1. The body belongs to God. Jewish sources maintain that God owns everything, including our bodie... more 1. The body belongs to God. Jewish sources maintain that God owns everything, including our bodies.1 God loans our bodies to us for the duration of our lives, and we return them to God when we die. Consequently, neither men nor women have the right to govern their bodies as they will; because God created our bodies and owns them, God can and does assert the right to restrict how we use our bodies according to the rules articulated in Jewish law.
Dorff and Newman collect the best of recent work in Jewish ethics. The volume will serve as an in... more Dorff and Newman collect the best of recent work in Jewish ethics. The volume will serve as an introduction to Jewish ethics by acquainting the reader with the distinctive methodological issues involved, and will also suffer a sampling of Jewish positions on contemporary moral problems; it will thus be suited to a variety of courses in Jewish Studies.
In this chapter, the author examines personal interactions with God- not "kooky" or eve... more In this chapter, the author examines personal interactions with God- not "kooky" or even mystic experiences, but evidence of a personal God in everyday experience. We learn about other people through verbal communication. The religious phenomena parallel to that are revelation and prayer. Both are highly problematic from a philosophical point of view primarily because one of the communicators, God, is not available for direct, reciprocal communication in the same way human beings are to each other when they have a conversation. That raises many questions. How do we know that it is indeed God communicating with us through revelation? On what basis do we accept one revelation over others or one record of a revelation over others? When we speak to God through prayer, how can we ever be sure that God hears? Is it really communication or only an extended monologue? Keywords: God; human beings; Prayer; revelation; verbal communication
1. The body belongs to God. Jewish sources maintain that God owns everything, including our bodie... more 1. The body belongs to God. Jewish sources maintain that God owns everything, including our bodies.1 God loans our bodies to us for the duration of our lives, and we return them to God when we die. Consequently, neither men nor women have the right to govern their bodies as they will; because God created our bodies and owns them, God can and does assert the right to restrict how we use our bodies according to the rules articulated in Jewish law.
Dorff and Newman collect the best of recent work in Jewish ethics. The volume will serve as an in... more Dorff and Newman collect the best of recent work in Jewish ethics. The volume will serve as an introduction to Jewish ethics by acquainting the reader with the distinctive methodological issues involved, and will also suffer a sampling of Jewish positions on contemporary moral problems; it will thus be suited to a variety of courses in Jewish Studies.
In this chapter, the author examines personal interactions with God- not "kooky" or eve... more In this chapter, the author examines personal interactions with God- not "kooky" or even mystic experiences, but evidence of a personal God in everyday experience. We learn about other people through verbal communication. The religious phenomena parallel to that are revelation and prayer. Both are highly problematic from a philosophical point of view primarily because one of the communicators, God, is not available for direct, reciprocal communication in the same way human beings are to each other when they have a conversation. That raises many questions. How do we know that it is indeed God communicating with us through revelation? On what basis do we accept one revelation over others or one record of a revelation over others? When we speak to God through prayer, how can we ever be sure that God hears? Is it really communication or only an extended monologue? Keywords: God; human beings; Prayer; revelation; verbal communication
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