המאמר פורש בקצרה את תולדות גילוי והוצאתו של החיבור, את עיקרי ההווי של המאירי וחוגו. הוא נכנס יוצר... more המאמר פורש בקצרה את תולדות גילוי והוצאתו של החיבור, את עיקרי ההווי של המאירי וחוגו. הוא נכנס יוצר לעומק בתורת התשובה של המאירי, בעיקר על היבטיה התיאולוגיים ומוסריים, מתוך דו-שיח עם דיונים ושאלות של ימינו. המאמר יצא לאור בספר זכרון ליוסקה אחיטוב ז"ל, חבר קיבוץ עין צורים, הוגה ומורה בחסד ומגדלור מוסרי לדורות של תלמידים וחברים.
The massive controversies rocking Israel in 2023 in which Religious Zionism plays a crucial role ... more The massive controversies rocking Israel in 2023 in which Religious Zionism plays a crucial role arise both from Israel's distinctive history as well as from liberalism's crises around the globe. This essay seeks to explore dimensions of that crucial question.
Exploration of the historical context and contemporary resonances of a major 13th century rabbini... more Exploration of the historical context and contemporary resonances of a major 13th century rabbinic jurist and philosophe, Menachem Ha-Meiri of Provence, and in particular his treatise on repentance, recently republished out of manuscript.
The essay places the ICJ opinion in a broader legal and political context and argues that the fai... more The essay places the ICJ opinion in a broader legal and political context and argues that the failure to distinguish between democratic and non-democratic regimes characterizing the ICJ advisory opinion reflects broader trends with potentially ruinous consequences for the enterprise of human rights promotion itself. The ICJ opinion's willful ignoring of Israel's democratic character yielded a tendentious and inconsistent ruling. By contrast the Israel High Court of Justice's decision invalidating portions of Israel's security wall reflects a healthy understanding of a democracy's needs and limitations, as reflected in that court's proportionality standard of review. The ICJ willingly blurred crucial distinctions between democratic regimes that genuinely adhere, however imperfectly, to principles of human rights in their own governance, and those states and actors that do not, a distinction made all the more imperative by the events of September 11. The judici...
מאמר שנכתב ליאהרצייט העשירי של הרב עמיטל, ראש ישיבת הר עציון, הבודק את שורשי תורתו הייחודית בתורה... more מאמר שנכתב ליאהרצייט העשירי של הרב עמיטל, ראש ישיבת הר עציון, הבודק את שורשי תורתו הייחודית בתורה שלמד מרבותיו בהונגריה
Reflections on the sources of this remarkable figure's distinctive mix of faithfulness and indepe... more Reflections on the sources of this remarkable figure's distinctive mix of faithfulness and independence.
Reflections on Coronavirus Social Distancing as a practice reflecting the Jewish idea of "tsniut"... more Reflections on Coronavirus Social Distancing as a practice reflecting the Jewish idea of "tsniut" inwaradness and humility, as an ethical ideal and form of solidarity.
What I am presenting to you here today is very much a working paper, an admittedly speculative at... more What I am presenting to you here today is very much a working paper, an admittedly speculative attempt to try and articulate a few ideas, part history, part sociology, analysis, part theology, an attempt to think with and create a dialogue of sorts between two theorists of modernity, one a sociologist, Shmuel Noah Eisesnstadt, the other a theologian, Abraham Isaac Kook, both deeply engaged with the history of Israel and Zionism; one a chief academic explainer of Israeli and indeed world history, the other a mystic and theologian, without whom, the last decades of Israeli history
This essay argues that the multiple 70th anniversaries of 1948-2018 - Universal Declaration of Hu... more This essay argues that the multiple 70th anniversaries of 1948-2018 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Genocide Convention, declaration of the State of Israel Israel, GATT, Berlin Airlift, US Army desegregation. To me, they're a lens, or fulcrum, for understanding multiple dimensions of the postwar liberal order was as well as its internal tensions and conceptual errors. It suggests that this also contribute to the rethinking of the liberal international order in order to help it survive its current crisis.
המאמר פורש בקצרה את תולדות גילוי והוצאתו של החיבור, את עיקרי ההווי של המאירי וחוגו. הוא נכנס יוצר... more המאמר פורש בקצרה את תולדות גילוי והוצאתו של החיבור, את עיקרי ההווי של המאירי וחוגו. הוא נכנס יוצר לעומק בתורת התשובה של המאירי, בעיקר על היבטיה התיאולוגיים ומוסריים, מתוך דו-שיח עם דיונים ושאלות של ימינו. המאמר יצא לאור בספר זכרון ליוסקה אחיטוב ז"ל, חבר קיבוץ עין צורים, הוגה ומורה בחסד ומגדלור מוסרי לדורות של תלמידים וחברים.
The massive controversies rocking Israel in 2023 in which Religious Zionism plays a crucial role ... more The massive controversies rocking Israel in 2023 in which Religious Zionism plays a crucial role arise both from Israel's distinctive history as well as from liberalism's crises around the globe. This essay seeks to explore dimensions of that crucial question.
Exploration of the historical context and contemporary resonances of a major 13th century rabbini... more Exploration of the historical context and contemporary resonances of a major 13th century rabbinic jurist and philosophe, Menachem Ha-Meiri of Provence, and in particular his treatise on repentance, recently republished out of manuscript.
The essay places the ICJ opinion in a broader legal and political context and argues that the fai... more The essay places the ICJ opinion in a broader legal and political context and argues that the failure to distinguish between democratic and non-democratic regimes characterizing the ICJ advisory opinion reflects broader trends with potentially ruinous consequences for the enterprise of human rights promotion itself. The ICJ opinion's willful ignoring of Israel's democratic character yielded a tendentious and inconsistent ruling. By contrast the Israel High Court of Justice's decision invalidating portions of Israel's security wall reflects a healthy understanding of a democracy's needs and limitations, as reflected in that court's proportionality standard of review. The ICJ willingly blurred crucial distinctions between democratic regimes that genuinely adhere, however imperfectly, to principles of human rights in their own governance, and those states and actors that do not, a distinction made all the more imperative by the events of September 11. The judici...
מאמר שנכתב ליאהרצייט העשירי של הרב עמיטל, ראש ישיבת הר עציון, הבודק את שורשי תורתו הייחודית בתורה... more מאמר שנכתב ליאהרצייט העשירי של הרב עמיטל, ראש ישיבת הר עציון, הבודק את שורשי תורתו הייחודית בתורה שלמד מרבותיו בהונגריה
Reflections on the sources of this remarkable figure's distinctive mix of faithfulness and indepe... more Reflections on the sources of this remarkable figure's distinctive mix of faithfulness and independence.
Reflections on Coronavirus Social Distancing as a practice reflecting the Jewish idea of "tsniut"... more Reflections on Coronavirus Social Distancing as a practice reflecting the Jewish idea of "tsniut" inwaradness and humility, as an ethical ideal and form of solidarity.
What I am presenting to you here today is very much a working paper, an admittedly speculative at... more What I am presenting to you here today is very much a working paper, an admittedly speculative attempt to try and articulate a few ideas, part history, part sociology, analysis, part theology, an attempt to think with and create a dialogue of sorts between two theorists of modernity, one a sociologist, Shmuel Noah Eisesnstadt, the other a theologian, Abraham Isaac Kook, both deeply engaged with the history of Israel and Zionism; one a chief academic explainer of Israeli and indeed world history, the other a mystic and theologian, without whom, the last decades of Israeli history
This essay argues that the multiple 70th anniversaries of 1948-2018 - Universal Declaration of Hu... more This essay argues that the multiple 70th anniversaries of 1948-2018 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Genocide Convention, declaration of the State of Israel Israel, GATT, Berlin Airlift, US Army desegregation. To me, they're a lens, or fulcrum, for understanding multiple dimensions of the postwar liberal order was as well as its internal tensions and conceptual errors. It suggests that this also contribute to the rethinking of the liberal international order in order to help it survive its current crisis.
A contemporaneous assessment and critique of some of the uses of Holocaust imagery and themes Ame... more A contemporaneous assessment and critique of some of the uses of Holocaust imagery and themes American literature of the 1970s as the Holocaust as a defining event was coming into public view.
An early study of representations of Jews and Judaism in British literature a the turn of the 20t... more An early study of representations of Jews and Judaism in British literature a the turn of the 20th century. The overall picture is best characterized as ambivalence - Jews were becoming more recognizably human and their symbolic function was changing.
This article, an early intervention in emerging discussions of Jewish-American literature, argues... more This article, an early intervention in emerging discussions of Jewish-American literature, argues for distinctively Jewish dimensions in 20th century American literature, both in terms of subject matter and in terms of form (including an affirmation of language and meaning in resistance to Hemingway et al).
An early assessment of the shift in American culture from the ideal of the melting pot towards cu... more An early assessment of the shift in American culture from the ideal of the melting pot towards cultural pluralism, as reflected in American Jewish literature from the 1920s through the 1970s.
A pioneering study of the stirrings of the modern Hebraist movement in the United States, at the ... more A pioneering study of the stirrings of the modern Hebraist movement in the United States, at the turn of the 20th century,
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Papers by Yehudah Mirsky
המאמר יצא לאור בספר זכרון ליוסקה אחיטוב ז"ל, חבר קיבוץ עין צורים, הוגה ומורה בחסד ומגדלור מוסרי לדורות של תלמידים וחברים.
המאמר יצא לאור בספר זכרון ליוסקה אחיטוב ז"ל, חבר קיבוץ עין צורים, הוגה ומורה בחסד ומגדלור מוסרי לדורות של תלמידים וחברים.