Zohar Atkins: Between Philosophy and Torah [Rationality 5/5]

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Zohar Atkins, Rabbi and philosopher, about the role that philosophy - particularly rationalist philosophy - plays in Judaism.

Zohar is a profound and poetic thinker who tries to lead an examined Jewish life. Despite being a philosopher, he is an advocate of doing, not just thinking. He takes the idea of there being 70 faces of the Torah to heart, endorsing philosophical pluralism in relation to Judaism.

- How do philosophy and the Torah interact?
- Does the Torah espouse any one true philosophy, or is it open to multiple philosophical interpretations?
- What role in Jewish life can rationalism play, and what role should it play?

Tune in to hear a conversation about philosophy and Judaism.

For more, visit https://18forty.org/rational/.

References:
Dialogues of Plato by Plato
https://www.amazon.com/Dialogues-Plato-Enriched-Classics/dp/1439169489
The Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi
https://www.amazon.com/Kuzari-Defense-Despised-Faith/dp/0765799707
https://slatestarcodex.com/
https://www.lesswrong.com/
https://twitter.com/ZoharAtkins?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Zohar is the founder of Etz Hasadeh, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and a popular public thinker. Zohar holds a Dphil in theology from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Zohar is the author of An Ethical and Theological Appropriation of Heidegger’s Critique of Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Nineveh (2019), a collection of poems, and thinks aloud about a daily question at What is Called Thinking. Zohar writes a much-loved and deeply contemplative column on the Parsha at Etz Hasadeh.

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