This roundtable brings together a philosopher (Christian B. Miller), a scholar of modern Judaism (Andrea Dara Cooper), a Christian theologian (Jeffrey C. Pugh), and a Christian ethicist (Rebecca Todd Peters) in discussion of Geoffrey D. Claussen's book Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simḥah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar (SUNY Press, 2015).
Claussen's book analyzes the thought of Rabbi Simḥah Zissel Ziv (1824–1898), the founder of the first Musar movement yeshiva and the first traditionalist institution in Eastern Europe that included general studies in its curriculum. The volume analyzes the classically Aristotelian contours of Simḥah Zissel's theory of virtue, considers Simḥah Zissel's engagement with philosophy and the importance of philosophical reasoning, and explores Simḥah Zissel's contention that moral development requires exceedingly great effort and discipline. Claussen gives particular attention to Simḥah Zissel's focus on the virtue of “loving one's fellow as oneself” by “sharing the burden of one's fellow,” animated...
