The Hartman era As much as Hartman was a catalyst for spiritual
change in Israeli society, he and his thought process are a
reflection of a post-modern era characterized by new, innovative
and more egalitarian forms of religious expression. Rabbi
Hartman funeral Photo: Rachel Marder Rabbi David Hartman, who
passed away on Sunday at the age of 81, represented an approach
to Judaism that in 1971 – the year he arrived in Israel – was on
the cutting edge not just in Israeli society, but in Western
culture in general. Emphasizing individuality and searching out
personal paths to God, while rejecting the need for spiritual
intermediaries, religious authorities or institutions, Hartman’s
thought was very much a product of, and an influence on, the
post-modern era. In an interview with Yediot Aharonot to mark
his 80th birthday, Hartman lamented the dichotomy between the
religious and the secular that was a fixture of the State of
Israel in its first decades under the leadership of David Ben-
Gurion and which to a larg