Leon R. Kass is Professor Emeritus in the College and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and Scholar Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute. A physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, he served in 2001-2005 as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. His books include The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis.
This week, Kass looks at what the ten plagues of Egypt reveal about the God who metes them out.
This week, we look at the religious, political, and cultural matrix out of which Israel emerges, and the human alternative against which Israel will be defined.
Read along with one of our time’s great readers of the Bible as he works his way through the book of Exodus.
The author of our April essay joins us to talk about how to read the book of Exodus, how the Israelites became a people, and plenty more.
He is still full of hope, and so—in replying to those who would misunderstand me and my method of reading the Bible—am I.
There’s a great deal more at stake in Exodus than getting the slaves out of Egypt. What might it be?
Beyond the distinctive insights offered by each respondent, the overall result is fascinating, not least because the four responses wind up unintentionally but profoundly disagreeing with one another.
The most polished writing and
sharpest analysis in the Jewish world.