In this episode of the
18Forty Podcast, we talk to Zohar Atkins, Rabbi and philosopher, about the role that philosophy – particularly rationalist philosophy – plays in Judaism.
Zohar is a profound and poetic thinker who tries to lead an examined Jewish life. Despite being a philosopher, he is an advocate of doing, not just thinking. He takes the idea of there being 70 faces of the Torah to heart, endorsing philosophical pluralism in relation to Judaism.
- How do philosophy and the Torah interact?
- Does the Torah espouse any one true philosophy, or is it open to multiple philosophical interpretations?
- What role in Jewish life can rationalism play, and what role should it play?
Tune in to hear a conversation about philosophy and Judaism.References:
References: Dialogues of Plato by Plato
The Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi
Slate Star Codex
LessWrong
@ZoharAtkinsZohar is the founder of
Etz Hasadeh, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and a popular public thinker. Zohar holds a Dphil in theology from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Zohar is the author of
An Ethical and Theological Appropriation of Heidegger’s Critique of Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018),
Nineveh (2019), a collection of poems, and thinks aloud about a daily question at
What is Called Thinking. Zohar writes a much-loved and deeply contemplative column on the Parsha at
Etz Hasadeh.
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