Q&A: A Definition of Jewish Thought
A Definition of Jewish Thought
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Do you think it is possible to define "Jewish thought" as "philosophy given the fact that the Torah was given to the people of Israel and that the events mentioned in the Quran and the New Testament did not occur"? The definition is a bit clumsy, but in my opinion it defines the field well, because no philosophy (Kant, etc.) relates to the giving of the Torah or accepts it as a foundational premise (the addition of the New Testament and the Quran is meant to exclude the theology of other religions from the field as well). In addition, aside from the formal aspect of excluding other areas of inquiry from the definition, I think this really is the essential uniqueness of Jewish thought: why the world exists, what our purpose is, etc.—questions that exist in every philosophy, but now we bring in the foundational premise of Torah from Sinai (and sometimes additional premises as well).
Answer
I have explained more than once why, in my opinion, this field is empty. Factual claims are either true or false, regardless of the premises and regardless of who said them. If the giving of the Torah changes your answer regarding man's purpose in the world, then that answer is true for every person in the world.
Discussion on Answer
Then it wouldn't be a non-Jew engaging in Jewish thought; rather, it just wouldn't be Jewish thought. But really that's already just semantics.
Right, that's why in principle there could be a non-Jew who engages in Jewish thought according to the definition I described; it's just that in practice that usually doesn't happen.