By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland — The 515-page 2025 exceptional book Accepting and Excepting: On Pluralism and Chosenness out of the Sources of Judaism is by Raphael Jospe, one of the most respected contemporary voices in Jewish philosophy.
Jospe gives readers very readable, profound, learned, and deeply humane ideas on one of the central questions of our time: how religious people can remain authentic to their religion while being fully respectful of people of other religions with radically different views. The book received high praise from many university philosophy professors.
Jospe’s central thesis is that interreligious pluralism is not only a moral, rational, and political necessity but also a philosophical and theological imperative rooted in Judaism’s own sources. He shows this by drawing on a vast range of Jewish texts—from the Bible and rabbinic literature to medieval thinkers such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, and Judah Halevi, to modern figures such as Moses Mendelssohn, Mordecai Kaplan, and Jonathan Sacks.
He constructs a vision of Judaism that is both distinct and universal, loyal to Jewish history and views, and open to truths taught by others.
The book contains 15 fascinating and informative chapters, including: is affirming chosenness and pluralism compatible; what do Jewish sources say about pluralism; Jewish views of Christianity and Mormons, as well as other traditions; the silence of many rabbis on philosophy; who is the neighbor in Leviticus 19:18 that we are to love; Zionism, antisemitism, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and other Jews; accepting the teachings of the sages; the infallibility of rabbis according to Nachmanides; the Mosaic authorship of the Torah; the problem of literalistic interpretations of Scripture and of the sages; and very much more. It includes 13 pages of a two-column index.
The book’s title captures its paradoxical spirit: it is “accepting” of religious and cultural Others while “excepting”— that is, excluding — ideas that reject Jewish teachings. He argues for a revaluation of the concept of “chosen people.” It is not a claim of superiority or exclusivity. It is an expression of responsibility, a duty to work to create a moral world for all humanity.
He recognizes that dialogue with others is necessary. No single religion can lay an absolute claim to truth; each must engage others in humility and mutual respect. As Maimonides taught, “The truth is the truth no matter what its source.”
His essays reflect his lifelong engagement in interfaith work. His decades of experience in Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Mormon dialogue. He is not only a retired professor of Jewish philosophy living in Jerusalem, but also a Lieutenant Colonel in the National Search and Rescue Unit of the Israel Defense Forces reserves. He lives what he teaches. In one of his search-and-rescue missions in a foreign country not many years ago, he was injured and still walks with a limp, a reminder of the many times he helped non-Jews in other countries.
What distinguishes Accepting and Excepting is Jospe’s ability to weave philosophical abstraction with down-to-earth common sense. His treatment of “belonging” versus “believing,” inspired by a 1967 letter from the famous scholar Mordecai Kaplan, a copy of which is in the book, is a bright light that guides us through the book. For Jospe, Jewish identity is sustained not only through assent to doctrine but also through behavior and sharing—treating others as you desire to be treated.
This book is essential because of its timeliness. At present, religious absolutism and moral relativism threaten public discourse. Jospe models an alternative: rigorous fidelity to one’s own faith combined with genuine reverence for the Other.
As Professor Menachem Kellner aptly observes in his endorsement, Jospe is “both a thinking Jew and an important Jewish thinker.” This dual identity—critical and committed, analytic and empathetic—defines the tone of the entire book. Professor Zev Harvey praises its “smiling, wise, and pluralistic Judaism,” and indeed, there is a serenity in Jospe’s reasoning, a confidence that pluralism does not erode religion but enriches it.
Accepting and Excepting will appeal to scholars of Jewish philosophy, theologians of religion, as well as all people concerned about religion in a pluralistic world. It is a masterful, nuanced, and profoundly relevant contribution to Jewish and non-Jewish religious thinking and interreligious philosophy.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps. He is the author of more than 50 books.