God's Kindness Has Overwhelmed Us

Gellman presents a new theology of the Jews as the Chosen People, addressing self-serving ethnocentric supremacy, cultural isolation, and defamation of religions other than Judaism. This book is traditional in taking chosenness and the truth of Judaism seriously, and in eschewing a theology of multiple covenants.

At the same time, it is critical, rejecting previous concepts of chosenness, and innovative, offering for the twenty-first century a fresh way of seeing the Jews' place in the world. On this foundation, Gellman suggests a new approach to inter-religious understanding from a Jewish point of view, and examines the impact of his proposal on traditional Jewish liturgy.

Review: In this crisp and engaging book, Yehudah Gellman squares the circle by holding fast to the idea of Israel's election while simultaneously denying a) that Jews are in any way innately superior to Gentiles and b) that Judaism has nothing to learn from other religions. Gellman advances a concept of election that enables Jews to live in good conscience in our times.

Given the proliferation of unacceptable doctrines about innate Jewish superiority in certain traditionalist circles today, Gellman's brave and deeply learned book, brimming with love for the people of Israel and for Israel's Torah, is doubly welcome. This book should find a place on the shelf of every Jew who wishes to be part of the human family while remaining faithful to the Jewish branch of that family. --Professor Menachem Kellner, Chair of the Interdiscipinary Program in Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College (Jerusalem), emeritus Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa