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Chapter 1: The Left and Right on Liberty
Chapter 2: Theory and Practice in America
Chapter 3: Stations on the Long Road
Chapter 5: Challenges, Pitfalls, and the Journey to Freedom
Lamenting the ideological polarization in American public life has become a feature of modern politics. But perhaps what ails America is less what divides the Left and Right than the errors they share. In “Taking the Long Way,” published in First Things in 2014, political thinker Yuval Levin argues that liberals and conservatives are both inspired by an overly individualistic understanding of the human person and a weak vision of political freedom. For all the apparent differences between our parties, Levin believes we must attend to the tacit assumptions that serve as the philosophical foundation for both of them. Levin turns to the Book of Exodus in order to help him explain a more enduring liberation consistent with a truer understanding of the human condition. This more enduring freedom does not spring fully formed into the hearts and minds of spontaneously ordered libertarians or exquisitely managed progressives. Political freedom is an achievement that lies at the end of a long road, best traveled in the company of friends, neighbors, and family.
In this podcast, Levin joins Tikvah Senior Director Jonathan Silver to discuss this important essay. They begin by discussing what both the Left and Right get wrong about freedom. Then, using Exodus to guide their conversation, Levin and Silver discuss the stations on the long road to liberty, the potential pitfalls along this path, and what traditional Jews can teach their fellow citizens about creating the cultural preconditions that sustain the free society.
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 Ich Grolle Nicht, by Ron Meixsell and Wahneta Meixsell.
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- 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
- 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
More about: • Jewish Education • Jewish Political Thought • Jews and Markets • Religious Liberty and the Jews • The American Jewish Experience • The Jewish Family • Tikvah Podcasts
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