Rabbi Arthur Green is 80 years old (ad me'ah ve-essrim shana!) and is still going strong. As one of the most influential religious thinkers in the twentieth and twenty-first century, he has been particularly prolific in the last ten to twenty years, and his Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love is a reflection of this. Read this book, and you will see his over fifty years of Jewish engagement at work, presented in new and reflective ways.
As a neo-Hasidic proponent, it was interesting for me to read his experience visiting the graves of Hasidic masters in Ukraine. He is distinctly uncomfortable with the practice of praying in saint’s tombs, although he is obviously taken with visiting the cradle of Hasidism. This essay, I believe, shows the fault line that run through Rabbi Green: the skeptical academic and the religious devotee. There is nothing wrong having these often opposing sides. In Rabbi Green’s case, we can read how fruitful this divide is in his capable hands.
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