ABSTRACT

Israeli Jews, religious and secular, must join together in pursuit of covenantal objectives which can no longer be left in the hands of either God or Gentiles. David Hartman links that view of covenant to a firm and thoroughgoing pluralism. Hartman's effort has therefore been devoted to the work of demonstrating to religious and secular Jewish Israelis alike that they are bound together in the covenant of fate and share as well, to a greater degree than they might have thought, critical elements of a covenant of destiny. Mitzvah presupposes the centrality of community within Judaism. Hartman links that view of covenant to a firm and thoroughgoing pluralism. Israel does offer scope for broader observance of covenant than the Diaspora, and not only because covenant can potentially encompasses every aspect of collective and individual life rather than merely the narrow space allotted "religion" in secular liberal societies.