Jewish Approach Research Articles

Euthanasia: An Overview and the Jewish Perspective

Background: End-of-life care poses fundamental ethical problems to clinicians. Defining euthanasia is a difficult and complex task, which causes confusion in its practical clinical application. Over the course of history, abuse of the term has led to medical atrocities. Familiarity with the relevant bioethical issues and the development of practical guidelines might improve clinical performance. Objective: To define philosophical concepts, to present historical events, to discuss the relevant attitudes in modern bioethics and law that may be helpful in elaborating practical guidelines for clinicians regarding euthanasia and end-of-life care. Concepts found in the classic sources of Jewish tradition might shed additional light on the issue and help clinicians in their decision-making process. Methods: An historical overview defines the concepts of active versus passive euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide and related terms. Positions found in classical Jewish literature are presented and analyzed with their later interpretations. The relevance and application in modern clinical medicine of both the general and Jewish approaches are discussed. Results: The overview of current bioethical concepts demonstrates the variety of approaches in western culture and legal systems. Philosophically and conceptually, there is a crucial distinction between active and passive euthanasia. The legitimacy of active euthanasia has been the subject of major controversy in recent times in various countries and religious traditions. Conclusion: The historical overview and the literature review demonstrate the need to provide clearer definitions of the concepts relating to euthanasia, for in the past the term has led to major confusion and uncontrolled abuse. Bioethical topics should, therefore, be included in medical training and continuing education. There are major debates and controversies regarding the current clinical and legal approaches. We trust that classical Jewish sources might contribute to the establishment of clinical definitions, meaningful approaches and practical guidelines for clinicians.

Re-Claiming Biblical Women: Feminist (Jewish) Re-Readings of Hebrew Narratives

In the last three decades, biblical feminist scholarship has proliferated in ways that could not have been imagined by the early practitioners of this theory, myself included. Not only have a number of manuscripts, diction aries, reference works, commentaries, and companions been published, but increasingly feminist criticism has become an acceptable, if not normative, approach among several other leading contemporary approaches to the field of Bible Studies. Hardly a female character in the Hebrew Bible has evaded a contemporary interpretation. The proliferation of monographs in the field has further spawned a diversity of approaches and theories adding to the question of gender the analytic categories of class, nation, race, and culture. Critical approaches taking aim at biblical ideologies of ethnocentrism, monotheism, and androcentrism have routinely been questioned and debated by reconstructive and appropriative approaches, influenced largely by femi nist theological readings, notably Womanist, Latina, Lesbian, and Post colonial readings, which often consider biblical women as models of empowerment rather than embodiments of patriarchal thinking. Jewish scholars have been active in the field of biblical studies, though little has been done to elaborate a theoretical articulation of a distinctly Jewish femi nist approach to the Hebrew Bible. These two books may signal an interesting development of a specifically Jewish feminist scholarship on the Hebrew Bible, though neither one of the authors explicitly identifies her reading in such terms. Schneider's book pays special attention to the double meanings of consonantal Hebrew, taking the grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and Masoretic blocking of the Masoretic Text of Genesis?(parashot rather than later sequencing of chapters).

Engaging eternity: A Jewish approach to death, dying, grief and bereavement

While Judaism is a religion focused on life, there is a clear system of guidelines to deal with death and bereavement. Respect and care of the dying along with support of the bereaved through the grief process are recognised in this tradition and outlined in this paper. Both religious law and custom focus on communal support for individuals at this time of life. Death and bereavement rituals include dress, food, sanctioned behaviour, caring for the body before burial, and the role of the community. This paper describes rituals for marking the anniversary of the death and acknowledges differences between the denominations.

Modern Jewish Identity and the Apostle Paul: Pauline Studies as an Intra-Jewish Ideological Battleground

This is the second of two related studies of Jewish approaches to the apostle Paul. The context of the first was that of Jewish-Christian dialogue, while the context of the second is that of intra-Jewish ideological debate. Jewish Pauline Studies can be understood as a theatre of war in a wider intra-Jewish ideological battle. That is, Jewish commentaries on Paul appear to reflect and inform more general debates in the Jewish community on issues such as how to establish Jewish authenticity, how to regard the Law in modernity, how to respond to non-Jewish culture and ideas, how to regard marginal figures, how to relate Judaism and nationalism, and how to relate Judaism and Christianity. Some of the key figures treated in this schematic survey of the history of the Jewish interpretation of Paul include Claude Montefiore, Joseph Klausner, Hans Joachim Schoeps, Hugh Schonfield, Samuel Sandmel, Alan Segal, Richard Rubenstein, Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer and Daniel Boyarin.

The Myth of the ‘Traditional View of Paul’ and the Role of the Apostle in Modern Jewish-Christian Polemics

This is the first of two related studies of Jewish approaches to the apostle Paul. The context of the first is that of Jewish-Christian dialogue, while the context of the second is that of intra-Jewish ideological debate. Rarely mentioned by Jewish writers before the nineteenth century, the Apostle to the Gentiles took his place as the Great Apostate in the popular Jewish imagination only in the modern period. Jewish Pauline scholarship proper developed alongside the nineteenth- and twentieth-century reclamation of Jesus as a Jew. The primary context in which Paul’s background and teachings were considered was that of interfaith polemic; the apostle functioned as a means by which individual writers could explore the relationship between Judaism and Christianity more generally. Some of the key figures considered in this schematic survey of the history of the Jewish interpretation of Paul include Heinrich Graetz, Isaac Meyer Wise, Claude Montefiore, Kaufman Kohler, Joseph Krauskaupf, Martin Buber, Hyam Maccoby, Pinchas Lapide and Mark Nanos.

MESSIANIC JEWS AND JEWISH IDENTITY

In recent years Messianic Judaism has grown considerably worldwide and has caused much concern within the contemporary Jewish community. Messianic Jews claim they are completely Jewish, but they are considered by the majority of the Jewish community to be Christian apostates. This paper considers the practices and beliefs of the Messianic community, explores the issue of their identity and reflects on this in relation to Jewish identity throughout the universal Jewish community. It explores the question of placing Messianic Jews outside the Jewish fold, given that the various branches of contemporary Judaism are deeply divided over central tenets of faith and practice. It considers the Messianic belief in Jesus as the Messiah in the light of normative Jewish approaches to aspects of Halakhic teaching.

To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics; Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in a Complex World; Navigating Right and Wrong: Ethical Decision Making in a Pluralistic Age

To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics; Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in a Complex World; Navigating Right and Wrong: Ethical Decision Making in a Pluralistic Age

By the Sweat of Your Brow: Reflections on Work and the Workplace in Classic Jewish Thought (review)

Reviewed by: By the Sweat of Your Brow: Reflections on Work and the Workplace in Classic Jewish Thought Asher Meir By the Sweat of Your Brow: Reflections on Work and the Workplace in Classic Jewish Thought, by David J. Schnall. New York: Yeshiva University Press, 2001. 236 pp. $29.50. The Jewish people have been defining their relationship to work for thousands of years, ever since Avraham was accumulating “flocks and herds and donkeys” (Bereshit 12:16), and Yaakov was setting an example by working for Lavan “with all my might” (Bereshit 31:6.). It may seem surprising that meaningful, interesting, and consistent insights about work and the workplace can be extracted from a tradition so ancient and diverse. Yet Professor Schnall has done a remarkable job in presenting a coherent approach to this topic based on Jewish sources widely varied in time, economic background, and purpose. Scripture and stricture, midrash and minhag merge to give us a distinctive Jewish approach in which work is dignified without being glorified. The author, a dean and professor at New York’s Yeshiva University, is a respected expert in the field of workplace relations. In this book he combines his secular expertise on this subject with his considerable Jewish learning, resulting in a work which makes Jewish workplace ethics comprehensible and accessible to a broad audience. Most of the book’s nine chapters cover topics of universal interest such as the work ethic, the social responsibility of business, and the special relationship to public servants. There is also a very interesting chapter on a controversial topic which has long been central in Jewish life: the proper balance between work and Torah study. The final chapter draws some intriguing practical conclusions. [End Page 142] Let us examine some examples of the pragmatic, non-ideological approach which emerges. Work, as we mentioned, is dignified but not glorified. While the Bible intro duces labor “as a scourge and punishment to mankind,” the author comments that “normative rabbinic sources largely ignore this passage in their consideration of the place of work in the social scheme. Neither a curse nor purely an instrumental necessity of subsistence, they look upon it as an ennobling facet of moral development” (pp. 46–47). In contrast to the modern drive for equality, “the social goal pursued by the interpreters of the tradition was not equality per se, but rather moral reciprocity and balance” (p. 16). In particular, a consistent, even relentless series of laws and admoni tions militates against any dimension of servitude in the employer-employee relation ship. Economic equality is not pursued, and economic success is in any case viewed as a pleasant amenity rather than as an important social or religious objective. The author does a good job in explaining the significance of Judaism’s obligation- based approach to human relations, which is not easily recast in the modern-day vocabulary of rights. In the context of this insight, the book explains that the employer’s obligation to treat the worker fairly is balanced by the employee’s obligation to be assiduous in his or her performance. A particular emphasis of the book is that Judaism does not prescribe or exalt any particular economic system. The general deference to local custom, or minhag, guaran tees a degree of tolerance and pragmatism in regard to the economic superstructure. The concern of Jewish law and thought is not to dictate a particular structure, but rather to provide that no matter what type of economic structure society chooses, safeguards exist to guarantee the dignity and protection of the worker and the possibility of the employer to get the job done. The book’s focus is descriptive, not comparative. While the author does present a cogent summary of alternative religious and ideological approaches to work and the workplace, these serve primarily to provide a context and a frame of reference for the book’s conclusions, and not as an independent topic of study. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the book is that it clearly aims at relevance. The book is written in a professional and accessible idiom; the author brings many modern-day applications and makes interesting prescriptive diagnoses. Professor Schnall clearly...

Faith Schools and Social Cohesion: Opening up the Debate

In February 2001, the British government announced its willingness to expand the number of faith schools where there was ‘clear local demand’. Predictably, the decision aroused widespread controversy, with much of the criticism centring on the allegedly divisive nature of such schools; segregated education was seen by some detractors as inevitably posing a threat to social cohesion. This article engages with the charge of divisiveness, arguing the case against inevitability on both theoretical and empirical grounds. In relation to the latter, extensive reference is made to the findings of a recently completed ethnographic study of the way Jewish schools approach cultural diversity.

What Was Doeg the Edomite's Title? Textual Emendation versus a Comparative Approach to 1 Samuel 21:8

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formula omitted.) (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) And a man from among courtiers of Saul was there on that day, detained before Lord, and his name was Doeg Edomite, ... of Saul. (1 Sam 21:8) The unique term ... has perplexed scholars since medieval times. Literally, term means the mighty one of or among shepherds.1 There are two problems with this title: (1) The nature of this official's functions requires explanation. (2) What is link (if any) between Doeg's title and his activities in 1 Sam 21-22? Doeg informs Saul of contacts between David and Ahimelech and then acts as executioner of Ahimelech and eighty-five of his fellow priests. Informing king about disloyal individuals and carrying out executions would not seem to fall within sphere of responsibility of a chief herdsman. I. Medieval Jewish Approaches The medieval Jewish commentators respond to both of these problems. In his commentary on 1 Sam 21:8, Kimhi interprets according to philological sense of ..., commenting ...: greatest of Saul's herdsmen and chief over them. But he interprets statement ... in 22:9 to mean over all of Saul's courtiers, thereby explaining why Doeg was made responsible for executions. As chief of Saul's retinue, Doeg could conceivably have been responsible for executions. Rashi, in contrast, comments that Doeg was chief of Saul's judicial court.2 This midrashic explanation, unrelated to meaning of term ... seems to be an attempt to explain why Doeg was made responsible for deaths of priests.3 A later attempt to explain phrase in accordance with both term's meaning and role Doeg plays can be found in Isaiah di Trani's commentary: the chief of his officials.4 Like Rashi and Kimhi, di Trani deems it necessary to see Doeg as something other than Saul's chief pastoralist. At same time, he seeks a philologically tenable interpretation: he interprets word ... as officials, citing Zech 10:3 as support. But while word is often used in Bible (and elsewhere in ancient Near East) to designate king,5 and ... is sometimes used to refer to king and princes,6 di Trani's suggestion seems unlikely in 1 Sam 21:9. First, term both in Bible and in ancient Near Eastern sources usually refers to persons of royal birth, most often to person of king, rather than to other officials of royal court. Second, in Bible ... is a poetic term and it seems unlikely to have been used in prosaic context found in 1 Sam 21:8, in title of a royal official. In biblical prose, ... always means shepherds. II. Conjectural Textual Emendation Modern biblical scholars have been similarly perplexed both by seemingly unusual title and by incongruity between title and Doeg's actions. In 1874, Heinrich Graetz suggested emending text to read .... He postulated that ... who appear in 1 Sam 22:17, who seem to fulfill a military role and are initially asked to kill priests of Nob, were in fact headed by Doeg. His translation die Oberste von Saul's Leibwache7 reflects his view that they formed Saul's bodyguards. The idea that ... served as king's bodyguards can be supported by 1 Kgs 14:27, where they seem to fill this function, and also by 2 Kgs 11:11. Graetz's suggestion seems to explain connection between Doeg's title and his actions. This suggestion was enthusiastically adopted by Wilhelm Nowack, S. R. Driver, and others.8 Driver writes: 'byr is not chief (RV), but mighty, which, however, does not well agree with h...ro...im, might or heroism hardly being a quality which in a shepherd would be singled out for distinction. Read with Graetz h...r...im for h...rOc;ro...im, the mightiest of Saul's runners or royal escort. …

Justice in Jerusalem — Interpreting in Israeli Legal Proceedings

This article discusses the background to present-day attitudes towards interpreting in the Israeli judicial system. It outlines traditional Jewish approaches to language issues in legal proceedings, as well as pragmatic solutions adopted in the early years of the Jewish state. A comparison is provided of interpreting arrangements at the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mid-1980s proceedings against Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, and a number of other cases involving non-Hebrew-speaking defendants. The article concludes with a discussion of quality assurance arrangements in "ordinary" - as opposed to "major" cases in the Israeli justice system.

Pius XII and the Jews: The Clash between History and Theology

The debate between brothers in the field of theology is always ascerbic, with little quarter given. When this controversy moves beyond the never rarified area of academic discourse and enters the area of contemporary events, a tragic dimension moves from the periphery to the centre. Recently, Prof. de Lange published an Ignaz Maybaum Reader (N.Y. & London, 2001), in which Prof. Maybaum states the sharpest possible Jewish approach to the issues involved.

Is There a Unique Jewish Bioethics of Human Reproduction?

I thought of that quotation when I was asked to address the topic, Is There a Unique Jewish Bioethics of Human Reproduction? My general answer would be that, in some ways there is. Jewish bioethics on this topic is in some ways like all other religious ethical approaches, in some ways like some other approaches, and in some ways like no other approach. Comparing Jewish bioethics with the bioethics of other faith traditions is a complex matter. There are many differences as well as similarities among Jewish bioethical approaches to reproductive technologies. Also, many similarities as well as differences may be found in comparing Jewish approaches as a group with those of other traditions. Having said this, I believe that there are some distinctive (though on the whole not unique) characteristics that tend to establish a family

The Book of the Giants from Qumran (review)

160 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, No.2 In the introduction, the author explains that he does not intend to divide various Jewish approaches into the categories of "fringe" and "mainstream." He argues that such a division is almost always promoted by someone who wishes to argue that a specific contemporary viewpoint is the correct approach, because that viewpoint was the dominant one in antiquity. Yet I cannot help wonder whether Goldenberg's own approach-ofpresenting a variety ofopinions and saying that Judaism has always had more than one attitude on this issue-might not also be meant to legitimate a certain type of contemporary Jewish world view. Goldenberg has appended a fascinating "unscientific" epilogue. There he explains that one of his motivations for writing this book was to counter contemporary, politically correct scholarship that defines intolerance as a necessary, even logical outgrowth of monotheism. The research, Goldenberg says, shows that while many ancient monotheists were intolerant, not all were. Accordingly the claim that monotheism always leads to intolerance is disproved. I found this idea-introduced in the last paragraph of the book-fascinating, and I only wish that the author had developed it more. I recommend this book highly as a useful resource for the serious scholar. Some of the chapters could also be used by instructors of university courses. I suggest that anyone who reads the book bear in mind the political and ideological climates not only of the ancient world, but also ofthe 1990s. Martin Lockshin Centre for Jewish Studies York University The Book ofthe Giants from Qumran, by Loren T. Stuckenbruck. TUbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997. 289 pp. DM 198. Loren Stuckenbruck has written ajoumeyman work ofphilology. In it, he reconstructs a lost book, known from Manichaean sources as "The Book ofthe Giants." In doing so, he madvertently illustrates what has been from the beginning an unfortunate deficiency ofQumran studies, the tendency ofthose on the "in" or the "haves" to fawn upon those allowing them access or sponsoring them, while refusing to acknowledge their debt to the "outs," often even at times unduly criticizing them. The present reviewer is a card-carrying member ofthe latter group and, therefore, views a work like Stuckenbruck's with some jaundice. First of all, its virtues. There is no quarreling with Stuckenbruck's footnotes. They are compendious, and in them he thrashes out many ofthe problems ofthis particular genre ofphilological studies, Le., Enochic, Noahic, and "Gigantic" manuscript recovery. Book Reviews 161 His reconstructions are also noteworthy, though in this area it is difficult for the non-specialist, whether literary critic or historian, to judge, since his points are often so obscure as to seem almost irrelevant. Over and over again he goes into the minutia of letter reconstruction, where what little can be ascertained seems almost irrelevant. Discussions ofthis kind illustrate the difference between philology and history. In the former, he and his mentors and colleagues (those he acknowledges are 1. T. Milik, Frank Cross, Garcia Martinez, etc.) have had it more or less their own way. In the latter, his strengths are questionable. He assumes Qumran paleography, for instance, as developed by Cross and others, to be correct, accepting without comment the "early Herodian" hand in the main ofthe texts he considers part ofthe document he is reconstructing. Yet, in spite of this, over and over again he admits dating cannot be certain. Elsewhere, he assumes Daniel is a "non-Essene" work, without explaining what an "Essene" work might look like. Daniel, it seems to the present reviewer, appears to exhibit all the characteristics of what one might wish to call an "Hassidaean" or "Essene" work. In more general terms, where Stuckenbruck falls short is also quite clear. He complains about the fact that some of the photographs in the Facsimile Edition ofthe DeadSea Scrolls, edited by James Robinson and myself(B.A.S., 1991), were too small or not clear enough. But this work was published before any other photographic inventory of Scroll documents became available (including the Huntington Library microfilm, which dido't really appear until early 1992, by which time it was unnecessary ). Presumably, Stuckenbruck thinks he is criticizing Robinson and myself when he says these things...

The Nations That Knew Thee Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes Toward Other Religions (review)

Book Reviews 159 and lore as well as its rigidity. In doing this he has provided any student ofTanach with rich resources that lead to richer understanding. This is an impressive work. I look forward to the future follow-up texts discussed by the author in his introduction. Samuel M. Edelman Coordinator of Modern Jewish and Israel Studies California State University at Chico The Nations That Knew Thee Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes Toward Other Religions, by Robert Goldenberg. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 214 pp. $37.50. This book addresses the question, "What did ancient Jews think of other religions?" One would assume that ancient religions were uniformly seen by classical Jews as illegitimate world views that should be eradicated from the face ofthe earth at the first possible opportunity. Robert Goldenberg demonstrates well that Jewish attitudes were more complex and variegated, and are ultimately impossible to reduce to one simple formula. Goldenberg walks his readers through a rich variety of ancient Jewish texts from the Bible and the Apocrypha to Hellenistic texts and rabbinic literature dealing with polytheistic religion(s). Alongside the standard, well-known negative approaches are some striking examples of tolerance. For example, a number of Hellenistic Jews, like Philo, argued passionately that it was forbidden for Jews to speak ill of any other religion. They based their view on Exodus 22:27 ('e/ohim /0' teqallel) in the Septuagint 's reading of"Do not revile any gods." Goldenberg also argues-following a standard approach ofbiblical scholarshipthat in the Bible itselfone finds two different kinds oftruth claims: that gods other than YHVH do not exist, and that gods other than YHVH are relatively inconsequential, unworthy ofworship by Israelites. The implication ofthat second position would be that Jews accorded some grudging legitimacy to non-Jews' worshipping other gods. The book is well written, interesting, and very well researched. The copious notes indicate that almost all the book's assertions are based on common-consensus scholarship. I was puzzled by the attribution of various Hellenistic works to Jewish authors on what appears to me to be flimsy evidence. But here, too, it would seem that Goldenberg follows the standard scholarly literature. What is innovative and impressive in the book is Goldenberg's ability to maintain a congruent discussion of one theme over a period of more than a thousand years of Jewish literature. 160 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, No.2 In the introduction, the author explains that he does not intend to divide various Jewish approaches into the categories of "fringe" and "mainstream." He argues that such a division is almost always promoted by someone who wishes to argue that a specific contemporary viewpoint is the correct approach, because that viewpoint was the dominant one in antiquity. Yet I cannot help wonder whether Goldenberg's own approach-ofpresenting a variety ofopinions and saying that Judaism has always had more than one attitude on this issue-might not also be meant to legitimate a certain type of contemporary Jewish world view. Goldenberg has appended a fascinating "unscientific" epilogue. There he explains that one of his motivations for writing this book was to counter contemporary, politically correct scholarship that defines intolerance as a necessary, even logical outgrowth of monotheism. The research, Goldenberg says, shows that while many ancient monotheists were intolerant, not all were. Accordingly the claim that monotheism always leads to intolerance is disproved. I found this idea-introduced in the last paragraph of the book-fascinating, and I only wish that the author had developed it more. I recommend this book highly as a useful resource for the serious scholar. Some of the chapters could also be used by instructors of university courses. I suggest that anyone who reads the book bear in mind the political and ideological climates not only of the ancient world, but also ofthe 1990s. Martin Lockshin Centre for Jewish Studies York University The Book ofthe Giants from Qumran, by Loren T. Stuckenbruck. TUbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997. 289 pp. DM 198. Loren Stuckenbruck has written ajoumeyman work ofphilology. In it, he reconstructs a lost book, known from Manichaean sources as "The Book ofthe Giants." In doing so, he madvertently illustrates what has...

Duty and healing: foundations of a Jewish bioethic

Duty and Healing positions ethical issues commonly encountered in clinical situations within Jewish law. The concept of duty is significant in exploring bioethical issues, and this book presents an authentic and non-parochial Jewish approach to bioethics, while it includes critiques of both current secular and Jewish literatures. Among the issues the book explores are the role of family in medical decision-making, the question of informed consent as a personal religious duty, and the responsibilities of caretakers. The exploration of contemporary ethical problems in healthcare through the lens of traditional sources in Jewish law is an indispensable guide of moral knowledge.

Jewish and Catholic bioethics: an ecumenical dialogue

Issues In Biomedical Ethics Comparison of Jewish and Christian Perspectives Alan I. Faden, MD Section I Spinoza and Judaism Tom L. Beauchamp Section II Jewish Reflections on Life and Death Decision Making Baruch A. Brody Jewish Teaching on the Sanctity and Quality of Life Ronald Green The Jewish Approach to Living and Dying Shimon Glick, MD The Sanctity of Human Life Doctrine David C. Thomasma Section III The Meaning of Suffering: A Jewish Perspective Avraham Steinberg, MD The Meaning of Suffering? James Keenan, SJ Section IV The Imperative to Heal in Traditional Judaism Fred Rosner, MD, FACP On the Interface of Religion and Medical Science: The Judeo-Biblical Perspective Rabbi Moshe Tendler Healing and Being Healed: A Christian Perspective Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD A Catholic Christian Perspective on Early Human Development Rev. J.D. Cassidy, OP Epilogue Religion and Bioethical Discourse Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD

Jewish and Roman Catholic Approaches to Bioethics

Jewish and Roman Catholic Approaches to Bioethics

Narcissism, Pride, and Humility

It is theorized by the author that Post-Biblical Jewish Religious Text should contain many practical psychological insights, given the fact that the authors of such literature were expected to be involved in the life of their communities, to be married with children, and be engaged in an occupation in order to function as religious authorities who were to be taken seriously. Many were physicians. As an exploration of this idea, some of the writings regarding the subjects of pride and humility are explored. A picture of a Jewish religious approach to pathological narcissism appears to emerge from this examination.

Can life be evaluated? The Jewish Halachic approach vs. the quality of life approach in medical ethics: a critical view.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of requests for "mercy killings" by patients and their relatives. Under certain conditions, the patient may prefer death to a life devoid of quality. In contrast to those who uphold this "quality of life" approach, those who hold the "sanctity of life" approach claim that life has intrinsic value and must be preserved regardless of its quality. This essay describes these two approaches, examines their flaws, and offers a "golden path" between the two extreme positions. We discuss the halachic and the secular views, arguing for a balance between the sanctity of life and the quality of life. We argue that, indeed, such a balance exists in practice, and that life is important, but it is not sacred. Life can be evaluated, but quality of life is not the sole criterion.