 65, 222
• determinism 40
• Deuteronomy
  • 1: 16–17 43
  • 4: 5–8 47
  • 8: 17 199
  • 11: 10–12 154
  • 14: 1–4 180
  • 16: 18–20 43
  • 20 97
  • 20: 19–20 211
  • 30: 1–4 192
  • 31: 18 93
• Deutsch, Rabbi Joel 223
• Devlin, Lord 51
• Diaspora 233–4, 241
• Dickens, Charles 26
• dignity 20, 34
• disability 214–24
• disadvantage 56
• distributive justice 43
• The Disuniting of America (Schlesinger) 119
• diversity 114, 115
• divorce 22, 23, 24, 123, 232
• Dominian, Jack 24
• Donin, Nicholas 162
• Donne, John 13
• Dreyfus affair 83
• drug abuse 57
• Durkheim, Émile 12, 52, 113, 235–6
• duty 60, 61
• Dworkin, Ronald 49, 202

E

• East End of London 3–4
• Eastern Europe
  • and collapse of communism 18, 83
  • pogroms 150
• Eban, Abba 183
• Ecclesiastes 97, 154–5, 157, 190, 203
• ecclesiastical power 107
• ecology 29, 30, 36, 68, 80
• economic ethics 195–6, 202–5
• economic freedom 67
• economic growth 24, 67, 68
• economic inequality 201
• Edels, Rabbi Samuel 223–4
• education 29, 35, 48–50, 201, 220
• egoism 195
• Egypt 138–9, 186–7
• exodus from 123, 136, 179–80
• Einstein, Albert 188
• Elazar, Daniel 67, 109
• the elderly 216, 220
• Eliezer ben Yaakov, Rabbi 219
• Elijah 136, 228–30
• Elisha (prophet) 229
• Elisha ben Abuyah 187–8
• emancipation 118
• emunah 29
• The End of the Jewish People (Friedmann) 232
• England
• hurricane, 1987 76
• Jews expelled in 1290 150
• Enlightenment 64, 65, 66, 67
• environment 25, 68
• environmental ethics 206–11, 212–13
• environmental truth 136
• equality 201
• Esau 88–9, 90, 105, 177–8
• Essenes 197
• Esther, book of 94, 238
• ethical monotheism 47–8
• ethics 205
• Ethics (Mackie) 62
• ‘Ethics of the Fathers’ 45
• Ethiopia 187, 193
• ethnic cleansing 83, 86
• ethnic conflict 84
• ethnic identities 96–7
• ethnicity 235
• ethnic tensions 56
• ethnic wars 83, 86
• etrog 153
• Etzioni, Amitai 60
• Eve 133
• ever-dying people 182–3, 231
• evil 72, 85, 99, 176
• exile 188, 192, 225
• Exodus
  • 2: 11–14 186
  • 3: 6–8 179
  • 4: 1 228
  • 12: 19 129
  • 18–20 107–8
• exodus 192
  • from Egypt 123, 136, 179–80
• expulsions of Jews 150
• Ezekiel 65, 113, 164–5, 181
  • vision of the valley of dry bones 182, 193
• Ezra 110, 184–5

F

• Fackenheim, Emile 240, 241
• faith
  • aware of value of 74–5
  • and courage 98
  • and family and community 6–7
  • in God 184
  • and journey 2–3
  • and languages 79–80
  • loss of 5
  • and morality 50
  • public good 129
  • that God has in us 73
• family 22–3, 24, 26, 30, 36, 37, 52
  • as agent of primary socialisation 34
  • collapse of 14
  • and crime 35
  • and Jews 187
  • and love 5–6
  • and morality 17, 28–9
  • and responsibility 60
  • and rights 27
  • smallest unit of community 56
  • and Thatcher 57
• fate 168
• Feast of Weeks 145–9
• Feinstein, Rabbi Moses 220–1
• fellow-feeling 195
• Final Solution 182–3
• First Temple 182, 189
• forgiveness 160, 161, 168
• France 83
• Franklin, Benjamin 139
• fraternity 201, 202
• freedom 41, 67, 143
  • danger of 68
  • and God 110, 139–40, 179
  • and Judaism 46
  • and law 50
  • and Passover 138, 141–2
  • religious 122–3
  • and rule of law 49
  • and Shabbat 136
  • of spirit 143
  • through sharing 144
• freedom of expression 122
• free market 23, 55
• free will 122, 168
• Freud, Sigmund 188
• Friedmann, Georges 232
• friends 17, 18
• Fukuyama, Francis 83
• fundamentalism 77–8, 86

G

• Galbraith, John Kenneth 130
• gamblers 197
• Gamliel II, Rabban 122, 198
• garbage disposal 212
• Garden of Eden 93
• Genesis
  • 1 109
  • 1: 26 80
  • 2: 16 196–7
  • 6: 6 73
  • 6: 9 78
  • 12: 1–3 173
  • 15: 1–5 181–2
  • 18: 19 43
  • 18: 23–5 176
  • 20: 11 71
  • 22: 11–12 175
  • 32: 25–9 177
  • and nature 207, 208, 209
• genocide 242
  • see also Holocaust
• generosity 204
• geonim 162
• German Peasants Revolt 179
• Germany 71, 83, 239
• ger toshav 121
• gevurah 91
• Gibeonites 89–90
• glass, breaking at wedding 189
• global ecology 80
• God 29, 77, 238
  • and Abraham 43, 173, 181–2
  • asking questions of 142, 177
  • and Auschwitz 241
  • covenants with 115–16, 120
  • and creation 90
  • and crimes 33
  • and Elijah 136, 229–30
  • emerged from hiding 95–6
  • and exodus from Egypt 179
  • faith in 184
  • and freedom 110, 139–40
  • given us free will 168
  • gives power to the powerless 217
  • had faith in the world 73
  • hiding face 239–40
  • in the human heart 143
  • in image of 80–1, 86, 108–9, 224
  • judges by the heart 219
  • as King 156
  • and law 47–8
  • on life 167
  • loyalty to 158, 159
  • and moral judgement 39
  • and Moses 35, 228
  • at Mount Sinai 242
  • and nature 153, 213
  • and relationships 50
  • and the Sabbath 137
  • seeking 92–4
  • on Sodom 176
  • and violence 101
• ‘God slot’ 127
• Goldscheider, Professor Calvin 232, 234
• the good 35
• Gordon, Yehudah Leib 231
• governments, cannot change people 14–15
• Graeffin, Roger 28
• Gray, John 195
• Great Seal of the United States 139
• Greek democracy 114
• Greeks 178, 190–1
• Greek thought 130
• Greenberg, Irving 240
• grief 189–90, 219
• groups 72, 114, 119
• Guernsey 85
• The Guide for the Perplexed (Maimonides) 109, 208, 219
• guilt 222, 223
• Gulf War 83, 91
• Gyges’ ring 33

H

• ha-Am, Ahad 235–6
• Habits of the Heart: Middle America Observed (Bellah) 63
• Hadera attack 99
• Hagar 97
• halakhah 220
• Haley, Sir William 127
• Halsey, Professor A.H. 24–5, 26–7
• Haman 242
• ha-Meiri, Rabbi Menahem 121
• handicap 214–24
• Hanina, Rabbi 45, 46, 54, 186
• Hannah 97
• Hansen’s Law 233
• Hanukkah 190
• Hartom, Menachem 239
• Hasmonean kings 111
• hassidah 79
• Hassidim 176
• Hassidism 159
• Hawking, Stephen 29
• Hayek, Friedrich 41–2, 60
• heart 143
• Hebrew Bible see the Bible
• Hebron massacre 99, 101–2
• Heilman, Samuel 118
• Heine, Heinrich 233
• heresy 188
• heretics 187–8
• Hertz, Rabbi J.H. 163
• Herzl, Theodor 83, 104, 187
• Hess, Moses 179
• hester panim 239–40
• hevel 155
• Hezekiah, King 224
• High Priest 164, 166
• Highway 128
• Hildesheimer, Rabbi Esriel 223
• Hillel 122, 166, 199
• Hirsch, Rabbi Samson Raphael 208, 210
• History of the Jews (Johnson) 151
• Hitler, Adolf 182–3, 240
• Hobbes, Thomas 110
• Holocaust 84–5, 86, 103, 237, 241–2
  • and American Jews 234
  • and Christian guilt for 71
  • and the covenant 238–40
  • and Jewish identity 236
  • and Moses’ visions of future catastrophes 193
  • and science 65
• holy days, definition 130
• Holy See 99–100, 101, 103
• holy time 128, 129, 132, 137
• homelessness 201
• homogeneity 114
• homosexual consent 37–8
• homosexuality 51
• Honi the Circle-Drawer 212
• hope, and the prophets 66
• Hosea 149
• Hoshanot 153
• Hoshaya, Rabbi 219
• hubris 79, 115, 208
• Hughes, Robert 119
• human dignity 20, 34
• human spirit 143
• Hume, David 200
• Hungary 84

I

• ibn Aknin, Joseph 198
• ibn Verga, Solomon 183–4
• identity 114, 119, 187
  • Jewish 121–2, 146, 178, 233, 235, 236
  • Jewish and British 119–20
• ideology 83
• idolatry 120
• Iggeret ha-Shemad 226–8
• independence 27
• Independent Television Commission 129
  • the individual 18–19, 64, 67, 68, 108–9
  • and groups 72, 114, 118–19
• individual assimilation 232
• individualism 12, 19, 56, 63, 186
  • and the family 28, 57
• individual responsibility 220
• industrial development 68
• inequalities 17
• ingathering 192–3
• initiative, private 55
• Inquisition 183
• insecurity 150, 151
• instability 84
• integration 220
• intellectual freedom 67
• inter-connectedness 80
• interdependence 27
• interfaith cooperation 75, 78, 81
• interfaith relations 82
• intermarriage 118
• intervention 85–6
• The Invention of Childhood (Ariès) 216
• Iraq 192–3
• Isaac 98, 174–5, 177
  • and the Promised Land 180
• Isaac, Jules 103
• Isaiah 91, 120, 149, 190, 194, 202
  • 1: 4 228
  • 55: 6 92
  • and King Hezekiah 224
  • on nature 213
  • and peace 97
  • on the Sabbath 137
• Ishmael 97, 98, 105
• Ishmael, Rabbi 202
• Islam 121, 225, 226
• Israel 87, 173–4, 235–6
  • birth of 94–5
  • and democracy 112
  • and Diaspora Jewry 233–4
  • diplomatic relations with Holy See 99–100, 101, 103, 104
  • diverse population 192–3
  • and exodus from Egypt 180–1
  • and koach 91
  • and peace 88, 90, 98
  • Six Day War 240
  • and water 154
• ivri 173

J

• Jacob 88–9, 177–8, 180
• Jefferson, Thomas 139
• Jellyby, Mrs 26
• Jeremiah 49–50, 65, 66, 97, 183
  • 29: 7 115
  • on justice 157
• Jerusalem 164, 186, 189
• Jerusalem (Mendelssohn) 123
• Jethro 108
• Jewish day schools 220
• Jewish ethnicity 235
• Jewish identity 121–2, 146, 178, 233, 235, 236
  • and British 119–20
• Jewishness 235
• Jewish New Year 98, 156–61
• Jewish peoplehood 236
• Jewish schools 201
• Jezebel 228, 229
• Job 184, 221
  • book of 193, 208
• Jochanan ben Zakkai 185
• Johnson, Paul 44, 151
• Johnson, Samuel 28
• Jonah 167
• Joseph 39
• Josephus 45
• Joshua 89, 110
• journey 2–3
• Judaeo-Christian tradition 39
• Judah the Maccabee 190
• Judaism
  • calendar 190
  • and Catholicism 196
  • and collective responsibility 165–6
  • and covenant 48
  • and the environment 212–13
  • and freedom 46
  • on handicap 216–17
  • and Jewishness 235–6
  • and nature 153
  • and peace 87
  • pluralist 120
  • and political power 107
  • and reconciliation with Christianity 75–6
  • religion of time 129
  • and social ecology 80
  • and teachers 185–6
• Judeans 184–5
• judgement 37, 38, 41, 42
• judges 43
• Judische-Wissenschaft 231
• justice 43, 157
• juvenile crime 31, 32

K

• Kafka, Franz 188
• Kallen, Horace 118–19
• Karelitz, Rabbi Avraham 219
• karet 166
• Kiddush 135
• kings 111, 156
• Kings, book of
  • 8: 41–3 116
  • 9: 9–10 229
  • 19: 9–12 225
  • 19: 13–14 229
• Ki Tavo 88
• Ki Tetse 88
• Knox, John 179
• koach 91
• Koestler, Arthur 231–2, 235
• Kol Dodi Dofek (Soloveitchik) 222
• Kol Nidrei 162–3
• Kook, Rabbi Abraham 211
• Kovno ghetto 142–3

L

• labour 196–9
• labour relations 204
• Lamentations 157, 189, 190
• Language, Truth and Logic (Ayer) 62
• languages 66–7, 79–80, 120
• the Law, giving of 147, 148
• Lawley, Sue 118
• laws 44–54, 60, 109, 123
  • enforcement 34
  • and morality 13
  • of mourning 189–90
  • and wars 211
• Leach, Edmund 29
• leadership 111, 229, 230
• learning disabilities 214, 224
• lechaim 175
• Leeds Jewish Welfare Board 214–15
• legal positivism 48
• legal right 41
• Leibowitz, Yeshayahu 196
• Lekha dodi 133
• Levites 164, 185
• Leviticus
• 19: 14 218
• 19: 18 78
• 23: 15 145
• 23: 40 153
• 25: 14 203
  • 25: 23 209
  • 26: 34 209
• liberalism 27, 53
• Liberation Theology 180
• liberty 15, 34, 41, 46, 201
  • and law 49, 50
  • and rule of law 54
• On Liberty (Mill) 40–1, 46
• licence 34
• life, choosing 161, 175
• Life’s Dominion (Dworkin) 49
• linear time 145
• listening 136
• Living Dangerously (Graein) 28
• Livy 36
• local communities 34
• Locke, John 34, 60, 110
• Loewe, Rabbi Judah 122
• logical systems 130
• London 3–4
• London Weekend Television 127–8
• The Lonely Man of Faith (Soloveitchik) 215
• lost ten tribes 182
• love, and neighbours 78
• loyalty 158, 159
• luach 129–30
• lulav 153

M

• Macaulay, Thomas 36
• Maccabean uprising 186
• MacIntyre, Alasdair 62–3
• Mackie, J.L. 62
• Maimonides, Moses 90, 208, 213, 230
  • on anger 221
  • asked why bad things happen to good people 224
  • on divorce 123
  • on God 110
  • on human perfection 113
  • Iggeret ha-Shemad 226–8
  • on Isaiah 92
  • on Islam 121
  • on judging by appearances 219
  • on laws 109
  • on nature 211
  • on truth 122
  • on war and peace 89
  • on work 198
• Mainz massacre, 1096 159
• Malachi 120
• marginality 235
• the market 202–4, 205
• market economy 195
• Marks and Spencer 204
• maror 139
• marranos 163, 183, 225–8
• marriage 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, 35, 234
  • and American Jewry 232
  • and children 27
  • is particular 121
  • and Rabbi Akiva 164
  • and the Torah 148–9
• martyrdom 225, 227
• Marx, Karl 139, 195
• Masada 175
• Mattathias 190, 191
• matzah 139, 141
• maximalist conception of law 46–50
• Meir, Rabbi 187–8, 199
• The Melting Pot (Zangwill) 118
• memory 84, 85, 86, 131
• Mendelssohn, Moses 123
• middat chassidut 204
• middat Sedom 204
• Midgely, Mary 120
• midrash 90, 194
• Milan 150
• Mill, John Stuart 25, 27, 28, 42
  • On Liberty 40–1, 46
• minimalist conception of law 44–6, 52, 54
• Mishnah 49
• Mishneh Torah 221
• mishpat 43
• mitnagdim 159
• mitzvot 47
• mixed marriages 234
• Moab 217
• modernity 80
• Modin 190
• monarchy 108, 110, 111–12, 201
• monotheism, ethical 47–8
• Montefiore, Sir Moses 21
• moonlighting 204
• moral covenant 11
• morale 12
• moral freedom 67
• morality 12, 16–17, 20–1, 38–9, 62, 66–8
• and the covenant 110
• and faith 50
• and the family 28–9
• and gratification 24
• and law 13, 48, 51–4, 60
• and MacIntyre 63
• of personal relationships 26
  • and politics 18, 40
  • why it matters 19
• The Morality of Freedom (Raz) 117–18
• moral judgement 38–9, 42, 67–8
• moral language 62, 63
• Moral Man and Immoral Society (Niebuhr) 72
• moral relativism 14, 40
• moral responsibility 40
• moral right 41
• ‘Morals and the Criminal Law’ (Devlin) 51
• moral theory 62
• moral transmission 34
• Moroccan Jewry 225
• mortality 155
• Moses 85, 138–9, 157
  • on children 141
  • on choosing life 175
  • on the covenant 47, 110
  • on curses 93
  • in Egypt 186–7
  • and God 176, 178–9, 228
  • on judges 43
  • on law 48
  • as outsider 217
  • and Promised Land 180–1
  • and rain 153–4
  • on sin 35
  • as teacher 185
  • and visions of future catastrophes 192, 193
• mourning 189–90, 219–20
• multi-faith society 119
• murder 13
• Murray, Charles 4, 25

N

• Nahmanides 210
• Napoleon 118
• Nash, Ogden 83
• nationalism, right-wing 83
• natural law 48
• nature 153, 207–11, 212–13, 216
• Nazi Germany 71
• Nehemiah 185
• neighbours, love of 78
• Neilah 166–7
• nemesis 79
• neo-Nazism 83, 84
• Neusner, Jacob 42
• New Year 98, 156–61
• Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle) 62
• Niebuhr, Reinhold 72
• Nietzsche, Friedrich 38, 62, 153
• Ninth of Av 189
• Nissenbaum, Rabbi Isaac 191
• Noachide laws 121
• Noah 78–9, 121
• Nostra Aetate 100, 104
• Novak, Michael 38–9, 115, 195, 196
• Numbers 150
• Nuremburg trial 237

O

• obstinacy 158, 242
• offenders, young 28
• old age 216
• Omer 145
• one-parent families 23, 24, 25, 52
• Operation Ezra and Nehemiah 193
• Operation Moses 193
• Oral Torah 146
• Orthodox Judaism 236
• outmarriage 232, 234
• outsider 86, 188, 217

P

• Palestinians 90
• Pam, Rabbi Abraham 129–30
• parents 26, 29
• the particular 121
• Passmore, John 207, 209
• Passover/Pesach 101, 102, 138–44, 145, 201
• peace 89, 90, 95, 96, 97, 101
  • and gevurah 91
  • and Shabbat 133
• peace process, Middle East 5, 87, 88, 92, 98
• Peasants Revolt, German 179
• penitence 163
• Pentecost 145–9
• peoplehood 236
• persecution 226–7
• The Persistence of Faith (Sacks) 124
• personal organiser 129
• personal relationships
  • and the Enlightenment 65
  • and morality 26–7
• pessimism 66
• Pharisees 145–7, 197
• Pharoah 138
• Phillips, Melanie 26–7
• physical handicap 217
• Pius X, Pope 104
• Pius XII, Pope 103
• Plamenatz, John 124
• Plato 33, 37, 62
• pluralism 114, 117–24
• pogroms 83, 150
• political authority 55
• political correctness 42
• political education 136
• political structures 107–8, 109
• politics
  • and morality 18, 40
  • and rights 59
• Popper, Sir Karl 28, 231–2
• positivism 48
• poverty 4, 5, 56, 140, 200, 201
• power
  • corrupts 179
  • to the powerless 217
  • separation of 111
• Preda, Rabbi 223
• priesthood 111, 113
• priests 164, 219
• primogeniture 217
• The Principle of Duty (Selbourne) 59
• private initiative 55
• private time 130
• procedural justice 43
• Promised Land 180–1
• prophecy 113
• prophets 66, 92, 111, 228–30
  • definition 93
• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber) 195
• Protestants 234
• Proverbs, book of 133, 204, 227
• providence 194
• Psalms 33, 132–3, 212, 242
  • 29: 5, 9 77
  • 30: 8 94
  • 40: 12–18 94
  • 98: 6, 9 156
  • 199 47
• Ptolomies 190
• public good 129
• public time 130
• Puritan Revolution 179

Q

• questions, asking 142

R

• rabbinic Judaism 122, 200
• Rabin, Yitzhak 5, 87, 96, 97, 98
• Rachel 97, 182
• racial antisemitism 71
• racism 83, 84, 86
• Rackover, Yossel 184
• radio 128
• rain 153–4
• ram’s horn 98, 156, 158, 159, 161
• Raphael, Frederic 235
• Rashi 89, 90
• Rava 202
• Rawidowicz, Simon 231
• Raz, Joseph 117–18
• Reaganomics 18
• Rebekah 182
• reconciliation 91, 101, 105, 178
• redemption 92, 140, 143, 238
  • collective 166
• Reform Judaism 234, 236
• relationships
  • and the Enlightenment 65
  • and God 50
• relativism 40
• religion
  • aware of value of 74–5
  • and broadcasting 127–8
  • and conflict 72–3
  • and democracy 106–7, 112–13
  • and freedom 139
  • and fundamentalism 77–8
  • importance of 234
  • instrument of social cohesion 236
  • and Mendelssohn 123
  • and morality 17
  • and pluralism 114–15, 121
  • and time 129
  • and wars 71, 97
• Against Religion (Wilson) 71
• religious broadcasting 127–8
• religious Jews, tensions with secular Jews 236
• religious law 123
• religious leadership 229, 230
• religious liberty 122–3
• religious persecution 226–7
• religious truth 122
• remembering 84, 85
• Republic (Plato) 62
• respect, for the handicapped 218
• responsibility 40, 60, 200
  • collective 165–6
  • community 220–1
• rest 132, 134, 136
• revelation 107
• rights 11–12, 40, 52, 61
  • and conflict 59–60
  • against the family 27
• right-wing nationalism 83
• risk 98
• Roman Catholics 234
• Romans 45, 46, 178, 182, 185, 216
  • attacked Jerusalem 186, 189
• Rosh Hashanah 98, 156–61
• Rubinstein, Richard 239
• rule of law 43, 44, 49, 54
• Rushdie, Salman 77, 119
• Russia 71, 83
• Ruth 217
  • book of 53

S

• Sabbath/Shabbat 129, 130–1, 132–7, 140, 201, 209
• sabbatical years 209
• Sadducees 145, 146, 147, 197
• Samuel, on monarchy 201
• Sarah 97–8, 180, 182
• Schick, Maharam 223
• Schlesinger, Arthur 119
• schools 34, 201, 220
• science 28, 39–40, 65
  • and ecology 68
• Science of Judaism 231
• scientific determinism 40
• Second Temple 45, 145, 164, 182, 189
• sectarianism 115
• secular identity 235
• secularisation 107, 232
• secularism 178
• secular Jews 236
• Seder service 102
• Selbourne, David 59, 60
• Seleucids 190
• self-interest 195
• self-restraint 80, 91
• Seneca 134
• Shammai 122
• shared time 131, 135
• Shavuot 145–9
• Shaw, George Bernard 16
• Sherborne House 28
• Shimon bar Yohai, Rabbi 189, 197–8
• Shimon ben Elazar, Rabbi 196, 197, 218
• Shneur Zalman of Ladi, Rabbi 167
• Shoah 237, 238, 240, 241–2
  • see also Holocaust
• shofar 156
• shoplifting 31
• shoteh 218
• Sie, Marcus 204
• Silberman, Charles 232, 234
• silence 136–7
• Simcha of Dvinsk, Rabbi Meir 123
• Simhat Torah 76
• Sinai, Mount 107–8, 181, 242
• Sinai covenant 110
• Singer, Peter 216
• single-parent families 23, 24, 25, 52
• sins 35, 160, 226, 228, 239
  • and Day of Atonement 165, 167
  • definition 163
• Sisera 98
• Six Day War 240
• slavery 123, 136, 138, 139
• slaves 179
• Slonik, Rabbi Aaron 220
• Smith, Adam 23, 26, 195
• social bond 60
• social cohesion 236
• social ecology 36, 80
• social handicap 217
• social justice 179
• society 68
• Sodom 176, 204, 217
• Sofer, Rabbi Moses 220
• Solomon, King 37, 116
• Soloveitchik, Rabbi Joseph 95, 199, 215, 222
• Song of Songs 95, 164
• Songs of Praise 127
• Soviet Jewry 187
• Soviet Union 193
• Spain 150
• Spanish expulsion 183–4
• Spanish Jews 163
• Spartans 216
• special education 220–1, 223
• special needs 221
• Spheres of Justice (Walzer) 130
• spirit, human 143
• Spitting Image 14
• Stalinist Russia 71
  • the state 17–18, 19, 20, 25, 64
  • laws 123
  • minimalist 55–6
  • statutes, in the Bible 210
• Steiner, George 71, 194
• Steinschneider, Moritz 231
• Stephen, Leslie 52
• Stoic tradition 213
• stork 79
• strangers 78, 84, 102, 140–1
  • do not oppress 179
• strength 91
• subsidiarity 108
• suffering 222
• sukkah 82, 150, 151, 152
• Sukkot 145, 150–5, 201
• sumptuary laws 200
• Sunday Times 25
• Sunday trading 129
• Syria 190

T

• Tabernacles 145, 150–5, 201
• The Tablet 26–7
• Talmud 35, 222
• teachers 185–6
• Teitelbaum, Rabbi Joel 239
• television 127–9, 130
• Temples
  • First 182, 189
  • Second 45, 145, 164, 182, 189
• Ten Commandments 44, 108
• terrorist attacks 71
• teshuvah 163, 165
• Thatcher, Margaret 57
• Thatcherism 18, 57
• theft 31
• The Theory of the Moral Sentiments (Smith) 23
• time 129–31, 135, 145
• The Times 25, 101, 121
• Toler, Alvin 30
• tolerance 15
• Tolstoy, Leo 162
• Torah 47, 146, 148, 149, 209
  • on handicap 217, 219
• Tosafists 121
• trading, Sunday 129
• tragedy 168, 189
• transcendence 44
• trees 212
• tribalism 217
• tribes, lost ten 182
• truth 122
• Tu Bishvat 212
• ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ (Berlin) 124
• tyranny 49
• tzedakah 220
• tzedek 43

U

• ultra-religious Jews 241
• underclass 4
• under-privilege 56
• unemployment 56, 68
• United States
  • Great Seal 139
  • juvenile crime 32
  • and Reaganomics 18
• universal covenant 121
• universalism, and the Enlightenment 66
• universality 121
• unleavened bread 144

V

• vacations 130
• vandalism 57, 212
• van der Rohe, Mies 205
• Vatican 103, 104–5
• vidui 165
• Vienna 150
• violence 13–14, 57, 99
  • blasphemes the name of God 101
• virtue 6, 50, 205
• voluntary associations 34
• vows 162
• the vulnerable 140

W

• Walzer, Michael 130
• wars 71, 72–3, 89, 98, 191–2
  • and biblical laws 211
  • in Bosnia 82
  • ethnic 83, 86
  • and Jeremiah 97
  • and koach 91
• Warsaw ghetto uprising 191
• Wasserman, Rabbi Elchanan 241
• waste disposal 212
• water 154
• wealth 4, 55–6, 199–201
• The Wealth of Nations (Smith) 23
• Weber, Max 195, 207
• weddings 189
• weights and measures 202–3
• welfare 29, 221
• Wells, H.G. 16
• Werblowsky, Zvi 121
• White House Peace Ceremony 87–8, 96, 97
• Wiesel, Elie 237, 238
• Wilson, A.N. 71
• Wilson, James Q. 29
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig 29
• Wolfe, Tom 119
• Wolfenden Committee on Homosexuality 46, 51
• work 196–9
• Written Torah 146
  • see also Torah

X

• xenophobia 83, 84, 86

Y

• Yannai, Rabbi 88
• Yavneh 185
• Yemen 192
• Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim 71, 84
• Yitzhak, Rabbi Levi 134, 159–60, 161
• Yom Kippur 128, 156–7, 162–8
• young offenders 28
• Yugoslavia, former 83

Z

• zakhor 84
• Zangwill, Israel 118
• ziknah 216
• Zionism 101
• Zohar 149, 222
• Zoma, Ben 122
• Zunz, Leopold 231