The Genius Of Judaism

From Worldrenowned Public Intellectual Bernardhenri Lvy Comes An Incisive And Provocative Look At The Heart Of Judaism.A Smart, Revealing, And Essential Book For Our Times.The Washington Postfor More Than Four Decades, Bernardhenri Lvy Has Been A Singular Figure On The World Stageone Of The Great Moral Voices Of Our Time. Now Europe'S Foremost Philosopher And Activist Confronts His Spiritual Roots And The Religion That Has Always Inspired And Shaped Himbut That He Has Never Fully Reckoned With.The Genius Of Judaism Is A Breathtaking New Vision And Understanding Of What It Means To Be A Jew, A Vision Quite Different From The One Were Used To. It Is Rooted In The Talmudic Traditions Of Argument And Conflict, Rather Than Biblical Commandments, Borne Out In Struggle And Study, Not In Blind Observance. At The Very Heart Of The Matter Is An Obligation To The Other, To The Dispossessed, And To The Forgotten, An Obligation That, As Lvy Vividly Recounts, He Has Sought To Embody Over Decades Of Championing Lost Causes, From Bosnia To Africas Forgotten Wars, From Libya To The Kurdish Peshmergas Desperate Fight Against The Islamic State, A Battle Raging As We Speak. Lvy Offers A Fresh, Surprising Critique Of A New And Stealthy Form Of Antisemitism On The Rise As Well As A Provocative Defense Of Israel From The Left. He Reveals The Overlooked Jewish Roots Of Western Democratic Ideals And Confronts The Current Islamist Threat While Intellectually Dismantling It. Jews Are Not A Chosen People, Lvy Explains, But A Treasure Whose Spirit Must Continue To Inform Moral Thinking And Courage Today.Lvys Most Passionate Book, And In Many Ways His Most Personal, The Genius Of Judaism Is A Great, Profound, And Hypnotic Intellectual Reckoningindeed A Call To Armsby One Of The Keenest And Most Insightful Writers In The World.Praise For The Genius Of Judaismin The Genius Of Judaism, Lvy Elaborates On His Credo By Rebutting The Pernicious And False Logic Behind Current Antisemitism And Defends Israel As The Worlds Most Successful Multiethnic Democracy Created From Scratch. Lvy Also Makes The Case For Frances Jews Being Integral To The Establishment Of The French Nation, The French Language, And French Literature. And Last, But Certainly Not Least, He Presents A Striking Interpretation Of The Book Of Jonah. . . . A Tour De Force.Forbesardent . . . Lvys Message Is Essentially Uplifting: That The Brilliant Scholars Of Judaism, The Authors Of The Talmud, Provide Elucidation Into The Great Questions That Have Stirred Humanity Since The Dawn Of Time. . . . A Philosophical Celebration Of Judaism.Kirkus Reviewslvy (Left In Dark Times), A Prominent French Journalist And Politically Engaged Philosopher, Turns His Observations Inward Here, Pondering The Teachings Of Judaism And The Role They Have Played In Contemporary European History As Well As In His Own Life And Intellectual Inquiry. . . . [Lvys] Musings On The Meaning Of The Story Of Jonah And The Relevance Of Symbolic Ninevahs In Our Time Are Both Original And Poetic. . . . A Welcome Addition To His Oeuvre.Publishers Weekly