In this volume, Jewish philosopher Shira Weiss offers fascinating perspectives on narratives in the HB that have been questioned as morally ambiguous but that are not explicitly condemned by the text itself. Her goal is to demonstrate how philosophical ethical approaches can contribute to ethical reflection on these biblical texts. An interesting feature of Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible is that Weiss constantly brings in Targumic and rabbinic readings of the textual examples.
In the introduction, Weiss underscores that the narratives depict complex individuals involved in complicated ethical quandaries, a literary quality that prompts readers to “contest boundaries, examine preconceptions, and interpret ambiguity in an effort to find moral meaning in Scripture and inform their own moral thinking” (p. 11). In other words, the contested moral intricacies of the stories in the HB can serve as a school for moral reflection and growth. Her purpose is not to provide...
