Greenberg Yudit Kornberg - Dharma and Halacha: comparative studies in Hindu-Jewish philosophy and religion

i Dharma and Halacha

ii Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion

Series Editor: Douglas Allen, University of Maine

This series explores important intersections within and between the disciplines of religious studies and philosophy. These original studies will emphasize, in particular, aspects of contemporary and classical Asian philosophy and its relationship to Western thought. We welcome a wide variety of manuscript submissions, especially works exhibiting highly focused research and theoretical innovation.

Recent Titles in This Series

Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion , edited by Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg Greenberg

Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time , by Alexus McLeod

Making Space for Knowing: A Capacious Approach to Comparative Epistemology , by Aaron B. Creller

Postmodern Ethics, Emptiness, Literature: Encounter between East and West , by Jae-seong Lee

Metaphor and Metaphilosophy: Philosophy as Combat, Play, and Aesthetic Experience , by Sarah A. Mattice

Brahman and Dao: Comparative Studies of Indian and Chinese Philosophy and Religion , edited by Ithamar Theodor and Zihua Yao

Nietzsche and Zen: Self Overcoming Without a Self , by Andr van der Braak

Ethics of Compassion: Bridging Ethical Theory and Religious Moral Discourse, by Richard Reilly

iii Dharma and Halacha

Comparative Studies in Hindu
Jewish Philosophy and Religion

Edited by

Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg
Greenberg

iv Published by Lexington Books

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

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Copyright 2018 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Excerpts from the website Devi Parashakthi Matha (Eternal Mother) Temple (http://www.parashakthitemple.org/) Used with permission of Dr. Krishna Kumar, President and Spiritual Director, Parashakthi Temple.

Excerpts from Bhnu Svm. 2003. Trans. Srrtha, Varin, k. The Bhagavad gt commentary of rla Vivantha Cakravart hkura, 2nd ed. Chennai: Sri Vaikuntha Enterprises. Reprinted with permission.

Reprinted from Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright by Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, translated by Mordecai M. Kaplan, end edited by Ira F. Stone, by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2010 by Ira Stone. Published by The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

First published as Bilimoria, Purushottama. 2015. Animal Justice and Moral Mendacity. Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology: The Journal of the Graduate Theological Union, vol 1 no 1: 5679. Reproduced with permission.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Theodor, Ithamar, 1959- editor. | Greenberg, Yudit Kornberg, editor.

Title: Dharma and halacha : comparative studies in Hindu-Jewish philosophy

and religion / edited by Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg Greenberg.

Description: Lanham ; Boulder ; New York ; London : Lexington Books, [2018] |

Series: Studies in comparative philosophy and religion | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018022770 (print) | LCCN 2018024720 (ebook) | ISBN

9781498512800 (electronic) | ISBN 9781498512794 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: JudaismRelationsHinduism. | HinduismRelationsJudaism.

Classification: LCC BM536.H5 (ebook) | LCC BM536.H5 D43 2018 (print) | DDC

294.5/156dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022770

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

v For Daniel Sperber: Rabbi, Professor, and Scholar who pioneered the pursuit of dialogue and understanding between Hindus and Jews

vii Contents

viii

ix Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge and thank all those individuals and institutions that have helped, encouraged, and supported the publication of this volume. First and foremost, our gratitude goes to Douglas Allen, Jana Hodges-Kluck, and the Lexington editorial team for supporting and bringing this project to fruition and to our readers. We are thankful to all at the Program for Hindu-Jewish Studies at the Department of Asian Studies at The University of Haifa who supported this publication in many ways. Special thanks to Yossi Chajes, who was a constant source of friendship and support. We are grateful to Hagar Shalev for her review of Sanskrit and general editing and to Omer Lahav for his assistance during the final stages of the editorial work. We thank Darshan and Kalpa Bhagat for their friendship and support in the establishment of the Program for Hindu-Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa, which has enabled the publication of this volume. We recognize and thank the support of the Cornell Endowed Chair of Religion Research fund at Rollins College, the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for 2017 Summer fellowship, and the Fulbright-Nehru Program, which provided ample opportunities for deepened understanding of Indian traditions and cultures. Special thanks to Rabbi David Rosen who engages in interfaith work around the globe, and who was a constant source of inspiration. Warm thanks to Bawa Jain, Secretary General of the World Council of Religious Leaders, whose commitment to dialogue among world religions is exemplary. We thank Siona Benjamin for agreeing to have her beautiful artwork grace the cover of our book. We acknowledge and thank scholars in comparative religion, comparative theology, and Indo-Judaic studies and practitioners in interfaith dialogue including Barbara Holdrege and Paul Morris, who established the Comparative Studies of Hinduisms and Judaisms Group at the American Academy of Religion, as x well as Kathryn McClymond, Nathan Katz, Francis Clooney, Alon Goshen Gottstein, and Graham Schweig. Our profound thanks go to the scholars who contributed their research to this volume with great diligence and enthusiasm. We express our gratitude to our families who offered support and encouragement during the long hours of working on this project. Finally, we wish to express our appreciation and admiration of Rabbi and Professor Daniel Sperber to whom this book is dedicated.

Ithamar Theodor and Yudit Kornberg Greenberg

The Program for Hindu-Jewish Studies, the University of Haifa

Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Jewish Studies Program, Rollins College

Introduction

Dharma and Halacha:
Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion

Yudit Kornberg Greenberg

I am writing this introduction on the eve of Prime Minister Modis visit to Israel, the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the State of Israel. Indeed, this visit is of immense importance for the mutual benefits of Indian and Israeli politics and economics. Still, even amid great deal-makings, the cultural and spiritual ties that have linked the two ancient nations for millennia should not be forgotten. In the biblical Book of Esther, India is mentioned in reference to King Ahasuerus who reigned from Hodu (India) to Cush (Ethiopia). Tablets found in Babylonia serve as evidence of trade and other cultural interactions between Indians and Israelites (Chakravarti 2007; Katz 2007; Weinstein 2007; Marks 2007; Goitein and Friedman 2008). In later periods, we find references to trade with India in the Talmud and other Jewish texts. In Jewish Hellenistic writings such as those of Josephus Flavius and Philo of Alexandria, there are positive references to Indian philosophy; other thinkers such as Aristotle believed that Jews descended from Brahmins, and like the philosophers of Greece, they represent an elite intellectual community. In contemporary scholarship, ethnographic and historical studies of Indian Jewish communities by scholars such as Nathan Katz, Shalva Weil, Joan Roland, Barbara Johnson, and Yulia Egorova bring to light the distinctive character of Jewish communities in India, and the relationship between religious behavior and ethnic identity, and between religion and culture (Katz 2000; Chakravarti 2007; Weil 2002; Roland 1998; Johnson 2007; Egorova 2006).