Plato
Is Judah Halevi’s Kuzari Racist?Wednesday, February 13, 2013 by Ari Ackerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A recent attempt to redeem the Kuzari from the charge of ethnocentrism raises the question as to whether Jewish texts should be reinterpreted to accord with modern sensibilities.
Spinoza in ShtreimelsTuesday, September 4, 2012 by Carlos Fraenkel | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Philosophy professor Carlos Fraenkel wrote that “the cultural relativism that often underlies Western multicultural agendas [is] a much greater obstacle to a culture of debate than religion.” Today, in an exclusive preview from the Jewish Review of Books, Fraenkel relates how his theory fared among a group of Hasidim.
Editors' Picks
Philo's Esoteric Torah Lawrence H. Schiffman, LawrenceSchiffman.com. Influenced by the Hellenistic idea of the separation between body and soul, Philo was the first Jewish thinker to ascribe "outer" and "inner" rationales to the commandments—but by no means the last.
Plato and the Haggadah Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Cardozo Academy. In the Phaedrus, Plato bemoans the inadequacy of the written word. So too, on Seder night, it is not sufficient for us to read the Haggadah—we must hear it.