Torah Trumps Life
Reflections on Uncivil Religion and Haredi Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16901736 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zachary Braiterman (Syracuse University, corresponding author), Zachary J Braiterman |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 946 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel14070946 |
| OpenAlex | W4385201280 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
As if by design, crisis reveals basic structural fault lines. In the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, non-Haredi Jews expressed surprise and even outrage about the ultra-orthodox Haredi response to the pandemic. It was not understood how large-scale violations of public health protocols comported with the legal-halakhic principle of Pikuaḥ Nefesh (saving human life). In this essay, I explore Hasidic response to COVID-19 as reported in the secular and Haredi press and in emergent social science literature about this crisis. I place Haredi response to crisis in relation to the clash between two sets of values: the value of saving human life and the value of intensive Talmud study (talmud Torah) and ritual-communal practice. In what Robert Cover called a paideic nomos, there are more important things than human life. What we see already in the Babylonian Talmud is the profound ambiguity of paideic norms vis-à-vis the larger public good
Blasphemy · Judaism · Political science · Sociology · Surprise · Talmud · Theology · Torah · Yesterday · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |