Books
What’s Wrong with Babel?
– The American Scholar 58 (1): 41-60, Winter 1989.Abstract: Traces the history of God’s working with the people of Israel. Book of Genesis, which teaches God as creator and authority, and man as seeking independence and… More
A Woman for All Seasons
– Commentary, September 1991.Abstract: One often hears it said, and not only by outsiders, that Judaism is a male-dominated religion that does not properly appreciate its women. The blame for this attitude, say many… More
Man and Woman: An Old Story
– First Things, November 1991.Excerpt: Man and woman. What are they, and why—each alone and both together? How are they alike and how different? How much is difference due to nature, how much to culture? What… More
Regarding Daughters and Sisters: The Rape of Dinah
– Commentary, April 1992.Abstract: Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder. For the… More
Seeing the Nakedness of His Father
– Commentary, June 1992.Abstract: Standing in the large men’s locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the… More
The Path Not Taken: Assimilation versus Separation, by Aaron Wildavsky
– Commentary, September 1993.Abstract: To assimilate or to stay apart? That is the question which for centuries has confronted Jews living in the Diaspora. How much may the children of Israel become like their host… More
Why the Dietary Laws?
– Commentary, June 1994.Abstract: A core document of Western civilization, the Torah or Pentateuch has at its center a set of dietary regulations, presented in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Though these now… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife
– First Things, November 1994.Excerpt: It is not exactly traditional to speak about the education of Abraham. Pious tales of the patriarch regard him as a precocious monotheist even before God calls him, a man who… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Fatherhood
– First Things, December 1994.Excerpt: My theme is the education of the patriarch Abraham, Father of Judaism, father of Christianity, father of Islam. God Himself undertakes Abraham’s education in order to address and… More
The Need for Piety and Law: A Kristol-Clear Case
– In Christopher De Muth and William Kristol, eds., The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995), 112-33.What’s Your Name?
– With Amy A. Kass, First Things, November 1995.Excerpt: The authors of this essay on names have just identified themselves. Well, not quite. For the sake of full disclosure, they are willing to have it known that they have the same last… More
Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel
– First Things, April 1996.Excerpt: Once one gets right down to it, the difference between liberals and conservatives traces home to a disagreement about the basic source of human troubles. Liberals are inclined to… More
A Genealogy of Justice
– Commentary, July 1996.Abstract: All morally serious people care generally about justice. And when its apparent absence touches them directly, all people, serious or not, find themselves eager for justice. Even… More
Evolution and the Bible: Genesis I Revisited
– Commentary, November 1988.Abstract: These tensions between science and religion, never absent yet recently grown strong, nowadays focus mainly on the subject of evolution and its meaning for the Bible.
Love of Woman and Love of God: The Case of Jacob
– Commentary, March 1999.Abstract: The biblical patriarch’s romance with Rachel tells us much about the power of eros–but even more about divine purpose.
The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature
– University Of Chicago Press, May, 1999.The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and… More
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
– Free Press, 2003.Summary: As ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in The Beginning of Wisdom, it’s also… More
Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom by Alan Jacobs
– Alan Jacobs, First Things, June/July 2003.Excerpt: Leon Kass’ meditation on the wisdom of Genesis is expansive, curious, fascinatingly rich and digressive. This I claim without reservation, but my next claim begins with a… More
Interview on “NOW with Bill Moyers”
– “NOW with Bill Moyers,” PBS, July 25, 2003.Excerpt: ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: Congress defies the FCC decision to give big media more power. BURR: I think we ought to err on the side of looking out for the… More
Interview on “Charlie Rose”
– "Charlie Rose," July 1, 2003.First, a conversation with Richard A. Clarke, former National Security Council official and anti-terrorism advisor, about his report released by the Council on Foreign Relations, in which… More
Human Frailty and Human Dignity
– The New Atlantis (Fall 2004-Winter 2005).Excerpt: In the aftermath of an election season, with the question of stem cell research in the public eye and demagogued in the most awful way, Eric Cohen has chosen to ask more… More
Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis of Bioethics in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss and Leon Kass
– Lawrence A. Vogel, Hastings Center Report 36:3 (2006).Excerpt: The University of Chicago’s Leon Kass is the most important bioethicist writing out of the work of Hans Jonas today and, as Chairman of President Bush’s Council on… More
The Follies of Freedom and Reason: An Old Story
– In Richard Velkley, ed., Freedom and the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).Science, Religion, and the Human Future
– Commentary (April 2007).Excerpt: Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings… More
Athens, Jerusalem, and Modern Science: An Interview with Leon Kass, Amy Apfel Kass, and Francis Oakley
– The Cresset LXXII (1): 27-33 (Michaelmas 2008).Excerpt: Those who, like Andrew Delbanco, advocate renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the “two cultures” of the sciences and the humanities as part of a larger endeavor to renew… More
Permanent Tensions, Transcendent Prospects
– In Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, eds., Religion and the American Future (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2008), 83-117.Why Even Atheists Should Applaud the Ten Commandments
– Audio lecture, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute, January 12, 2009.Summary: ‘The Ten Commandments embody the core principles of the way of life of ancient Israel and of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, their influence… More
Principles for Neighbors: The “Second Table” of the Decalogue
– AEI Newsletter, February 01, 2009.Excerpt: Murder, adultery, and theft are outlawed by virtually all civilized peoples. These legal prohibitions are not only the necessary condition of civil peace; they erect important… More
The God-Seeking Animal by Eric Cohen
– Eric Cohen, First Things, April, 2010.Excerpt: On the cover of Being Human, the anthology of writings collected by the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass’s stewardship, there is a picture of a ballerina… More
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass
– Yuval Levin, Thomas W. Merrill, and Adam Schulman, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, May 25, 2010.Summary: Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades—as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender… More
The Ten Commandments: Why the Decalogue Matters
– Mosaic (June 2013).Excerpt: The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God’s new way for humankind finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how… More
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
– Mosaic Magazine, June 27, 2013.Excerpt: I thank Michael Fishbane, Peter Berkowitz, Gilbert Meilaender, and Meir Soloveichik for their generous treatment of my essay, for their serious engagement with its themes,… More
Pride, Lust, Technology—and the Hebrew Bible
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.Last month, Mosaic visited Leon R. Kass, author of our June essay, “The Ten Commandments,” in his Washington, D.C. office. We spoke first about the passions, the human heart and its… More
The People Saw the Thunder
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.The revelation at Sinai was a “phantasmagoric experience” where sight became sound, sound became sight, and the people stood in awe and confusion. But what about us, today? Can we, just… More
Why Two Covenants?
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.When we last left Leon Kass, he was talking about the passions that “lurk in the hearts of men” and the guidance the Hebrew Bible can give us in learning how to channel them. Now we… More
The Ten Commandments
– "The Ten Commandments," PCG at Harvard seminar series, April 8, 2016.Leon Kass discusses the Ten Commandments at the Program on Constitutional Government lunchtime seminar series, convened by Harvey Mansfield.
The Ten Commandments
– Leon Kass, Tikvah Podcast, May 18, 2017.In an interview with Jonathan Silver, Leon Kass discuss the Ten Commandments.
The People-Forming Passover
– Leon Kass, "The People-Forming Passover," Mosaic, April 6, 2020.Excerpt: The essay below is adapted from Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus by Leon R. Kass, forthcoming from Yale University Press in January 2021. The biblical book of Exodus,… More
On the formation of the People of Israel
– "The Formation of the People of Israel", Mosaic Podcast, May 15, 2020.Leon Kass joined the Mosaic Podcast to discuss his work on the Book of Exodus.
Exodus and American Nationhood
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and American Nationhood," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2021.What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? These questions have risen… More
Exodus and Liberal Education
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and Liberal Education," Politics and the Humanities, March 3, 2021.Leon Kass joined the American University Politics and the Humanities podcast to discuss his recent work on the Book of Exodus.
Essays
What’s Wrong with Babel?
– The American Scholar 58 (1): 41-60, Winter 1989.Abstract: Traces the history of God’s working with the people of Israel. Book of Genesis, which teaches God as creator and authority, and man as seeking independence and… More
A Woman for All Seasons
– Commentary, September 1991.Abstract: One often hears it said, and not only by outsiders, that Judaism is a male-dominated religion that does not properly appreciate its women. The blame for this attitude, say many… More
Man and Woman: An Old Story
– First Things, November 1991.Excerpt: Man and woman. What are they, and why—each alone and both together? How are they alike and how different? How much is difference due to nature, how much to culture? What… More
Regarding Daughters and Sisters: The Rape of Dinah
– Commentary, April 1992.Abstract: Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder. For the… More
Seeing the Nakedness of His Father
– Commentary, June 1992.Abstract: Standing in the large men’s locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the… More
The Path Not Taken: Assimilation versus Separation, by Aaron Wildavsky
– Commentary, September 1993.Abstract: To assimilate or to stay apart? That is the question which for centuries has confronted Jews living in the Diaspora. How much may the children of Israel become like their host… More
Why the Dietary Laws?
– Commentary, June 1994.Abstract: A core document of Western civilization, the Torah or Pentateuch has at its center a set of dietary regulations, presented in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Though these now… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife
– First Things, November 1994.Excerpt: It is not exactly traditional to speak about the education of Abraham. Pious tales of the patriarch regard him as a precocious monotheist even before God calls him, a man who… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Fatherhood
– First Things, December 1994.Excerpt: My theme is the education of the patriarch Abraham, Father of Judaism, father of Christianity, father of Islam. God Himself undertakes Abraham’s education in order to address and… More
The Need for Piety and Law: A Kristol-Clear Case
– In Christopher De Muth and William Kristol, eds., The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995), 112-33.What’s Your Name?
– With Amy A. Kass, First Things, November 1995.Excerpt: The authors of this essay on names have just identified themselves. Well, not quite. For the sake of full disclosure, they are willing to have it known that they have the same last… More
Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel
– First Things, April 1996.Excerpt: Once one gets right down to it, the difference between liberals and conservatives traces home to a disagreement about the basic source of human troubles. Liberals are inclined to… More
A Genealogy of Justice
– Commentary, July 1996.Abstract: All morally serious people care generally about justice. And when its apparent absence touches them directly, all people, serious or not, find themselves eager for justice. Even… More
Evolution and the Bible: Genesis I Revisited
– Commentary, November 1988.Abstract: These tensions between science and religion, never absent yet recently grown strong, nowadays focus mainly on the subject of evolution and its meaning for the Bible.
Love of Woman and Love of God: The Case of Jacob
– Commentary, March 1999.Abstract: The biblical patriarch’s romance with Rachel tells us much about the power of eros–but even more about divine purpose.
The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature
– University Of Chicago Press, May, 1999.The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and… More
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
– Free Press, 2003.Summary: As ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in The Beginning of Wisdom, it’s also… More
Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom by Alan Jacobs
– Alan Jacobs, First Things, June/July 2003.Excerpt: Leon Kass’ meditation on the wisdom of Genesis is expansive, curious, fascinatingly rich and digressive. This I claim without reservation, but my next claim begins with a… More
Interview on “NOW with Bill Moyers”
– “NOW with Bill Moyers,” PBS, July 25, 2003.Excerpt: ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: Congress defies the FCC decision to give big media more power. BURR: I think we ought to err on the side of looking out for the… More
Interview on “Charlie Rose”
– "Charlie Rose," July 1, 2003.First, a conversation with Richard A. Clarke, former National Security Council official and anti-terrorism advisor, about his report released by the Council on Foreign Relations, in which… More
Human Frailty and Human Dignity
– The New Atlantis (Fall 2004-Winter 2005).Excerpt: In the aftermath of an election season, with the question of stem cell research in the public eye and demagogued in the most awful way, Eric Cohen has chosen to ask more… More
Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis of Bioethics in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss and Leon Kass
– Lawrence A. Vogel, Hastings Center Report 36:3 (2006).Excerpt: The University of Chicago’s Leon Kass is the most important bioethicist writing out of the work of Hans Jonas today and, as Chairman of President Bush’s Council on… More
The Follies of Freedom and Reason: An Old Story
– In Richard Velkley, ed., Freedom and the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).Science, Religion, and the Human Future
– Commentary (April 2007).Excerpt: Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings… More
Athens, Jerusalem, and Modern Science: An Interview with Leon Kass, Amy Apfel Kass, and Francis Oakley
– The Cresset LXXII (1): 27-33 (Michaelmas 2008).Excerpt: Those who, like Andrew Delbanco, advocate renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the “two cultures” of the sciences and the humanities as part of a larger endeavor to renew… More
Permanent Tensions, Transcendent Prospects
– In Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, eds., Religion and the American Future (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2008), 83-117.Why Even Atheists Should Applaud the Ten Commandments
– Audio lecture, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute, January 12, 2009.Summary: ‘The Ten Commandments embody the core principles of the way of life of ancient Israel and of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, their influence… More
Principles for Neighbors: The “Second Table” of the Decalogue
– AEI Newsletter, February 01, 2009.Excerpt: Murder, adultery, and theft are outlawed by virtually all civilized peoples. These legal prohibitions are not only the necessary condition of civil peace; they erect important… More
The God-Seeking Animal by Eric Cohen
– Eric Cohen, First Things, April, 2010.Excerpt: On the cover of Being Human, the anthology of writings collected by the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass’s stewardship, there is a picture of a ballerina… More
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass
– Yuval Levin, Thomas W. Merrill, and Adam Schulman, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, May 25, 2010.Summary: Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades—as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender… More
The Ten Commandments: Why the Decalogue Matters
– Mosaic (June 2013).Excerpt: The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God’s new way for humankind finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how… More
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
– Mosaic Magazine, June 27, 2013.Excerpt: I thank Michael Fishbane, Peter Berkowitz, Gilbert Meilaender, and Meir Soloveichik for their generous treatment of my essay, for their serious engagement with its themes,… More
Pride, Lust, Technology—and the Hebrew Bible
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.Last month, Mosaic visited Leon R. Kass, author of our June essay, “The Ten Commandments,” in his Washington, D.C. office. We spoke first about the passions, the human heart and its… More
The People Saw the Thunder
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.The revelation at Sinai was a “phantasmagoric experience” where sight became sound, sound became sight, and the people stood in awe and confusion. But what about us, today? Can we, just… More
Why Two Covenants?
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.When we last left Leon Kass, he was talking about the passions that “lurk in the hearts of men” and the guidance the Hebrew Bible can give us in learning how to channel them. Now we… More
The Ten Commandments
– "The Ten Commandments," PCG at Harvard seminar series, April 8, 2016.Leon Kass discusses the Ten Commandments at the Program on Constitutional Government lunchtime seminar series, convened by Harvey Mansfield.
The Ten Commandments
– Leon Kass, Tikvah Podcast, May 18, 2017.In an interview with Jonathan Silver, Leon Kass discuss the Ten Commandments.
The People-Forming Passover
– Leon Kass, "The People-Forming Passover," Mosaic, April 6, 2020.Excerpt: The essay below is adapted from Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus by Leon R. Kass, forthcoming from Yale University Press in January 2021. The biblical book of Exodus,… More
On the formation of the People of Israel
– "The Formation of the People of Israel", Mosaic Podcast, May 15, 2020.Leon Kass joined the Mosaic Podcast to discuss his work on the Book of Exodus.
Exodus and American Nationhood
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and American Nationhood," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2021.What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? These questions have risen… More
Exodus and Liberal Education
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and Liberal Education," Politics and the Humanities, March 3, 2021.Leon Kass joined the American University Politics and the Humanities podcast to discuss his recent work on the Book of Exodus.
Commentary
What’s Wrong with Babel?
– The American Scholar 58 (1): 41-60, Winter 1989.Abstract: Traces the history of God’s working with the people of Israel. Book of Genesis, which teaches God as creator and authority, and man as seeking independence and… More
A Woman for All Seasons
– Commentary, September 1991.Abstract: One often hears it said, and not only by outsiders, that Judaism is a male-dominated religion that does not properly appreciate its women. The blame for this attitude, say many… More
Man and Woman: An Old Story
– First Things, November 1991.Excerpt: Man and woman. What are they, and why—each alone and both together? How are they alike and how different? How much is difference due to nature, how much to culture? What… More
Regarding Daughters and Sisters: The Rape of Dinah
– Commentary, April 1992.Abstract: Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder. For the… More
Seeing the Nakedness of His Father
– Commentary, June 1992.Abstract: Standing in the large men’s locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the… More
The Path Not Taken: Assimilation versus Separation, by Aaron Wildavsky
– Commentary, September 1993.Abstract: To assimilate or to stay apart? That is the question which for centuries has confronted Jews living in the Diaspora. How much may the children of Israel become like their host… More
Why the Dietary Laws?
– Commentary, June 1994.Abstract: A core document of Western civilization, the Torah or Pentateuch has at its center a set of dietary regulations, presented in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Though these now… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife
– First Things, November 1994.Excerpt: It is not exactly traditional to speak about the education of Abraham. Pious tales of the patriarch regard him as a precocious monotheist even before God calls him, a man who… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Fatherhood
– First Things, December 1994.Excerpt: My theme is the education of the patriarch Abraham, Father of Judaism, father of Christianity, father of Islam. God Himself undertakes Abraham’s education in order to address and… More
The Need for Piety and Law: A Kristol-Clear Case
– In Christopher De Muth and William Kristol, eds., The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995), 112-33.What’s Your Name?
– With Amy A. Kass, First Things, November 1995.Excerpt: The authors of this essay on names have just identified themselves. Well, not quite. For the sake of full disclosure, they are willing to have it known that they have the same last… More
Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel
– First Things, April 1996.Excerpt: Once one gets right down to it, the difference between liberals and conservatives traces home to a disagreement about the basic source of human troubles. Liberals are inclined to… More
A Genealogy of Justice
– Commentary, July 1996.Abstract: All morally serious people care generally about justice. And when its apparent absence touches them directly, all people, serious or not, find themselves eager for justice. Even… More
Evolution and the Bible: Genesis I Revisited
– Commentary, November 1988.Abstract: These tensions between science and religion, never absent yet recently grown strong, nowadays focus mainly on the subject of evolution and its meaning for the Bible.
Love of Woman and Love of God: The Case of Jacob
– Commentary, March 1999.Abstract: The biblical patriarch’s romance with Rachel tells us much about the power of eros–but even more about divine purpose.
The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature
– University Of Chicago Press, May, 1999.The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and… More
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
– Free Press, 2003.Summary: As ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in The Beginning of Wisdom, it’s also… More
Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom by Alan Jacobs
– Alan Jacobs, First Things, June/July 2003.Excerpt: Leon Kass’ meditation on the wisdom of Genesis is expansive, curious, fascinatingly rich and digressive. This I claim without reservation, but my next claim begins with a… More
Interview on “NOW with Bill Moyers”
– “NOW with Bill Moyers,” PBS, July 25, 2003.Excerpt: ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: Congress defies the FCC decision to give big media more power. BURR: I think we ought to err on the side of looking out for the… More
Interview on “Charlie Rose”
– "Charlie Rose," July 1, 2003.First, a conversation with Richard A. Clarke, former National Security Council official and anti-terrorism advisor, about his report released by the Council on Foreign Relations, in which… More
Human Frailty and Human Dignity
– The New Atlantis (Fall 2004-Winter 2005).Excerpt: In the aftermath of an election season, with the question of stem cell research in the public eye and demagogued in the most awful way, Eric Cohen has chosen to ask more… More
Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis of Bioethics in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss and Leon Kass
– Lawrence A. Vogel, Hastings Center Report 36:3 (2006).Excerpt: The University of Chicago’s Leon Kass is the most important bioethicist writing out of the work of Hans Jonas today and, as Chairman of President Bush’s Council on… More
The Follies of Freedom and Reason: An Old Story
– In Richard Velkley, ed., Freedom and the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).Science, Religion, and the Human Future
– Commentary (April 2007).Excerpt: Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings… More
Athens, Jerusalem, and Modern Science: An Interview with Leon Kass, Amy Apfel Kass, and Francis Oakley
– The Cresset LXXII (1): 27-33 (Michaelmas 2008).Excerpt: Those who, like Andrew Delbanco, advocate renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the “two cultures” of the sciences and the humanities as part of a larger endeavor to renew… More
Permanent Tensions, Transcendent Prospects
– In Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, eds., Religion and the American Future (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2008), 83-117.Why Even Atheists Should Applaud the Ten Commandments
– Audio lecture, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute, January 12, 2009.Summary: ‘The Ten Commandments embody the core principles of the way of life of ancient Israel and of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, their influence… More
Principles for Neighbors: The “Second Table” of the Decalogue
– AEI Newsletter, February 01, 2009.Excerpt: Murder, adultery, and theft are outlawed by virtually all civilized peoples. These legal prohibitions are not only the necessary condition of civil peace; they erect important… More
The God-Seeking Animal by Eric Cohen
– Eric Cohen, First Things, April, 2010.Excerpt: On the cover of Being Human, the anthology of writings collected by the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass’s stewardship, there is a picture of a ballerina… More
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass
– Yuval Levin, Thomas W. Merrill, and Adam Schulman, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, May 25, 2010.Summary: Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades—as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender… More
The Ten Commandments: Why the Decalogue Matters
– Mosaic (June 2013).Excerpt: The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God’s new way for humankind finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how… More
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
– Mosaic Magazine, June 27, 2013.Excerpt: I thank Michael Fishbane, Peter Berkowitz, Gilbert Meilaender, and Meir Soloveichik for their generous treatment of my essay, for their serious engagement with its themes,… More
Pride, Lust, Technology—and the Hebrew Bible
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.Last month, Mosaic visited Leon R. Kass, author of our June essay, “The Ten Commandments,” in his Washington, D.C. office. We spoke first about the passions, the human heart and its… More
The People Saw the Thunder
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.The revelation at Sinai was a “phantasmagoric experience” where sight became sound, sound became sight, and the people stood in awe and confusion. But what about us, today? Can we, just… More
Why Two Covenants?
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.When we last left Leon Kass, he was talking about the passions that “lurk in the hearts of men” and the guidance the Hebrew Bible can give us in learning how to channel them. Now we… More
The Ten Commandments
– "The Ten Commandments," PCG at Harvard seminar series, April 8, 2016.Leon Kass discusses the Ten Commandments at the Program on Constitutional Government lunchtime seminar series, convened by Harvey Mansfield.
The Ten Commandments
– Leon Kass, Tikvah Podcast, May 18, 2017.In an interview with Jonathan Silver, Leon Kass discuss the Ten Commandments.
The People-Forming Passover
– Leon Kass, "The People-Forming Passover," Mosaic, April 6, 2020.Excerpt: The essay below is adapted from Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus by Leon R. Kass, forthcoming from Yale University Press in January 2021. The biblical book of Exodus,… More
On the formation of the People of Israel
– "The Formation of the People of Israel", Mosaic Podcast, May 15, 2020.Leon Kass joined the Mosaic Podcast to discuss his work on the Book of Exodus.
Exodus and American Nationhood
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and American Nationhood," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2021.What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? These questions have risen… More
Exodus and Liberal Education
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and Liberal Education," Politics and the Humanities, March 3, 2021.Leon Kass joined the American University Politics and the Humanities podcast to discuss his recent work on the Book of Exodus.
Multimedia
What’s Wrong with Babel?
– The American Scholar 58 (1): 41-60, Winter 1989.Abstract: Traces the history of God’s working with the people of Israel. Book of Genesis, which teaches God as creator and authority, and man as seeking independence and… More
A Woman for All Seasons
– Commentary, September 1991.Abstract: One often hears it said, and not only by outsiders, that Judaism is a male-dominated religion that does not properly appreciate its women. The blame for this attitude, say many… More
Man and Woman: An Old Story
– First Things, November 1991.Excerpt: Man and woman. What are they, and why—each alone and both together? How are they alike and how different? How much is difference due to nature, how much to culture? What… More
Regarding Daughters and Sisters: The Rape of Dinah
– Commentary, April 1992.Abstract: Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder. For the… More
Seeing the Nakedness of His Father
– Commentary, June 1992.Abstract: Standing in the large men’s locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the… More
The Path Not Taken: Assimilation versus Separation, by Aaron Wildavsky
– Commentary, September 1993.Abstract: To assimilate or to stay apart? That is the question which for centuries has confronted Jews living in the Diaspora. How much may the children of Israel become like their host… More
Why the Dietary Laws?
– Commentary, June 1994.Abstract: A core document of Western civilization, the Torah or Pentateuch has at its center a set of dietary regulations, presented in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Though these now… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife
– First Things, November 1994.Excerpt: It is not exactly traditional to speak about the education of Abraham. Pious tales of the patriarch regard him as a precocious monotheist even before God calls him, a man who… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Fatherhood
– First Things, December 1994.Excerpt: My theme is the education of the patriarch Abraham, Father of Judaism, father of Christianity, father of Islam. God Himself undertakes Abraham’s education in order to address and… More
The Need for Piety and Law: A Kristol-Clear Case
– In Christopher De Muth and William Kristol, eds., The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995), 112-33.What’s Your Name?
– With Amy A. Kass, First Things, November 1995.Excerpt: The authors of this essay on names have just identified themselves. Well, not quite. For the sake of full disclosure, they are willing to have it known that they have the same last… More
Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel
– First Things, April 1996.Excerpt: Once one gets right down to it, the difference between liberals and conservatives traces home to a disagreement about the basic source of human troubles. Liberals are inclined to… More
A Genealogy of Justice
– Commentary, July 1996.Abstract: All morally serious people care generally about justice. And when its apparent absence touches them directly, all people, serious or not, find themselves eager for justice. Even… More
Evolution and the Bible: Genesis I Revisited
– Commentary, November 1988.Abstract: These tensions between science and religion, never absent yet recently grown strong, nowadays focus mainly on the subject of evolution and its meaning for the Bible.
Love of Woman and Love of God: The Case of Jacob
– Commentary, March 1999.Abstract: The biblical patriarch’s romance with Rachel tells us much about the power of eros–but even more about divine purpose.
The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature
– University Of Chicago Press, May, 1999.The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and… More
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
– Free Press, 2003.Summary: As ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in The Beginning of Wisdom, it’s also… More
Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom by Alan Jacobs
– Alan Jacobs, First Things, June/July 2003.Excerpt: Leon Kass’ meditation on the wisdom of Genesis is expansive, curious, fascinatingly rich and digressive. This I claim without reservation, but my next claim begins with a… More
Interview on “NOW with Bill Moyers”
– “NOW with Bill Moyers,” PBS, July 25, 2003.Excerpt: ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: Congress defies the FCC decision to give big media more power. BURR: I think we ought to err on the side of looking out for the… More
Interview on “Charlie Rose”
– "Charlie Rose," July 1, 2003.First, a conversation with Richard A. Clarke, former National Security Council official and anti-terrorism advisor, about his report released by the Council on Foreign Relations, in which… More
Human Frailty and Human Dignity
– The New Atlantis (Fall 2004-Winter 2005).Excerpt: In the aftermath of an election season, with the question of stem cell research in the public eye and demagogued in the most awful way, Eric Cohen has chosen to ask more… More
Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis of Bioethics in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss and Leon Kass
– Lawrence A. Vogel, Hastings Center Report 36:3 (2006).Excerpt: The University of Chicago’s Leon Kass is the most important bioethicist writing out of the work of Hans Jonas today and, as Chairman of President Bush’s Council on… More
The Follies of Freedom and Reason: An Old Story
– In Richard Velkley, ed., Freedom and the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).Science, Religion, and the Human Future
– Commentary (April 2007).Excerpt: Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings… More
Athens, Jerusalem, and Modern Science: An Interview with Leon Kass, Amy Apfel Kass, and Francis Oakley
– The Cresset LXXII (1): 27-33 (Michaelmas 2008).Excerpt: Those who, like Andrew Delbanco, advocate renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the “two cultures” of the sciences and the humanities as part of a larger endeavor to renew… More
Permanent Tensions, Transcendent Prospects
– In Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, eds., Religion and the American Future (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2008), 83-117.Why Even Atheists Should Applaud the Ten Commandments
– Audio lecture, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute, January 12, 2009.Summary: ‘The Ten Commandments embody the core principles of the way of life of ancient Israel and of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, their influence… More
Principles for Neighbors: The “Second Table” of the Decalogue
– AEI Newsletter, February 01, 2009.Excerpt: Murder, adultery, and theft are outlawed by virtually all civilized peoples. These legal prohibitions are not only the necessary condition of civil peace; they erect important… More
The God-Seeking Animal by Eric Cohen
– Eric Cohen, First Things, April, 2010.Excerpt: On the cover of Being Human, the anthology of writings collected by the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass’s stewardship, there is a picture of a ballerina… More
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass
– Yuval Levin, Thomas W. Merrill, and Adam Schulman, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, May 25, 2010.Summary: Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades—as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender… More
The Ten Commandments: Why the Decalogue Matters
– Mosaic (June 2013).Excerpt: The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God’s new way for humankind finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how… More
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
– Mosaic Magazine, June 27, 2013.Excerpt: I thank Michael Fishbane, Peter Berkowitz, Gilbert Meilaender, and Meir Soloveichik for their generous treatment of my essay, for their serious engagement with its themes,… More
Pride, Lust, Technology—and the Hebrew Bible
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.Last month, Mosaic visited Leon R. Kass, author of our June essay, “The Ten Commandments,” in his Washington, D.C. office. We spoke first about the passions, the human heart and its… More
The People Saw the Thunder
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.The revelation at Sinai was a “phantasmagoric experience” where sight became sound, sound became sight, and the people stood in awe and confusion. But what about us, today? Can we, just… More
Why Two Covenants?
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.When we last left Leon Kass, he was talking about the passions that “lurk in the hearts of men” and the guidance the Hebrew Bible can give us in learning how to channel them. Now we… More
The Ten Commandments
– "The Ten Commandments," PCG at Harvard seminar series, April 8, 2016.Leon Kass discusses the Ten Commandments at the Program on Constitutional Government lunchtime seminar series, convened by Harvey Mansfield.
The Ten Commandments
– Leon Kass, Tikvah Podcast, May 18, 2017.In an interview with Jonathan Silver, Leon Kass discuss the Ten Commandments.
The People-Forming Passover
– Leon Kass, "The People-Forming Passover," Mosaic, April 6, 2020.Excerpt: The essay below is adapted from Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus by Leon R. Kass, forthcoming from Yale University Press in January 2021. The biblical book of Exodus,… More
On the formation of the People of Israel
– "The Formation of the People of Israel", Mosaic Podcast, May 15, 2020.Leon Kass joined the Mosaic Podcast to discuss his work on the Book of Exodus.
Exodus and American Nationhood
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and American Nationhood," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2021.What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? These questions have risen… More
Exodus and Liberal Education
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and Liberal Education," Politics and the Humanities, March 3, 2021.Leon Kass joined the American University Politics and the Humanities podcast to discuss his recent work on the Book of Exodus.
Teaching
What’s Wrong with Babel?
– The American Scholar 58 (1): 41-60, Winter 1989.Abstract: Traces the history of God’s working with the people of Israel. Book of Genesis, which teaches God as creator and authority, and man as seeking independence and… More
A Woman for All Seasons
– Commentary, September 1991.Abstract: One often hears it said, and not only by outsiders, that Judaism is a male-dominated religion that does not properly appreciate its women. The blame for this attitude, say many… More
Man and Woman: An Old Story
– First Things, November 1991.Excerpt: Man and woman. What are they, and why—each alone and both together? How are they alike and how different? How much is difference due to nature, how much to culture? What… More
Regarding Daughters and Sisters: The Rape of Dinah
– Commentary, April 1992.Abstract: Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder. For the… More
Seeing the Nakedness of His Father
– Commentary, June 1992.Abstract: Standing in the large men’s locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the… More
The Path Not Taken: Assimilation versus Separation, by Aaron Wildavsky
– Commentary, September 1993.Abstract: To assimilate or to stay apart? That is the question which for centuries has confronted Jews living in the Diaspora. How much may the children of Israel become like their host… More
Why the Dietary Laws?
– Commentary, June 1994.Abstract: A core document of Western civilization, the Torah or Pentateuch has at its center a set of dietary regulations, presented in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus. Though these now… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife
– First Things, November 1994.Excerpt: It is not exactly traditional to speak about the education of Abraham. Pious tales of the patriarch regard him as a precocious monotheist even before God calls him, a man who… More
Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Fatherhood
– First Things, December 1994.Excerpt: My theme is the education of the patriarch Abraham, Father of Judaism, father of Christianity, father of Islam. God Himself undertakes Abraham’s education in order to address and… More
The Need for Piety and Law: A Kristol-Clear Case
– In Christopher De Muth and William Kristol, eds., The Neoconservative Imagination: Essays in Honor of Irving Kristol (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1995), 112-33.What’s Your Name?
– With Amy A. Kass, First Things, November 1995.Excerpt: The authors of this essay on names have just identified themselves. Well, not quite. For the sake of full disclosure, they are willing to have it known that they have the same last… More
Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel
– First Things, April 1996.Excerpt: Once one gets right down to it, the difference between liberals and conservatives traces home to a disagreement about the basic source of human troubles. Liberals are inclined to… More
A Genealogy of Justice
– Commentary, July 1996.Abstract: All morally serious people care generally about justice. And when its apparent absence touches them directly, all people, serious or not, find themselves eager for justice. Even… More
Evolution and the Bible: Genesis I Revisited
– Commentary, November 1988.Abstract: These tensions between science and religion, never absent yet recently grown strong, nowadays focus mainly on the subject of evolution and its meaning for the Bible.
Love of Woman and Love of God: The Case of Jacob
– Commentary, March 1999.Abstract: The biblical patriarch’s romance with Rachel tells us much about the power of eros–but even more about divine purpose.
The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature
– University Of Chicago Press, May, 1999.The Hungry Soul is a fascinating exploration of the natural and cultural act of eating. Kass brilliantly reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, and the customs, rituals, and… More
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
– Free Press, 2003.Summary: As ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in The Beginning of Wisdom, it’s also… More
Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom by Alan Jacobs
– Alan Jacobs, First Things, June/July 2003.Excerpt: Leon Kass’ meditation on the wisdom of Genesis is expansive, curious, fascinatingly rich and digressive. This I claim without reservation, but my next claim begins with a… More
Interview on “NOW with Bill Moyers”
– “NOW with Bill Moyers,” PBS, July 25, 2003.Excerpt: ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS: Congress defies the FCC decision to give big media more power. BURR: I think we ought to err on the side of looking out for the… More
Interview on “Charlie Rose”
– "Charlie Rose," July 1, 2003.First, a conversation with Richard A. Clarke, former National Security Council official and anti-terrorism advisor, about his report released by the Council on Foreign Relations, in which… More
Human Frailty and Human Dignity
– The New Atlantis (Fall 2004-Winter 2005).Excerpt: In the aftermath of an election season, with the question of stem cell research in the public eye and demagogued in the most awful way, Eric Cohen has chosen to ask more… More
Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis of Bioethics in Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss and Leon Kass
– Lawrence A. Vogel, Hastings Center Report 36:3 (2006).Excerpt: The University of Chicago’s Leon Kass is the most important bioethicist writing out of the work of Hans Jonas today and, as Chairman of President Bush’s Council on… More
The Follies of Freedom and Reason: An Old Story
– In Richard Velkley, ed., Freedom and the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).Science, Religion, and the Human Future
– Commentary (April 2007).Excerpt: Western civilization would not be Western civilization were it not for biblical religion, which reveres and trusts in the one God, Who has made known what He wants of human beings… More
Athens, Jerusalem, and Modern Science: An Interview with Leon Kass, Amy Apfel Kass, and Francis Oakley
– The Cresset LXXII (1): 27-33 (Michaelmas 2008).Excerpt: Those who, like Andrew Delbanco, advocate renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the “two cultures” of the sciences and the humanities as part of a larger endeavor to renew… More
Permanent Tensions, Transcendent Prospects
– In Christopher DeMuth and Yuval Levin, eds., Religion and the American Future (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2008), 83-117.Why Even Atheists Should Applaud the Ten Commandments
– Audio lecture, Bradley Lecture, American Enterprise Institute, January 12, 2009.Summary: ‘The Ten Commandments embody the core principles of the way of life of ancient Israel and of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even in our increasingly secular age, their influence… More
Principles for Neighbors: The “Second Table” of the Decalogue
– AEI Newsletter, February 01, 2009.Excerpt: Murder, adultery, and theft are outlawed by virtually all civilized peoples. These legal prohibitions are not only the necessary condition of civil peace; they erect important… More
The God-Seeking Animal by Eric Cohen
– Eric Cohen, First Things, April, 2010.Excerpt: On the cover of Being Human, the anthology of writings collected by the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass’s stewardship, there is a picture of a ballerina… More
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass
– Yuval Levin, Thomas W. Merrill, and Adam Schulman, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, May 25, 2010.Summary: Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades—as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender… More
The Ten Commandments: Why the Decalogue Matters
– Mosaic (June 2013).Excerpt: The biblical book of Genesis presents the story of how God’s new way for humankind finds its first adherent in a single individual-Abraham, a man out of Mesopotamia-and how… More
A Reply to My Respondents, and My Friends
– Mosaic Magazine, June 27, 2013.Excerpt: I thank Michael Fishbane, Peter Berkowitz, Gilbert Meilaender, and Meir Soloveichik for their generous treatment of my essay, for their serious engagement with its themes,… More
Pride, Lust, Technology—and the Hebrew Bible
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.Last month, Mosaic visited Leon R. Kass, author of our June essay, “The Ten Commandments,” in his Washington, D.C. office. We spoke first about the passions, the human heart and its… More
The People Saw the Thunder
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.The revelation at Sinai was a “phantasmagoric experience” where sight became sound, sound became sight, and the people stood in awe and confusion. But what about us, today? Can we, just… More
Why Two Covenants?
– Video conversation with Leon R. Kass, Mosaic, July 2013.When we last left Leon Kass, he was talking about the passions that “lurk in the hearts of men” and the guidance the Hebrew Bible can give us in learning how to channel them. Now we… More
The Ten Commandments
– "The Ten Commandments," PCG at Harvard seminar series, April 8, 2016.Leon Kass discusses the Ten Commandments at the Program on Constitutional Government lunchtime seminar series, convened by Harvey Mansfield.
The Ten Commandments
– Leon Kass, Tikvah Podcast, May 18, 2017.In an interview with Jonathan Silver, Leon Kass discuss the Ten Commandments.
The People-Forming Passover
– Leon Kass, "The People-Forming Passover," Mosaic, April 6, 2020.Excerpt: The essay below is adapted from Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus by Leon R. Kass, forthcoming from Yale University Press in January 2021. The biblical book of Exodus,… More
On the formation of the People of Israel
– "The Formation of the People of Israel", Mosaic Podcast, May 15, 2020.Leon Kass joined the Mosaic Podcast to discuss his work on the Book of Exodus.
Exodus and American Nationhood
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and American Nationhood," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2021.What makes a people a people? What forms their communal identity, holds them together, guides their lives? To what do they look up? For what should they strive? These questions have risen… More
Exodus and Liberal Education
– Leon Kass, "Exodus and Liberal Education," Politics and the Humanities, March 3, 2021.Leon Kass joined the American University Politics and the Humanities podcast to discuss his recent work on the Book of Exodus.