L'amore come tema filosofico nella tradizione ebraica

LOVE AS A PHILOSOPHICAL THEME IN THE JEWISH TRADITION. The essay offers a comprehensive ‘Jewish philosophy of love’ and explores the philosophical and theological meanings of Hebrew words such as ahavah, chesed, and rachamim, all conveying the ideas of love, goodness and compassion. First, love is analyzed as a precept («the most important commandment») in the Torah and rabbinical law (halakhah) from an historical perspective; then, the same idea is related to the concept of ‘fear of God’ as developed in the major works of medieval Jewish thinkers (Bachya Ibn Paquda, Yehudah Halevi, and Moses Maimonides); in addition, the love for God and for the neighbor is studied through some masters of Hassidism, under the lens of Martin Buber reflection on this mystical current of modern Judaism; finally, the centrality of the precept of love in Jewish thought is explored within the hyperbolic ethics proposed by Emmanuel Levinas and Catherine Chalier, under the demanding category of ‘asymmetrical love’.