The Right and the Good: Halakhah and Human Relations

by Daniel Z. Feldman

In an effort to respond to the baseless criticism that Jewish law is overly preoccupied with religious ritual at the expense of issues having to do with interpersonal relationships, the author presents a detailed exploration of the vast attention that the masters of Jewish thought have given to relations between and among individuals. This book is not a legal guide to interpersonal relationships in Jewish life, nor is it a volume of moral exhortation. Rather, Rabbi Feldman aims to convey the importance of his subject by exhibiting its hallowed place within the structure of Jewish law and within the analysis that interpersonal relationships have been given among the giants in the field of Jewish thought.

290 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1999

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurbs for this book states that the author is "superbly knowledgeable" and that the book is "complete and very detailed." And correctly so- for each of a dozen or so human relations issues, Feldman discusses a wide variety of rabbinic texts, addressing both areas of consensus and areas where leading commentators disagree.

Having said that, Feldman occasionally misses issues that would be of most interest to a nonscholarly reader- I'm not sure whether by choice or by oversight. In particular, Feldman begins by discussing Jewish law prohibiting embarrassing others, as well as related principles. But how do you vigorously disagree with someone without violating these principles? I wish Feldman had addressed such borderline issues in more detail.