Shai Held — On Love, and Judaism

I am on record bemoaning across the years that love is the most watered-down word in the English language. I do know that invoking love feels very soft for our hard realms of politics and power. Yet it is an enduring truth that love is the only force as powerful in a human body as fear. And we inhabit a world that calls us to grow up our capacity to love and be loved, and

to redeem our relationships to neighbors, strangers, and enemies as never before. My guest this hour, Shai Held, has written an epic theological work called Judaism is About Love. But as he interrogates Judaism's complicated history with love, he makes an offering that