Nathan Rotenstreich wrote that understanding the world is a precondition for changing it. Since his years in the youth movement "Gordonia", he was loyal to bringing together thoughts and ideas with the twisted road to their realization. His writings influenced and inspired, and still do so, the existential struggles of the Jewish world and of Israel in the turmoil of times. The present collection of papers aims to be a link to the interaction between thoughts and deeds, and between intellectual heritage and what he called: "The tempo of action and events" . Many of his writings bear very clear interpretations, so much so that it seems they were written in the present. These papers are hidden in periodicals, protocols of conventions and newspapers. Therefore it is appropriate they should be partly exposed in the new volume so that they are available and challenging for future generations. Moreover, his special contributions will illuminate aspects of the renewable sides of his work. The collection marks Nathan Rotenstreich 100 birthday and 20 years since he passed away.

This book is concerned with the exploration of the concept of human dignity, which is taken as the ultimate basis of the entitlement of man to his special position in the inter-human context, and also as what can be described as the metaphysical orbit. The thesis of the book is that the concept is so eclectic that it is mandatory to explore its various components: man and morality, and the attribution of sanctity to human life. The method pursued explores these various aspects by analyzing the most prominent expressions of the various views of philosophers, and adding critical comments to the analysis.