Announcements #155: Wyschogrod Lecture at First Things

First Things invites you to attend a lecture by

Professor Michael Wyschogrod:
A King in Israel: A Theological Approach to Israel's Constitutional Problem

June 3, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
35 East 21st Street, 6th Floor

Introduction by Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik, Associate Rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun

A wine and cheese reception will follow the lecture.
Please join us!
RSVP: events@firstthings.com

In an essay published in First Things (May 2010), Professor Wyschogrod proposed a solution to the State of Israel’s constitutional stalemate. Israel, he proposed, should declare itself a constitutional monarchy ruled by a successor to King David, represented by a “regent safeguarding the Throne of David until such time that divine intervention identifies the rightful heir to the Davidic kingdom.” He explains: “The crowning of an actual Davidic monarch today would require prophecy to select the proper person. In the absence of prophecy this is impossible—and the sages of Israel declared almost two thousand years ago that prophecy was gone from Israel. Israel nonetheless can be declared a Davidic monarchy without a reigning king. This action would build into the self-understanding of the State of Israel the messianic hope of the Jewish people, while excluding a messianic interpretation of the present State of Israel." Prof. Wyschogrod will lecture on Jewish covenantal theology and its application to the present challenges of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. First Things is honored to present this important thinker to our readers.

Praise for Michael Wyschogrod:
Michael Wyschogrod is “perhaps the most original Jewish theologian of the past half century,” Rabbi Meir Soloveichik wrote in the pages of First Things.

He is “a man of supple metaphysical imagination and expansive systematic mind,” R.R. Reno wrote in an On the Square essay, describing Professor Wyschogrod’s influence over an entire generation of theology students. “He became something of a cult figure among the cognoscenti. The theology of Karl Barth hovered over our discussions as a presiding presence, and in The Body of Faith Wyschogrod engages Barth’s theology in subtle and profound ways. In fact, I’d wager that he is the Jewish thinker of the modern era with the most sympathetic grasp not only of Barth, but of Christian theology generally.





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