The Veracity of Torah

Abstract

Eight decades ago, the Jewish people underwent genocide in Europe. This apocalyptic event, was followed almost immediately by astonishing Jewish political and theological resurrection and renewal. This unique book ponders the tumultuous vicissitudes of the modern Jewish condition. Part memoir, part scholarship, and part theological conjectures, the book posits that to be a modern Jew entails constantly oscillating between seemingly disparate and contradictory polarities such as logos and revelation, worldliness and eternity, tradition and modernity, continuity and change. To be a modern Jew, postulates the author, is both fate and destiny, historicity and vocationalism. The Jewish saga, argues Rabbi Dr. Tal Sessler, is emblematic of the human saga writ large, inasmuch as all of us are, in the words of Abraham, "residents and temporary dwellers" in this world. Despite the hitherto unrivaled mastery and dominion which humanity achieved in our epoch over the tangible and the concrete, man remains finite and ephemeral, and so are his victories. The song of the soul however, is perpetual and everlasting. For it is an echo of eternity, a sacred murmur, a glimmer of our untarnished inner core, our innermost subliminal longings.

REVIEWS and WORDS OF PRAISE

Rabbi Tal Sessler is an extraordinary combination of real soulfulness and great intellect.
--Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

This beautiful book is a combination of erudition and intimacy--a companion that teaches and inspires, perfect for our challenging age.
--Rabbi David Wolpe

About the Author

Rabbi Dr. Tal Sessler teaches Jewish Philosophy at the Academy for Jewish Religion in California. He is also the Senior Rabbi of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel. This is his fourth book. His previous books include Levinas and Camus: Humanism for the 21st Century,  and Leibowitz and Levinas: Between Judaism and Universalism.