Norman Podhoretz on Jerusalem and Jewish Particularity

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2016

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this podcast, Eric Cohen sits down with the legendary editor of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz, to discuss his 2007 essay, “Jerusalem: The Scandal of Particularity.” The ancient capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem, has been the essential center of Jewish political and religious life for generations. But, despite promises of its inviolability, the temptations to divide Jerusalem in exchange for peace arise again and again. “In wondering about this singling-out of one city from among all the cities in the Land of Israel,” Podhoretz writes, “I find myself ineluctably led to its larger and even more mysterious context, which is the singling-out of one people from among all the nations of the world.” Eric Cohen talks to Podhoretz about the circumstances that inspired this essay, the feelings that being in Jerusalem stirs in him, the moral and political significance of Jerusalem, what it means to be the chosen people, and why modern men and women find Jewish particularity such a scandal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tikva podcast on great Jewish essays and ideas.
0:11.9	I'm your host, Eric Cohen.
0:13.8	I'm very pleased to be joined today by Norman Pahoritz,
0:16.8	one of the most interesting and important intellectuals, editors, and Jewish figures of the last half century.
0:23.2	He was the editor of Commentary Magazine from 1960 to 1995, and he's the prolific author of books and essays
0:30.1	on American politics and culture, on literature, on Judaism, and even occasionally about himself.
0:36.7	Norman, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having you.
0:40.1	Our subject today is a wonderful essay that you wrote back in 2007 called Jerusalem,
0:46.3	The Scandal of Particularity. And I thought we'd start with the Jerusalem part of your title.
0:50.6	Jerusalem is obviously an ancient and modern city. It's an idea. It sits at the bloody
0:55.0	crossroads of Middle Eastern politics. You describe it in the essay as not only the capital of
1:00.5	Judah, but also the capital of Judaism. So what is Jerusalem? Well, Jerusalem became the capital
1:10.1	of Judaism, in addition to being the capital of the kingdom of Judah,
1:15.1	at a period when there were, of course, two kingdoms, the southern and northern, northern kingdom of Israel,
1:21.2	which became the ten lost tribes eventually.
1:26.7	Jerusalem had achieved that status, partly because of its role in the
1:34.4	Bible as the center for the temple that was going to be built someday. But when the book of Deuteronomy was discovered in the, I guess it was
1:48.4	the 7th century, B.C.E. It turned out that there was a prohibition against sacrificing
1:55.9	anywhere but on the altar within the temple in Jerusalem.
2:01.6	Despite the fact that there were altars much more ancient than the one in Jerusalem,
2:07.6	and there had never been any, not a hint from anyone,
2:12.6	that it would be forbidden to sacrifice there.
	...

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