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This book explores how modern religious thought and religious Zionism have addressed the profound question of evil, with a particular focus on the Holocaust. It delves into the theological and philosophical challenges posed by absolute, undeniable, and inexplicable primal evil. The awareness of this primal evil serves as the foundation connecting the chapters, which trace the perspectives of influential thinkers such as Rabbis Zvi Yehuda Kook, Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, and Eliezer Berkowitz, as well as figures like Rabbi David Hartman and Eliezer Goldman.
Through a combination of philosophical and theological inquiry alongside historical and conceptual analysis, the book creates a rich mosaic of religious thought in the modern era. It also examines the responses of leaders and activists to the enduring question of evil in the shadow of Auschwitz.
Avi Sagi is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Dov Schwartz, is Chair of the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University in Israel
Both are Senior Researchers at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.
1. Introduction
2. On Primal Evil
3. Consciousness of the Holocaust in Religious Zionism in Eretz Israel
4. From a Speculative Perspective to a Normative Commitment
5. The Road from Theology to Experience
6. God’s Goodness and the Disenchanted Believer
7. Secularized Religiosity: Second and Third Generation Holocaust Narrations in Religious Zionism
8. Epilogue
References