[Avodah] The Main Idea of Judaism

[hankman]

: Why should there be a central message? The Abarbanel (in Rosh 
: Amana IIRC) denies that Judaism has ikkarim, and I think one can argue 
: plausibly that Western ethical theorists have gone wrong partly because 
: they spend too much effort looking for single unifying principles.

CM notes:
If memory serves, the Abarbanel’s point is that every part of Torah is important in the sense that even disbelief in one letter makes you an apikores. In this sense each letter is equally “important” but this does not need to contradict the notion that there is a central theme to Judaism.

The above unnecessarily conflates the notion of “main theme” with most important – not necessarily the same.

Kol tuv

Chaim Manaster
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