Paradigms of Friendship: What Philosophers and Rabbis Can Teach Us
with Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, PhD, Rabbi Judah Nadich Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics
The Greek philosophers asserted that there are four types of friendship. This model, which was adopted by Maimonides, considered shared joint engagement in intellectual matters the highest form of friendship. Missing from this paradigm is the importance of certain character traits in creating and sustaining friendships. We consider the “four friendships” model and then take a mussar oriented approach to suggest alternative paradigms.
About the Series
“Two Are Better Than One:” Friendship in Jewish Text and Tradition
Friendship is a critical component of our daily lives, our mental health, and our Jewish communal experiences. Ecclesiastes (4:9) posits, “Two are better than one,” underscoring the significance of companionship and partnership in Jewish tradition and the role they play in a life well-lived. Join JTS faculty to explore the concept of friendship through Jewish texts, history, and thought. They will consider friendship in times of joy and times of crisis, both with those in our inner circles and with our neighbors and fellow citizens more broadly. We also consider some important paradigms for friendship and discuss the values we can distill from these models of friendship
