In his review of Rabbi David Hartman’s book The God Who Hates Lies: Confronting & Rethinking Jewish Tradition (winter 2012), Rabbi Gil Student simply states that he found Rabbi Hartman’s arguments to be “unconvincing” and thus “need no rebuttal.” I’m not sure how this qualifies as a legitimate review and what value it offers people who are considering reading the book. In this same overly simplistic spirit, I would to like to counter by stating that I found Rabbi Hartman’s arguments to be convincing and the ethical versus halachic arguments he raises to be quite disturbing. And I was happy to hear that he feels the halachic framework does support ways in which it is possible to free an agunah. His book is an important read for anyone who cares about an ethical halachic system.
Robby Berman
Jerusalem, Israel