To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility

Overview

One of Judaism’s most distinctive and challenging ideas is its ethics of responsibility. We have been given the gift of freedom and we in turn have to honour and enhance the freedom of others. More than in any previous generation, we have been tempted to imagine that it is the individual’s needs which are the sole source of meaning. In To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Sacks argues that such preoccupation with oneself is a mistake. Ethics are concerned with the life we live together, and the goods we share only exist by virtue of being shared.

Index

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A

• Aaron 32, 63, 234
• Abagnale, Frank 219
• Abel 137-8, 195
• About Schmidt 226-7
• Abrabanel, Isaac 42, 49
• Abraham  12, 18-27 passim, 33, 46-52 passim, 65, 135, 141, 115-6, 153, 164, 197, 262, 268
• Abraham, Israel 49
• Absalom 229
• Abu Ramila, Yasmin 209
• Acton, Lord 144
• Adam 21, 52, 64, 76-7, 135-41, 145-6, 165, 178, 199, 240
• ‘Adele’ 223-4
• Aha bar Jacob, Rabbi 154
• A Juned, Akbar 210
• Akhan 86, 120
• Akiva, Rabbi 35-6, 80
• Alenu prayer 76 Alfonso V, King 49
• Alkabetz, Shlomo 74
• altruism 270
• Amos  27, 39, 118, 163, 172
• Anouilh, Jean  177-8
• Applebaum, David 210-11
• Arama, Isaac 121
• Aristotle 121,142,221, 244-5, 253
• asceticism 35
• Athens 144, 164
• Auschwitz 186, 200, 217-18
• averah 76
• awakening from above and from below149-52, 157
• Azikiri, Eliezer 74

B

• Baer Dov   239
• bar Ilai, Judah  41
• Barton, John   118, 163
• Bauer, Yehudah   123
• Baum, David 71-2, 82
• Beck, Aaron 184, 186
• Beethoven, Ludwig van 221-2, 243
• Begley, Louis 226
• ben Arach, Elazar 257-8
• ben Dosa, Hanina 35
• ben Hyrcanus, Eliezer 158, 257-8
• ben Shetach, Shimon 63
• ben Zakkai, Jochanan 257-8
• Benigni, Roberto 186
• bereavement 221
• Berger, Peter 165, 186
• Berlin, Sir Isaiah  106-8, 246
• Berlin, Zvi Yehudah  66-7, 243-4
• Bhatia, Lord  114
• Bible, Hebrew, structure of 155
• Bierce, Ambrose 133
• Bilhah 229
• Bloom, Allan 8
• Blunden, Edmund 57
• Boaz 52, 110
• Boston, Mass. 57
• Bromley-by-Bow Centre (3BC) 258-9
• Burke, Edmund 269
• Burns, Sue  215-16, 219, 224
• ‘butterfly effect’ 232-3, 236
• Byron, Lord 138

C

• Cain  64, 76-7, 137-41, 145-6, 163, 165, 178, 195
• Carlyle, Thomas   189
• Caro, Joseph 74
• Carter, Jimmy 207
• Carter, Stephen  44-5, l 02
• category-mistakes 242
• Chabad sect 184, 203-4
• chaos theory 232
• characrer traits and character formation 240-4
• charity 40-2, 50, 183; see also tzedakah
• Charles, Prince 109, 259
• Chassidic movement 255
• child sacrifice  24-5
• China 79
• Chopin, Frederic  222
• Churchill, Winston 235
• Coca-Cola (company) 259
• cognitive dissonance  265
• collective responsibility 85-8, 91, 114-20 passim, 141-2, 145
• Collingwood, R.G. 108
• Commentary (journal) 203
• complexity theory 232
• Comte, Auguste 194
• Confucius 269
• consumerization  8, 169
• contronyms 110
• Cordovero, Moses ben Jacob 74
• covenantal relationships 53-4, 87-8, 115, 125, 144, 152-4, 166-7, 222
• Crescas, Hasdai 194

D

• Daniel Pearl Foundation 210
• darkhei shalom 98-100, 108-9; see also ‘ways of peace’
• Darley, J.M. 253
• Darwin, Charles 169
• David, King 110, 179, 248, 252-3
• Dead Sea 41
• Dead Sea scrolls 101
• Dickens, Charles 126
• divorce 170
• Donne, John 125
• Dostai, Rabbi 110-1
• Dostoevsky, Fyodor 115-16, 162
• Drake, Sir Francis 81

E

• economics 53
• The Economist 182
• Einstein, Albert 269
• Eiseley, Loren 72, 266
• Eishyshok 207–8
• eivah principle I00
• Eliach, Yaffa 207
• Elijah 158-9, 235
• entropy 179
• environmental issues 7-8
• Esau J 77, 224, 227
• Essenes 77-8, 101
• Esther 141
• ethics 131, 137, 168-9, 246, 252, 258
  • as distinct from morality 51
  • in relation to religion 162-5, 171-2, 245
  • of responsibility 3, 6, 12, 72, 134, 183-4, 220, 270
• The Ethics of the Fathers 257-8
• Ettlinger, Jacob 66
• Eve 52, 64, 76-7, 135-40, 145, 178, 199
• exemplary conduct 63, 66
• Ezekiel 60-1, 90

F

• ‘face’, concept of 54
• faith 193, 199-200, 220, 224, 244, 268, 270
• festivals, religious 169-70, 232
• Feuerstein, Aaron 58
• Feuerstein, Mo 57
• Frankl, Victor 3, 175, 215-26 passim
• Freud, Sigmund 8, 25, 145, 169, 175, 181
• Fromm, Erich 137, 139
• Fukuyarma, Francis 108

G

• Gandhi, Mahatma 100, 170
• Gaon, Nissim J 23
• Gaon, Saadia 92
• Genovese, Kitty 253
• George, Henry 39
• Gerondi, Jonah ben Abraham 120
• Gibeonites 62
• Girard, René 139, 169
• Glendon, Mary Ann 183
• globalization 125
• Goeth, Amon 205
• Gorbachev, Mikhail 71
• Gottwald, Norman 40
• grace after meals 38
• Gray, John 107
• Greek myth 164
• Greek philosophy 267
• Greek tragedy 176-7
• The Guide for the Perplexed 4
• Gutenberg, Johannes 81

H

• Ha-am, Achad 169
• Haggadah, the 25
• Halberstam, Yekutiel 202
• Halevi, Judah 193
• Hanina ben Taradyon, Rabbi 122, 207
• happiness 6-7, 39, 221, 223, 269-270
• Hardman, Leslie 205
• Harris, Ansell 113-14
• Hasan, Prince 106
• Hayek, Friedrich 32, J 67-8
• Hayyim, Rabbi 5
• Hegel, G.W.F. 108
• Heine, Heinrich 158
• hekdesh, 48
• Herder, Johann 106
• Hertz, J.H. 57
• Hesse-Cassel 48-9
• hessed 45-56, 98
• heteronomy 164-5
• Hillel 35
• Hillesum, Etty 200
• Himmelfarb, Milton 266
• Hirsch, Samson Raphael 66, 76
• Hitler, Adolf 55, 138, 204
• Hobbes, Thomas 124
• Holdheim, Samuel 90
• Holocaust, the 10, 23, 27, 141, 165, 178, 181-2, 186, 202-7 passim, 217, 253, 266, 271
• Holocaust Commission 207
• Holocaust Museum, Washington 207
• ‘holywar’ 101
• hope 166, 186, 270
• Hosea 52
• hospitality 49
• hubris 27, 143, 177
• humour 186-7
• Hutner, Isaac 248-9

I

• ibn Abi Zimra, David 74
• ibn Adret, Solomon 104
• ibn Gabirol, Solomon 25
• ibn Shahin, Nissim ben Jacob 163
• ibn Tibbon, Samuel 4
• ibn Verga, Solomon 198-9
• Imber, Naftali Herz 222
• Isaac 145, 164, 227
• Isaiah 24, 27, 39, 47, 65, 77, 98, 100, 118, 172, 197, 252, 269-70
• Ishmael 27
• Israel, State of 94, 181, 222

J

• Jackson, Sir Michael 94
• Jacob 173, 177, 224, 227-30, 252, 255, 268
• Jaspers, Karl 123
• Jenner, Edward 81
• Jeremiah 12, 20, 39, 97, 102, 118, 159, 172, 197, 235, 252-3
• Jesner, Ari 209
• Jesner, Yoni 208-10
• Jethro 234
• Jewish Care 216
• Job, Book of 27, 66, 179, 189-93, 197-8, 221-2
• Job’s comforters 26, 190, 198, 221
• Johanan, Rabbi 36-7
• Jonah 117, 120-1, 235, 252
  • Book of 118
• Jonas, Hans 7
• Joseph 63, 119, 142, 227-30
• Josephus 77-8
• Joshua 62, 154, 158, 234
• Joshua, Rabbi 50
• Judah, Rabbi 87, 196
• justice, divine 199-200

K

• Kallen, Horace 106
• Kant, Immanuel 10, 105, 108, 138, 164-5, 262
• Kaufman, Walter 99
• Keats, John 21
• Kennedy, Robert 264, 270
• Kermode, Frank 178
• Kestenbaum, Sarah 45-6, 102, 231-2
• Kiddush ha-Shem see sanctification of God’s name
• kidnapping 209
• Kierkegaard, Søren 105, 216
• King, Martin Luther 100, 170, 269
• Kisharon 258
• Kook, Abraham lsaac 10, 113, 121-2
• Korczak, Janusz 69
• Kosovo 94
• Kotzk, Rebbe of 246

L

• Laban 227
• Lamech 140
• lamed-vovniks 11
• Laniado hospital 202-3
• Landes, David 185, 187
• Larkin, Philip 8
• Lasch, Christopher 265
• Latané, Bibb 253
• Leah 227-30, 255
• learned helplessness 185, 187
• Lehman, Ruth 258-9
• Levinas, Emmanuel 54, 187
• liberalism 107-8
• Lincoln, Abraham 100
• Lipschutz, Israel 81-2
• Locke, John 89, 124
• logotherapy 218, 221
• Lorenz, Edward 232
• Lot 19, 145, 163
• Lot’s wife 181
• Lovelock, James 8
• Luria, Isaac 74-8, 265

M

• Maimonides, Abraham 66, 241-3
• Maimonides, Moses 4, 30, 35-8 passim, 61-3, 104, 119-22, 141-2, 164-5, 183-4, 194, 231-3, 236, 239 47, 271
• Machiavelli, Niccolo 7
• Maine, Sir Henry 99
• Malachi 118
• Malden Mills 58
• Mandela, Nelson 170
• Margalit, Avishai 10, 51
• marriage 170
• Marx, Karl 8, 14, 17-21, 26, 35, 133, 145, 169
• Marxism 149
• Mawson, Andrew 258-9
• Meah Shearim 180
• Mecklenburg, Zvi Hirsch 40
• Mendel, Menachem 215
• Micah 99-100
• Michelangelo 92, 148, 249
• Miles, Jack 175-6
• Mill, John Stuart 10, 116-17
• della Mirandola, Pico 240-1
• miracles 149-50, 157
• Miriam 234
• mishpat 33, 52
• mitnagdim 255
• Moliere, Jean-Bapliste Poquelin 11
• Monabaz, King 39
• monotheism 167-8, 173-9, 187
• morality as distinct from ethics 51
• Moses 9, 22-3, 27, 32, 39, 52-5, 60-8, 86-7, 123, 142, 148-57, 178,185, 199, 207, 233-6, 247, 252-3, 266, 268
• Moses, Rabbi (of Coucy) 204
• mourning 221
• Murdoch, Iris 273
• myth 164

N

• Nahman, Rabbi 224
• Nahmanides 13, 119-20
• Naomi 110, 179
• Nathan, Rabbi 158-9
• nationhood, Jewish 92-4
• Nazism 113, 144, 187, 217, 219; see also Hitler Adolf; Holocaust, the
• nemesis 27, 177
• Niebuhr, H. Richard 144
• Niebuhr, Reinhold 220
• Nietzsche, Friedrich 21, 65, 138, 143, 181, 216
• Nissenbaum, Isaac 68
• Noah 12, 64, 125, 110-2, 145-6, 152-3
  • covenants of 51
• Noahicle laws 65, 101-2, 120-2

O

• Oedipus 25, 177
• optimism 166, 185
• Oral Law 157-9
• original sin 64
• original virtue 261
• orphans 18
• Oxfam 113
• Oz, Amoz 259-61

P

• parenthood 24-5, 156-7, 160, 201
• Park Hotel, Netanya 203
• Pascal, Blaise 269
• Paul 64
• Payne, Alexander 226
• peace, concepts of 98-9; see also ‘ways of peace’
• Pearl, Daniel 209-10
• Pearl, Judea 209-10
• penitential culture 179-80
• Peretz, J.L. 30
• Peretz, Y.L. 40
• Perlman, Yitzhak 222, 224
• ‘Peter’ 259
• Pharaoh’s daughter 163
• Pharisees 78
• Piaget, Jean 156
• Plato 21, 107, 155, 163-4, 167, 175, 221
• Platonism 134, 241
• politics 53, 107-8
  • of interests and of principle 124
• positive psychology 184-5
• positive reinforcement 257
• poverty 34-41 passim, 105
• Prisoner’s Dilemma 53
• prophecy as distinct from prediction 179
• psychotherapy 220

Q

• The Queen 109

R

• Rabbah bar Nahmani 157-8
• Rabin, Yitzhak 100
• Rabinovitch, Nahum 22
• Rachel 65, 227-30, 248
• Rahab 163
• ransom 49
• Rashi 26, 93, 229
• Rawls, John 107, 123
• Rebekah 52, 65
• Reiff, Philip 220
• Reines, Isaac 105
• repentance 179-80, 195
• resident aliens 101-4
• ‘Respect’ programme 109
• responsibility 7-8, 23, 28, 134-40, 144-5, 160, 182-4, 200, 270; see also collective responsibility; ethics of responsibility; social responsibil­ity
• Reuben 227-31, 236
• Reuchlin, Johannes 81
• rights 183
• Rilke, Rainer Maria 191
• Rodrigo, Joaquin 222
• role-models 59, 63, 65, 189, 209, 239, 242
• Roman Empire 91
• Roosevelt, Eleanor 219
• Roosevelt, Franklin D. 270
• Roosevelt, Theodore 270-1
• Rosh Hashanah 232
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 124, 167-8, 221
• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 71
• Ruskin John 148
• Russell, Bertrand 10
• Rustin, Lena 256-8
• Ruth 52, 110, 163
• Ryle, Gilbert 242

S

• Sabbath of Consolation 269
• Sabbath observance 169
• et-Sadat, Anwar 100
• Sadducees 77-8
• Safire, William 189
• sages, wisdom of 245-7
• saints and saintliness 245-7
• Salanter, Israel 238
• Samuel 108
• sanctification of God’s name 59-63, 66-8
• Sarah 18, 23, 47, 52, 65
• Saras, Leib 239
• Sartre, Jean-Paul 116, 136, 221
• Schneersohn, Menahem Mendel 122, 203-4, 254-6
• Schneidau, Herbert 14
• Sea of Galilee 41
• secular humanism 10
• Sefer Hassidim 120
• Seligman, Martin 184-7
• Sforno, Ovadiah 66
• Shakespeare, William 10, 14, 176, 191, 243
• ‘Sheila’ 258-9
• Sherborne House 182-3
• Shimon bar Yohai, Rabbi 84-5, 92-3, 246
• Shimon ben Judah, Rabbi 87
• shiva 221, 236
• Shulhan Aruch, the 48, 74
• simhah 5
• Sinai covenant 115, 120, 125, 151-4
• Smetana, Bedrich 222
• Smith, Adam 51, 53
• social contract 14-5
• social ethics 245
• social justice 32
• social responsibility 172
• social virtues 246
• Solomon, King 66
• Solomon, Rabbi 253
• Soloveitchik, Aaron 210
• Soloveitchik, Joseph 57, 71, 81-2, 180, 207, 241
• Spinoza, Benedict 89-90, 145, 194
• Stalin, Joseph 18
• stammering 257
• ‘statutes’, Jewish 170
• suicide bombings
• survivor guilt  205

T

• Tarfon, Rabbi 12
• technology, attitudes to 79-81
• Tennyson, Alfred 189
• terrorism 264-5
• Thomas, Dylan 236
• tikkun 220-1
• tikkun olam 72, 75-8, 81-2
• Tikvah help line 216
• Tineius Rufus 35-6
• Tolstoy, Leo 171-2
• Tov, Yom 93
• Tower of Babel 142-6, 165, 196
• tragedy 176-9
• transcendence 133
• Trilling, Lionel 253
• Turgel, Gena 205-6
• Turgel, Maurice 205
• Turing, Alan 186
• Twain, Mark 14
• tzedakah 32-42, 46, 50-2, 74-5, 167, 183-1

U

• UK Jewish Aid and International Development 113
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 94
• Urofsky, Melvin 40
• Uziel Ben-Zion, Rabbi 121-2

V

• Vital, Hayyim 74

W

• Warsaw ghetto 68-9
• ‘ways of peace’ 98-103, 108-9, 114
• Weber, Max 79
• widows 48
• Williams, Tennessee 98
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig 186, 193
• Wittgenstein, Paul 222
• Wolfe, Thomas 189
• Wordsworth, William 8, 253
• Written Law 157-8

Y

• Yael 163
• Yeats, W.B. 247, 273
• Yechiel of Pisa 49
• Yohanan, Rabbi 50, 157

Z

• Zalman, Shneur 82, 93, 204, 255
• Zarchi, Israel 260-1
• Zekariah 118
• Zephaniah 118
• Zeus 177
• Zevi, Shabbatai 78
• Zionism 77, 105
• Zusya, Rabbi 252