Word: hartman
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...place in Jerusalem where sanity reigns, David Hartman fights for the soul of Israel. In a single question he connects the future of his nation to the matter that haunts modern Judaism: "How can we educate our children to imitate God's love for all his creatures and yet deny national dignity to an entire people?" To many outside Israel, the answer is self-evident: it cannot be done. Inside Israel, however, elemental passions are unleashed by Hartman's question, in part because the Bible teaches that only one son receives the paternal blessing; in part because the other...
...nation where state and religion are often indistinguishable, Hartman's question transcends academic inquiry. And because it is David Hartman who asks it, attention is paid. For those who recoil from the ultra-orthodoxy that has captured so much of their country's politics, Hartman is perhaps Israel's paramount religious philosopher. For these Jews, Hartman is a rebbe, a particularly wise teacher. The measure of his impact is that right-wing scholars are truly frightened by his erudition. Most refuse even to discuss him. One who does, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, nevertheless only murmurs cryptically, "Millenniums can pass before...
Besides writing and lecturing, Hartman directs an advanced institute for Judaic scholarship, where -- rare for Israel -- orthodox and secular thinkers study together in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Appended to the institute is a high school, an expression of Hartman's intention to transform Israeli religious thought from the bottom up. The students there insist (not unlike John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the Blues Brothers) they are on a mission from God. "At most places religious education is authoritarian," one 17-year-old said recently. "Here we are encouraged to think for ourselves. When we graduate we will...
Most days Hartman is in the thick of it. Invariably dressed in a windbreaker and running shoes, he prowls the classrooms eager for combat. Heated debate is the norm at Hartman's place. Eavesdrop long enough and you will likely hear an eclectic collection of world-class brains clinch philosophical arguments by telling one another they're "full...
...think they're pursuing a policy that's beenannounced, and that's what we want to see," saidOverseer Arthur A. Hartman...