“No Jewish thinker has had a greater impact on the American Jewish Community in the last two decades than Irving (Yitz) Greenberg.” - Professor Steven T. Katz

Rabbi Greenberg has had a long and notable career in the service of the Jewish people.  He received his smicha, ordination, in 1953 and has a masters and PhD in American History from Harvard. He has served in numerous rabbinic and academic positions. Together with Elie Wiesel, he founded CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He also served as founding president of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation which created such programs  as Birthright Israel and the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education. When Elie Wiesel served as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, Rabbi Greenberg served as its (Executive) Director. He is a leading Jewish thinker, the author of five books, and has written extensively on post-Holocaust Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, pluralism, and the ethics of Jewish power. He is married to the Orthodox Jewish feminist pioneer and writer, Blu Greenberg.

His latest book, The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism, gives people direct access to the big ideas of Judaism in a way that's grounded in tradition, yet fully accessible. It offers a vision of Jewish law and theology that affirms life, dignity, and human partnership with God.

In our conversation, we discuss Rabbi Greenberg’s unusual path to the rabbinate, how he sees the messianic intent of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, and how you can translate his idea of maximizing life into everyday actions.

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg’s Five Books:

Masechet Megillah: a tractate of Talmud

The works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Halakhic Man by Joseph B. Soloveitchik 

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

The Art of Diplomacy by Stuart E. Eizenstat

The Triumph of Life: a Narrative Theology of Judaism by Rabbi Yitz Greenberg

Other Episodes about Jewish Ethics & Spirituality:

- Rabbi Sharon Brous on Working to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World 

- Ilana Kurshan on Books as Blueprints for Life

- Sarah Hurwitz on Reclaiming Our Jewish Story

- Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on Finding Yourself in the Story