Who Are the Jews—and Who Can We Become?

Hartman (Putting God Second), president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, asserts in this ambitious outing that “the story the Jewish people tell ourselves about ourselves is in need of a revision,” and calls on “wide swathes of Jews to listen, discuss, and retell” it. To jump-start such conversations, Hartman outlines a conceptual framework that understands Judaism as both a “modality of being, an identity Jews affirm independent of what we do,” which is based on God’s unconditional covenant in Genesis, and “a modality of becoming, a system of beliefs” that challenges “a Jew [to] become more,” which is grounded in how God requires the Jewish people to uphold ritual practices in exchange for protection in Exodus. Through these lenses, Hartman wrestles with a host of hot-button issues, such as the limits of loyalty to other Jews: for example, while the Genesis model supports vigorous defense of fellow tribespeople, Hartman examines a 2016 incident in which an Israeli soldier shot and killed a wounded Palestinian terrorist, contending that “unconditional loyalty to Jews and no one else” can “breed moral mediocrity and even depravity.” Hartman adroitly argues that “as long as the story we tell ourselves about ourselves embraces and strengthens the complexity of our identities... we provide ourselves with the tools to expand our moral aperture,” and invites essential debates about Judaism’s past, present, and future. This impresses. (Nov.)