God, Man and History. By Eliezer Berkovits

God, Man and History represents the first volume in a series of reissues of the works of Eliezer Berkovits, published by Shalem Press under the aegis of the Eliezer Berkovits Institute of Jewish Thought at the Shalem Center.

Of all of Berkovits’ work, God, Man and History may be regarded as the keystone. It examines the underpinnings of Judaism as a whole, from theology to law to the meaning of Jewish nationhood. In writing God, Man and History, Berkovits undertook not merely a meditation on, nor an exploration of, a specific facet of the Jewish religion. Instead, he sought to offer a comprehensive construction of Judaism.

This construction begins with first principles and then proceeds, on the basis of arguments grounded in the classical Jewish sources, to examine the foundations of the major spheres of Judaism, while at the same time placing itself in the contradistinction to the central themes of modern thought. For this reason alone, it is worthy of being placed among the most important works of Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century.

Author biography:

A theologian, philosopher, communal rabbi, and teacher, Eliezer Berkovits was one of the most significant and outstanding Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. His thought crosses denominational boundaries and stakes out a bold framework for Judaism. Berkovits’ approach to texts, tradition, and Jewish philosophy serves as a guide for a revival of Jewish thought capable of addressing the challenges facing Jews in Israel and around the world in our time.
Berkovits was born in Romania in 1908 and received his rabbinical and philosophical training in the 1930s at the famous Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Berlin. After escaping Germany in 1938, Berkovits served as a communal rabbi in Leeds, Sydney, and Boston before assuming the chair of the philosophy department at Chicago’s Hebrew Theological College in 1958. He taught philosophy until 1975, when he moved to Israel, where he concentrated on writing until his death in 1992.

David Hazony is Editor-in-chief of Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation, a journal of Jewish history, politics, and philosophy published by the Shalem Center. He is also the editor of Essential Essays on Judaism by Eliezer Berkovits (Shalem Press, 2002). Hazony received his M.A. at Yeshiva University and is currently working on his PhD in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children.

Paperback, 202 pp