In the 19th and 20th centuries, Jewish philosophy began to take on a relatively new question: what is the purpose of the numerous commandments that God gave to Israel, and of the system of civil and ritual law known as halakhah? The question isn’t about the reasons for particular commandments, but for the commandments in general. More specifically, Jewish thinkers tried to determine whether halakhah should be considered as separate from ethics, intrinsically ethical, or something else entirely. Yonatan Brafman discusses the origins of this inquiry with J.J. Kimche, and the very different answers provided by two 20th-century figures: the Romanian-born rabbi Eliezer Berkovits and the eccentric and controversial Israeli public intellectual Yeshayahu Leibowitz. (Audio, 66 minutes.)

Last week, Jordanian police arrested sixteen members of the country’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood for acquiring explosives, trying to manufacture drones, and planning rocket attacks. The cell was likely working in coordination with Hamas (the Palestinian offshoot of the Brotherhood) and Hizballah, and perhaps receiving funding from Iran. Ghaith al-Omari provides some background:

The Brotherhood has been active in Jordan since the 1940s, and its relations with the government remained largely cooperative for decades even as other political parties were banned in the 1950s. In exchange, the Brotherhood usually (but not always) supported the palace’s foreign policy and security measures, particularly against Communist and socialist parties.

Relations became more adversarial near the turn of the century after the Brotherhood vociferously opposed the 1994 peace treaty with Israel. The Arab Spring movement that emerged in 2011 saw further deterioration. Unlike other states in the region, however, Jordan did not completely crack down on the MB, instead seeking to limit its influence.

Yet the current Gaza war has seen another escalation, with the MB repeatedly accusing the government of cooperating with Israel and not doing enough to support the Palestinians.

Jordanian security circles are particularly worried about the MB’s vocal wartime identification with Hamas, an organization that was considered such a grave security threat that it was expelled from the kingdom in 1999. The sentiment among many Jordanian officials is that the previous lenient approach failed to change the MB’s behavior, emboldening the group instead.