The Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod, who died last Thursday, was an original thinker who argued that at the heart of Judaism lies God’s passionate and undying love for the Jewish people. Meir Soloveichik explains his central ideas, and contrasts them to those of other major Jewish philosophers (2009):
Wyschogrod argues that Judaism concerns not a philosophical doctrine but rather God’s unique and preferential love for the flesh-and-blood descendants of Abraham. The election of the Jewish people is the result of God’s falling in love with Abraham and founding a family with him. And, out of passionate love for Abraham, God continues to dwell among the Jewish people. [Moses] Maimonides, in Wyschogrod’s account, deviated from the biblical view to accommodate Aristotle’s philosophy.
Along the way, Maimonides also attempted to banish all anthropomorphism from Judaism. An entire tradition of Jewish rationalism has followed Maimonides in this and has applied it to the concept of Israel’s election. Thus many German Jewish thinkers, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox, see Israel’s election as symbolic of God’s equal love for all of humanity—for surely a good God would not violate Kant’s categorical imperative. The result is the loss of any reason for the election of Israel, a foundational idea of Judaism. The biblical insistence on God’s indwelling in the living Jewish people, Wyschogrod observes, requires us to believe that God is present in the physical people of Israel.
Read more on First Things: http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/11/gods-first-love-the-theology-of-michael-wyschogrod