How Do Non-Religious Jews Participate in the Jewish Covenant? Rabbi Dr. Judah Goldberg on Brit Avot and Brit Sinai (291)

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For many Orthodox Jews, Judaism is ultimately defined by Torah and halakha. We received the Torah at Har Sinai, and from that moment onward, Jewish life became a life of mitzvot, obligation, and commandedness. But what about everything that came before Sinai?

What about the covenant with Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? What about Jewish peoplehood, responsibility for other Jews, the Land of Israel, ethical mission, and the sense of belonging to a shared Jewish destiny?

And perhaps most provocatively: what does all of this mean for the way religious Jews relate to nonreligious Jews today?

In this episode, Rabbi Dr. Judah Goldberg argues that Brit Sinai did not erase Brit Avot. The covenant of Torah stands at the center of Judaism, but it exists alongside an earlier covenant that still shapes Jewish life and Jewish obligation. Drawing on Rav Soloveitchik and Rabbi Walter Wurzburger, Dr. Goldberg explains why covenantal responsibility cannot be reduced entirely to halakhic categories, and why Jewish destiny, Jewish nationhood, and commitment to the Jewish people possess real significance even beyond formal observance.

That raises difficult and controversial questions. Can secular Zionism contain authentic religious value? Is there spiritual significance in Jewish solidarity even outside full halakhic commitment? And if covenantal values exist alongside halakha, how do we prevent Judaism from becoming untethered from Torah itself?

As Shavuot approaches, this conversation explores how Torah, covenant, peoplehood, and Jewish destiny intersect, and what that might mean for the relationship between religious and nonreligious Jews in the modern Jewish world.

To listen to Dr. Goldberg's series, Before Sinai: Jewish Values and Jewish Law, click here.

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