Thicker Norms.
From Burt Neuborne’s review of Sarah Barringer Gordon’s The Spriti of the Law, today at The Forward.
When my daughter first explained to me why she wanted to be a rabbi, she said that she had watched my wife and I spend a lifetime seeking to use law and reason to bring moral order to a chaotic universe. “Your norms are too thin,” she told me. “I’m going to try to achieve the same goals — but I’m going to use thicker norms.” Sally Gordon’s excellent book explains why she was right. In the long run, the norms of faith are thicker than the norms of law and reason. That’s often grounds for celebration. But it’s also a reason to be very frightened.