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Jewish ethics

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Literature

Biblical and rabbinic

Ethical traditions can be found throughout the Hebrew Bible and the rabbinic Oral Torah that both interpreted the Hebrew Bible and engaged in novel topics.

Ethics is a key aspect of rabbinic legal literature, Halakha, which is found in the Mishnah, Talmud, and other texts. Ethics is also a key aspect of non-legal aggadah. The best-known text of Rabbinic Judaism associated with ethics is Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) of the Mishnah.

Medieval

Direct Jewish responses to Greek ethics may be seen in major rabbinic writings in the medieval period. Notably, Maimonides offers a Jewish interpretation of Aristotle (e.g., Nicomachean Ethics), who enters into Jewish discourse through Islamic writings. Maimonides, in turn, influenced Thomas Aquinas, a dominant figure in Christian ethics and the natural law tradition of Christian moral theology. The relevance of natural law to medieval Jewish philosophy is a matter of dispute among scholars.

Medieval and early modern rabbis also created a pietistic tradition of Jewish ethics. This ethical tradition was given expression through Musar literature, which presents virtues and vices in a didactic way. The Hebrew term musar, derived from a word meaning "discipline" or "correction", is often translated as ethics, morality, moral instruction, or moral discipline.

Examples of medieval Musar literature include:

  • Chovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart) by Bahya ibn Paquda
  • Ma'alot ha-Middot by Jehiel ben Jekuthiel Anav of Rome
  • Orchot Tzaddikim (The Ways of the Righteous), by an anonymous author
  • Kad ha-Kemah by Bahya ben Asher

Halakhic writings of the Middle Ages also inform the Jewish ethical corpus. Important sources of Jewish ethical law include Maimonides's 12th-century Mishneh Torah and Rabbi Joseph Karo's and Rabbi Moses Isserles's Shulkhan Arukh (16th century), especially the order entitled Choshen Mishpat. A wide array of topics on ethics is also discussed in medieval responsa literature.

Modern

In the modern period, Jewish ethics sprouted many offshoots, partly due to developments in modern ethics and partly due to the formation of distinct Jewish religious movements. Trends in modern Jewish normative ethics include:

  • The pietistic Musar movement was continued by 18th-century rabbis like Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in his book Mesillat Yesharim. Other Musar writings were authored by Haskalah writers like Naphtali Herz Wessely and Menachem Mendel Lefin.
  • The Musar tradition was revived by the 19th-century Musar movement within the Orthodox Ashkenazi Jewish community.
  • The 19th- and early 20th-century Reform movement promoted Judaism as the original ethical monotheism. The writings of Abraham Geiger and Kaufmann Kohler show this approach.
  • In the 20th and 21st centuries, liberal Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis have fostered novel approaches to Jewish ethics, for example, in the writings of Eugene Borowitz and David Teutsch. Some Reform rabbis, as well as Orthodox and Conservative rabbis, have also engaged in applied ethics by writing legal responsa (formal opinions), especially on bioethics, sexual ethics, and business ethics. Leading Conservative ethicists such as the philosopher and rabbi Elliot Dorff have also written extensively on moral theory.
  • In the 20th and 21st centuries, Jewish feminism has produced feminist Jewish ethics, using the principles of feminist ethics. Leading Jewish feminist ethicists include Judith Plaskow, Rachel Adler, Tamar Ross, Rebecca Alpert, and Laurie Zoloth.
  • Other modern Jewish philosophers have pursued a range of ethical approaches, with varying degrees of reliance upon traditional Jewish sources. Notably, Hermann Cohen authored Religion of Reason in the tradition of Kantian ethics. Martin Buber wrote on various ethical and social topics, including the dialogical ethics of his I and Thou. Hans Jonas, a student of Martin Heidegger, draws upon phenomenology in his writings on bioethics, technology, and responsibility. Emmanuel Levinas sought to distinguish his philosophical and Jewish writings; nevertheless, some scholars are constructing Jewish ethics around his innovative and deeply Jewish approach.

Academic scholars of Judaism have also engaged in descriptive Jewish ethics, the study of Jewish moral practices and theory, which is situated more in the disciplines of history and the social sciences than in ethics proper (see Newman 1998).

In 2003, the Society of Jewish Ethics was founded as the academic organization "dedicated to the promotion of scholarly work in the field of Jewish ethics." The Society promotes both normative research (the field of ethics proper) and descriptive (historical/social scientific) research.

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