The idea of living a moral life has always seemed to me to be one of the pillars of Judaism, even though that is not the way that Judaism is always perceived. In Israel, for example, Judaism has been relegated by the government to issues of ritual observance, with almost no focus on personal or societal ethics, which I have found to be a huge distortion of what Judaism is all about.

This is the main reason that I was so happy to come across the spectacular book Ethics at the Center by a wonderful teacher and scholar which clearly places ethics at the center of Judaism and Jewish living. In his introduction to this book of essays, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff brought three classical Jewish texts to the readers’ attention, and then explained his position as follows:

Notice that in all three of these classic texts, especially the last one, although rituals are easily more than half of the 613 commandments, not a single ritual commandment appears on the list of their essence. When push comes to shove, I believe, although rituals and family and communal connections are very important parts of what Judaism adds to the lives of Jews, ethics is at the center of Judaism.

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