What does Judaism say about love, and why do so many people – Jews included – seem to think that love is a “Christian idea”? How can Judaism’s teachings on love transform our lives and the lives of our families, communities, and the broader world?
Rabbi Shai Held explains that even Jews sometimes mistakenly think that Judaism is rooted exclusively in law or justice, when actually love is at the center of Jewish theology, spirituality, and ethics. A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held, one of the most important Jewish thinkers in America today, recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. Ambitious and revelatory, Judaism Is About Love illuminates the true essence of Judaism – an act of restoration from within.