I am on record bemoaning across the years that love is the most watered down word in the English language.

I do know that invoking love feels very soft for our hard realms of politics and power.

Yet it is an enduring truth that love is the only force as powerful in a human body as fear.

And we inhabit a world that calls us to grow up our capacity to love and be loved

and to redeem our relationships to neighbors, strangers, and enemies as never before. My guest this hour,

Shai Held, has written an epic theological work called Judaism is about love. But as he

interrogates Judaism's complicated history with love, he makes an offering that is of relevance to us all.

I'm Krista Tippett, and this is On Being.

Shai Held is a philosopher, biblical scholar, and rabbi.

He is the president and dean of the Hadar Institute, which describes itself

as a center of life, learning, and practice, supporting a Judaism that is both traditional and

egalitarian. We spoke before an audience at Hadar's Manhattan Center.

Thank you.

It's been wonderful working with everybody at Hadar, and I want to thank Donnie especially.

When did your book Judaism as about love?

When was that published?

Was it 2023?

2024.

March of 2024.

So I started getting emails from people I know, including my professor of Hebrew Bible, Ellen Davis, she, an old friend of yours, I imagine, and she was at Yale.

Old friend and hero.

She's at Duke.

...