Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Money

Description of the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices Series

ix Description of the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices Series This series is intended to provide a forum for discussion of some of the most critical moral issues of our time. Because the Jewish tradition is rich in moral experience and insights, each volume includes Jewish materials from ancient, medieval, and modern sources. And because the Jewish tradition, from its very beginnings, is multivocal, the sources presented deliberately include diverse Jewish perspectives from the past. The process of Jewish wrestling with moral subjects, however, continues in our own day, not only theoretically but concretely and practically. And so each volume presents cases that raise difficult, modern moral issues, together with questions for reflection. We hope that these cases and questions will stimulate you to delve more deeply into the moral issues presented here. We have also invited a number of modern Jews, representing a variety of backgrounds and Jewish perspectives, either to comment specifically on these cases or to reflect more generally on these moral problems as they come up in their own lives. These modern comments, a symposium of contemporary views and voices, bring new insights to the meaning and relevancy of the sources and take the conversation into new areas worth exploring. In sum, then, the structure of each book is as follows: Introduction: The topic of the book, the range of moral issues that it raises, and its import for modern life and for Judaism I. Case Studies and Jewish Sources: Several cases illustrating some of the specific moral issues involved in this topic, including questions that highlight those issues, followed by ancient Jewish sources and an array of more modern writings relevant to those issues II. Symposium: Contemporary perspectives by Jews on the cases or on the book’s topic as they encounter it in their own lives III. Conclusion: A summary of the underlying issues raised in the volume, together with some reflection on other related issues that may arise in the future x Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: MONEY Seeing moral issues through a Jewish lens, even one that produces multiple refractions of the Jewish tradition and of Jewish modernity, will, we hope, enable modern Jews to grapple with those issues more intelligently and more sensitively. It is our deepest conviction that these voices from the Jewish tradition and today’s Jewish community will invite you to consider your moral choices in a different light. At the very least, they give us all new questions and perspectives to ponder and, more often than not, moral wisdom and guidance. Elliot N. Dorff Louis E. Newman July 2007 ...