And Before Honor – Humility

And before Honor – Humility investigates the moral-spiritual ideal of humility in rabbinic literature, a topic which has until now not been the subject of critical inquiry. Four sugyot (topics of discussion) stand at the center of the inquiry: haughtiness of spirit and lowliness of spirit, the humility of the Holy One blessed is He, humility and irascibility, and the ineluctable tension between the honor of Torah and human dignity.

Shmuel Lewis presents a theoretical framework and interpretive approach that fit the unique nature of rabbinic literature and uncover a philosophical layer of thought in texts that have been considered until now merely didactic. His readings tack between close textual investigation and broad conceptual analysis in search of the mutual relations between social conceptions and world pictures. By means of comparison with parallel mutual relations in ancient Greek thought the connections between social conceptions, world pictures and moral ideals comes into view in both moral languages – the biblical-rabbinic and the Greek. The cosmological aspect is approached in the context of the biblical world picture as developed by the Sages in contrast to the Greek kosmos, the social aspect in the context of the beit midrash of the Sages and their relations with people outside their own enclave. The study makes frequent use of anthropological research and applies philosophical methods of social science. This multifaceted approach allows for an overarching view that uncovers surprising meanings in the sources and presents them with a conceptual depth that invites dialogue with parallel discussions in western philosophical discourse.