Jewish Political Tradition

Volume 1: Authority

Walzer Michael, Lorberbaum Menachem, Zohar Noam J., Lorberbaum Yair

This text launches a four-volume collaborative work exploring the political thought of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present. The texts and commentaries in Volume I address the basic question of who ought to rule the community. The contributors – eminent philosophers, lawyers, political theorists, and other scholars working in different fields of Jewish studies – discuss the authority of God, the claims of kings, priests, prophets, rabbis, lay leaders and gentile rulers during the years of the exile, and issues of authority in the modern state of Israel.

About the Author

Michael Walzer is UPS Foundation Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Menachem Lorberbaum is senior lecturer in the department of Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University.

Noam J. Zohar is senior lecturer in the department of philosophy at Bar Ilan University.

Ari Ackerman is lecturer in the school of education at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem. All four editors are research fellows at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Reviews

"A vast and important resource which will be consulted for years to come by all interested in any aspect of Judaism and Jewish history" – Ira Robinson, Journal of Religion & Culture

"The series to which this book belongs is unprecedented... Every one of the chapters enacts a debate that should have a living resonance, not just for Jews, although obviously for them, but for everyone with a historical sense and a political conscience" – Hilary Putnam, Boston Review

Back to the list of books