Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.

Chapter 1: Hayek and His Work

Chapter 2: Law, Legislation, and Seeing the Unseen

Chapter 3: “I, Pencil”

Chapter 4: The Jewish Theory of Knoweldge

Chapter 5: Freedom, Holiness, and the Ends of Society

It is common today to hear those who are hostile to traditional religion accuse the pious of unwarranted certainty about the truths of the universe. Yet, in the Jewish tradition, one finds something else altogether. Jewish texts often tell the stories of men and women who strive for knowledge, divine and human, amidst a great deal of uncertainty. From Moses—who could not see the face of God—to Job—who was rebuked by the Lord for presuming to know too much—even the biblical figures who have the most intimate relationships with God demonstrate the limits of human knowledge.

The notion that some measure of ignorance is intrinsic to the human condition has been shared by many thinkers throughout history. In the 20^th century, there was perhaps no better articulator of the idea than Friedrich Hayek, the Austrian economist and social theorist. He wrote frequently about the limits of what any one individual can know and criticized those economists and technocrats who exhibited what he derisively called “the pretence of knowledge.” For Hayek, true knowledge is dispersed and built up over many years and embodied in price signals, social customs, and traditions that have stood the test of time.

Hayek wrote and thought in the context of the social sciences, but do his insights about knowledge and ignorance point to understandings shared by the Jewish tradition? In this podcast, Tikvah Senior Director Jonathan Silver is joined by economist Russ Roberts to tackle this question. Roberts, host of the popular EconTalk podcast, is himself an observant Jew, and he helps us think through what Hayek’s epistemology has in common with the Jewish tradition as well as how they differ. As he does so, we will see how ancient Jewish philosophy and modern social thought can help bring each other into clearer focus.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble, as well as “Baruch Habah,” performed by the choir of Congregation Shearith Israel.

More podcasts:

• • Haviv Rettig Gur on Israel’s Deep State
  • Ruth Wisse & Hillel Halkin on the Authors Who Created Modern Hebrew Literature
  • Gil Troy on Never Alone
  • Jared Kushner on His Approach to Middle East Diplomacy
  • Ambassador Ron Dermer on the Israel-U.A.E. Accord
  • Micah Goodman on Politics, Power, and Kingship in Deuteronomy
  • Michael Doran on China’s Drive for Middle Eastern Supremacy
  • Peter Berkowitz on Unalienable Rights, the American Tradition, and Foreign Policy
  • Wilfred McClay on the Historic Jewish-Christian Rapprochement
  • Amos Yadlin on the Explosions Rocking Iran
  • Jason Bedrick on School Choice, Religious Liberty, and the Jews
  • Meir Soloveichik on the Genius of Rabbi Norman Lamm
  • Tara Isabella Burton on Spirituality in a Godless Age
  • Gary Saul Morson on “Leninthink”
  • David Wolpe on The Pandemic and the Future of Liberal Judaism
  • Chaim Saiman on the “Zoom Seder” and Its Discontents
  • Leon Kass on Reading Exodus and the Formation of the People of Israel
  • Einat Wilf on the West’s Indulgence of Palestinian Delusions
  • Matti Friedman—The End of the Israeli Left?
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Society and the COVID-19 Crisis
  • Menachem Wecker on Yoga and Idolatry
  • Moshe Koppel on How Israel’s Perpetual Election Came to an End
  • Michael Doran on Coronavirus in Iran
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on the Transformation of Israeli Music
  • Richard Goldberg on the Future of Iran Policy
  • Rafael Medoff on Franklin Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and the Holocaust
  • Eugene Kontorovich on the Trump Peace Plan
  • Mark Gottlieb on Jewish Sexual Ethics
  • Michael Avi Helfand on Religious Freedom, Education, and the Supreme Court
  • Joshua Berman on Biblical Criticism, Faith, and Integrity
  • Ruth Wisse on What Saul Bellow Saw
  • Daniel Cox on Millennials, Religion, and the Family
  • Yuval Levin on Rebuilding American Institutions
  • Neil Rogachevsky on Israeli Electoral Reform
  • Yuval Levin on the Remarkable Legacy of Gertrude Himmelfarb
  • Best of 2019 at the Tikvah Podcast
  • Arthur Herman on China and the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship”
  • Walter Russell Mead on Israel and American Foreign Policy
  • Senator Joseph Lieberman on American Jews and the Zionist Dream
  • Avital Chizik-Goldschmidt & Batya Ungar-Sargon on Why No One Cares about Attacks on the Orthodox
  • Eugene Kontorovich on America and the Settlements
  • David Makovsky: What Can We Learn from Israel’s Founders?
  • Christine Rosen on Thinking Religiously about Facebook
  • Jacob Howland: The Philosopher Who Reads the Talmud
  • Dru Johnson, Jonathan Silver, and Robert Nicholson on Reviving Hebraic Thought
  • Thomas Karako on the U.S., Israel, and Missile Defense
  • David Bashevkin on Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought
  • Matti Friedman on Israel, the Mizrahi Nation
  • Micah Goodman on Shrinking the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part III
  • Meir Soloveichik on the Meaning of Kashrut
  • Avi Weiss on the AMIA Bombing Cover-Up
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part II
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part I
  • Jeremy Rabkin on Israel and International Law
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Politics and Culture
  • Mona Charen on Sex, Love, and Where Feminism Went Wrong
  • Dara Horn on Eternal Life
  • David Evanier on the Rosenbergs, Morton Sobell, and Jewish Communism
  • Michael Doran on America’s Standoff with Iran
  • Daniel Krauthammer on His Father’s Jewish Legacy
  • Yaakov Katz on Shadow Strike
  • Annika Hernroth-Rothstein on the Miracle of Jewish Continuity
  • Menachem Wecker on What’s Wrong with the Jewish Museum
  • Francine Klagsbrun on Golda Meir—Israel’s Lioness
  • Jonathan Neumann on the Left, the Right, and the Jews
  • Matti Friedman on Israel’s First Spies
  • Dovid Margolin on the Rebbe’s Campaign for a Moment of Silence
  • Scott Shay on Idolatry, Ancient and Modern
  • Joshua Berman on Whether the Exodus Really Happened
  • Daniel Gordis on the Rift Between American and Israeli Jews
  • Nicholas Gallagher on Jewish History and America’s Immigration Crisis
  • Special Envoy Elan Carr on America’s Fight against Anti-Semitism
  • Malka Groden on the Jewish Family and America’s Adoption Crisis
  • Eugene Kontorovich Explains Congress’s Effort to Counter BDS
  • David Wolpe on the Future of Conservative Judaism
  • Michael Doran on America’s Allies and America’s Enemies
  • Jonah Goldberg on Marx’s Jew-Hating Conspiracy Theory
  • Ambassador Danny Danon Goes on Offense at the U.N.
  • A New Year at the Tikvah Podcast
  • The Best of 2018
  • Jacob J. Schacter on Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and the State of Israel
  • Chaim Saiman on the Rabbinic Idea of Law
  • Daniel Polisar on Herzl’s “The Menorah”
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Conservatism
  • Leon Kass on His Life and the Worthy Life
  • Clifford Librach on the Reform Movement and Jewish Peoplehood
  • Michael Doran on Theology, Zionism, and American Foreign Policy
  • Sohrab Ahmari on Sex, Desire, and the Transgender Movement
  • Yoram Hazony on the Bible’s Political Teaching
  • John Podhoretz on the Best and Worst of Jewish Cinema
  • Jamie Kirchick on Europe’s Coming Dark Age
  • Introducing Kikar – Elliott Abrams on Hamas, Gaza, and the Case for Jewish Power
  • Ruth Wisse on the Nature and Functions of Anti-Semitism
  • Jeffrey Saks on Shmuel Yosef Agnon
  • Samuel Goldman on Christian Zionism in America
  • Martin Kramer on Ben-Gurion, Borders, and the Vote That Made Israel
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on Moving In and Out of Extremism
  • Charles Freilich on the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship”
  • Jeffrey Salkin on “Judaism Beyond Slogans”
  • Erica Brown on Educating Jewish Adults
  • Mark Dubowitz on the Future of the Iran Deal
  • Greg Weiner on Moynihan, Israel, and the United Nations
  • Daniel Polisar on Nationhood, Zionism, and the Jews
  • Jon Levenson on the Danger and Opportunity of Jewish-Christian Dialogue
  • Leora Batnitzky on the Legacy of Leo Strauss
  • Wilfred McClay on America’s Civil Religion
  • Robert Nicholson on Evangelicals, Israel, and the Jews
  • Charles Small on “The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism”
  • Daniel Mark on Judaism and Our Postmodern Age
  • Ruth Wisse on the Perversity of Brilliance
  • Daniel Troy on “The Burial Society”
  • Matthew Continetti on William F. Buckley, the Conservative Movement, and Anti-Semitism
  • Jonathan Sacks on Creative Minorities
  • Elliott Abrams on “Dictatorships and Double Standards”
  • Jay Lefkowitz on His Life in the Arena
  • Michael Doran on America’s Middle East Strategy
  • Gabriel Scheinmann on Bombing the Syrian Reactor
  • Elliott Abrams on His Calling and Career
  • Jeffrey Bloom on Faith and America’s Addiction Crisis
  • Gil Student on the Journey into Orthodoxy
  • Meir Soloveichik on “L’Chaim and Its Limits”
  • Michael Makovsky on Churchill and the Jews
  • Neil Rogachevsky on the Story Behind Oslo
  • Mark Gottlieb on Jewish Education
  • Mitchell Rocklin on Jewish-Christian Relations
  • Liel Leibovitz on the Jewish Poetry of Leonard Cohen
  • Ruth Wisse on Tevye the Dairyman
  • Samuel Goldman on Religion, State, and the Jews
  • Leon Kass on the Ten Commandments
  • Ruth Wisse on Cynthia Ozick’s “Innovation and Redemption”
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall”
  • Tevi Troy on the Politics of Tu B’Shvat
  • Jay Lefkowitz & Mitchell Rocklin on the Jewish Vote
  • Yuval Levin on the Long Way to Liberty
  • Ruth Wisse on Sartre and Anti-Semitism
  • Edward Rothstein on Jerusalem Syndrome at the Met
  • Matthew Continetti on Irving Kristol’s Theological Politics
  • Meir Soloveichik on King David
  • R.R. Reno on “Faith in the Flesh”
  • Arthur Herman on Why Everybody Loves Israel
  • Peter Berkowitz on a Liberal Education and Its Betrayal
  • Meir Soloveichik on Rembrandt, Tolkien, and the Jews
  • Yoram Hazony on Nationalism and the Future of Western Freedom
  • Jason Bedrick on Jewish Day Schools and School Choice
  • Allan Arkush on Ahad Ha’am and “The Jewish State and Jewish Problem”
  • Bret Stephens on the Legacy of 1967 and the U.S.-Israel Relationship
  • Jay Lefkowitz on Social Orthodoxy
  • Norman Podhoretz on Jerusalem and Jewish Particularity
  • Michael Doran on Western Elites and the Middle East
  • Ruth Wisse on Campus Anti-Semitism
  • Meir Soloveichik on “Confrontation”
  • Yuval Levin on Religious Liberty
  • Elliott Abrams on American Jews and Israel