Judaism book reviews

A question of blessing Israel

Simon Rocker — Sun, 19 May 2013 10:42:32 +0100

The prayer for the state of Israel has become so much a regular part of the Shabbat morning service in most synagogues that it is easy to forget that its wording is still a source of controversy.

I was once in a shteibl where after the Torah reading, the congregation split into two over the prayer: one group wanted to bless the “state of Israel”, but the other, refusing any concession to Zionism, went to another room and instead prayed for “the residents of the land of Israel”.

This is not the only dispute. The common form of the prayer in Israel describes the state as “the first flowering of our redemption”: but others — including the Singer’s siddur, for instance — omit this messianic reference. It is a dispute not just about halachic technicalities but about political and religious ideology, and it can be so fraught that, as Avraham Steinberg observes in his short volume, it “has sometimes even been attended by verbal — and even physical — violence”

His book is essentially a compilation of rabbinic sources from the Talmud to the 20th century, which inform the arguments used by the different protagonists, Zionist and anti-Zionist. It looks beyond the narrow question of the terminology of the prayer to divergent views of the coming of the Messiah: does it happen as part of a natural order of events or by miraculous intervention? And, if so, is the birth of Israel to be recognised as a miracle in our times which beckons towards the ultimate redemption?

The greatness of the Gaon

Simon Rocker — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:37:32 +0100

If anyone were to open a rabbinic hall of fame, then one of the first entrants would be Elijah ben Solomon, the 18th-century authority known as the Vilna Gaon (“Genius”). The reclusive scholar, who was too busy studying and writing to publish in his lifetime, was the presiding spirit of a community which became the intellectual capital of east European Jewry.

His focus on Talmud laid the foundations of modern yeshivah study and, ultimately, the revival of Orthodoxy. But his voluminous commentaries spanned the corpus of Jewish religious literature, including Kabbalah, and he even penned a book in Hebrew on Euclidean mathematics.

Though he eschewed communal office, his authority radiated beyond the study hall, especially in his strong opposition to the spread of Chasidism.

Yale University associate professor Eliyahu Stern sets the Gaon’s ideas in the context of the intellectual milieu of his times, arguing for a more complex interaction between tradition and modernity than is often assumed.

The Gaon wrote “perhaps with greater breadth and variation than any other figure in Jewish history”, Stern suggests. And it is not just the yeshivah world where he left a lasting influence: much of the “intellectual dynamism, social confidence and political assertiveness” of modern Jewry derives from this Polish-Lithuanian luminary.

Learning from the Litvaks

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:13:05 +0000

A fascinating collaboration between Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein of South Africa and Rabbi Berel Wein, the historian and Torah teacher, this work considers the scholarly and ethical achievements of the Lithuanian yeshivah world and its key rabbinical leaders.

Consisting of a series of chapters each written by one of the authors, it offers insights into a world of concentrated Torah study and rigorous character development in pre-War Lithuania. Wein and Goldstein were trained in renowned educational institutions of Lithuanian descent and draw heavily on their personal experiences of their own teachers.

The book focuses particularly on the musar movement, which placed a strong emphasis on personal refinement and sensitivity to others, aspirations that could never be sacrificed to ritual stringency. I was struck by Wein’s distinction between superficial courtesy and genuine pleasantness. And in an engaging discussion of the almost untranslatable Yiddish term eirlichkeit, Goldstein sets out the extreme importance attached in classical sources to honesty, genuine modesty, and transparency, topics that are rarely tackled properly.

Of course, the longest chapter is reserved for the core tenet of Lithuanian Orthodoxy — the absolute centrality of Torah study, including an interesting section about learning as the source of Jewish identity.
The book is well-edited and readable, if not a trifle hagiographic. It succeeds in conveying the power and intensity of Lithuanian-style Judaism, one that despite its physical obliteration by the Nazis, flourishes in its spiritual inheritors in Israel, the US and Europe today.

In the footprints of Lord Sacks

Simon Rocker — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:30:14 +0000

The first tribute to Lord Sacks in his final year as chief rabbi will take place on Monday night at a book launch. This time it will be not for one of his own books — and his output has been prolific — but a collection of essays written in his honour.

Co-edited by Hampstead Synagogue’s Rabbi Michael Harris, Yeshiva University philosophy lecturer Daniel Rynhold and academic director of the London School of Jewish Studies Tamra Wright, it contains contributions from thinkers from both the secular and religious world: philosophers Michael Walzer and Alasdair MacIntyre, religious scholars Dayan Michael Broyde and Rabbi J.J.Schachter from the States, Rabbi Binyamin Lau and Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg from Israel, to name a few.

Rabbi Harris said, “We wanted it to be a suitable tribute to his legacy, not just a celebration but the beginning of a conversation about his ideas. It is based around the three themes of ethics, religion and contemporary society, and leadership which encapsulate his work.”

Dr Wright, for instance, suggests the creation of a new school of mussar, ethics, literature inspired by Rabbi Sacks’s ideas on Torah and psychology.

His oeuvre can be summed up in the phrase Torah vechochmah, Torah and secular wisdom, Rabbi Harris said. “It brings the Torah into conversation with Western literature and thought.”
While written by academics, the book has been edited with the aim of making it accessible to general readers, Rabbi Harris said.

Launches in Jerusalem and New York are ample testimony to the Chief Rabbi’s intellectual reach.

Little room for Europe

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:59:34 +0000

This is a beautifully produced book, clearly set out and accessibly written, which will no doubt make it a welcome addition to those who want to buy an attractive gift for a child celebrating bar- or batmitzvah.

The articles are well-written and often provide resources for further reading, but I have to confess as a British reader I found myself thinking of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and its entry for Earth, which consisted of one word “harmless” and which was revised after a 15-year research endeavour to “mostly harmless”.

While published by Cambridge University Press, the book is focused almost exclusively on the American and to a lesser extent the Israeli experience of Judaism and Jewish culture: and while these are clearly the substantial loci of the Jewish world, I felt the lack of a European perspective and this marred my experience of the book.

While the editor acknowledges that no single volume work could be comprehensive, some topics chosen for inclusion left me bemused, while the lack of others — or the scant detail given when included — felt to be a loss. One particular sadness for me was the small amount of interest paid to Jewish prayer, either the formal prayers and their structure or the wealth of new rituals and service styles which are a hallmark of vibrant modern Jewish expression.

As a snapshot of the world view through North American Jewish eyes, this book offers an interesting mix of themes, but we may look in vain for a reflection of our own community and culture.

Meeting points for Abraham's children

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:03:06 +0000

The product of a group who met over many years, this book is remarkable for the appreciative openness its members achieved with each other. Dialogue is always a journey, beginning with suspicion of the other accompanied by a desire to defend the obvious rightness of one’s own position. If it works, there is meeting and engagement, re-imaging of one’s own tradition and of the other.

Closeness and real understanding emerge only if there is honesty, transparency and effort. Predicated on the belief that relationships between the Abrahamic traditions do not have to remain “trapped in dsyfunctionality”, the group met to share their thoughts away from identity politics, hoping to move beyond toleration into a shared acceptance of one another.

A critical friendship emerges as the contributors listen deeply and respond thoughtfully. It begins with a representative from each faith discussing how they feel as a religious person in Britain today, then sets up a dialogue between two faiths with the other faith member “eavesdropping”.

The third section addresses important theological and philosophical issues, including the role of scripture, modernity and, most poignantly, violence, followed by self-critical reflection and finally a platform towards building a shared future.

The worldly wisdom of the Talmud

Simon Rocker — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:15:25 +0100

The Talmud is often thought of as a legal source-book, which sets the precedents for Jewish practice. But it is also a work of imagination in which the rabbis explored the world and its ways through parables and anecdotes. Sage Tales is a popular and lively introduction to the “oddities and quiddities” of this rich narrative material by a veteran professor of Midrash at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary.

Rabbi Visotzsky writes more in the vein of a raconteur than a scholar, sprinkling around references to baseball or musicals.But he uses his erudition deftly to explain the social milieu in which the rabbis lived and the nuances of the original language of their tales: Rabbi Akiva’s wealthy father-in-law, outraged at his daughter marrying a poor man, is named Ben Kalba Savua, meaning “satisfied son of a bitch”.

While in later centuries the lives of great rabbis were often airbrushed by their hagiographic disciples, the foibles of the Talmud’s heroes can be exposed by the stories it tells about them. Even in a section dealing with their mystical speculations, Rabbi Visotzky portrays them as men of this world rather than unearthly saints.

What does the Bible say?

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:06:03 +0100

Bible is used by very different groups to support their own view of morality, and this book was written not to provide the definitive view of what the Bible teaches, but to make the biblical evidence known to those who would use it.

The reader soon finds that certainty about biblical teachings is challenged as the authors bring historical and anthropological perspectives, as well as rich knowledge of the languages and laws of the ancient world, to the texts. Dividing the Bible into law, poetry and prose, and analysing each with specialist understanding, brings into sharp relief its complex, subtle and nuanced approach to the larger questions of life.

Anyone looking for unqualified support for what they think will be sorely disappointed, but the honest seeker of moral guidance will find a multifaceted exploration of ideas. Addressing five issues — homosexuality, abortion, women, the death penalty and the environment — this book reminds us of the fallacy of using selective quotations, or expecting a simple and definitive set of legal directives applicable in every situation for all time.

The Bible is an intricate and profoundly complex work that requires intellectual application and a hinterland of knowledge. The authors have done a great service in exposing some of the tools necessary to begin to understand it.

A colourful Talmud for our times

Simon Rocker — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:36:37 +0100

The arrival of the Koren Talmud must be the Judaica publishing event of the year. It combines the production quality for which the Jerusalem-based publishers are renowned with the pioneering commentary and translation of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Steinsaltz’s labours over almost half a century have opened the ancient text to readers beyond the yeshivah world, a resource whose value which will probably only begin to be appreciated in generations to come. The Talmud, he has said, is the “real gateway to Judaism”, its knowledge essential to the survival of any Jewish community.

The full 38-volume set of his monumental modern Hebrew edition of the Babylonian Talmud is now available at £790. It has been designed not only for print but for the screen with an iPad app version due to launch in July.

Also, the first three volumes of Steinsaltz’s as yet unfinished English translation are being published at £39.99 apiece (or £29.99 in a smaller edition). Koren project that the English edition will take four years to complete in 41 volumes.

Significantly, the Talmud text (as well as Rashi’s commentary) is printed with vowels and punctuated, making it far easier for students to follow. The translation is clearly laid out in paragraphs rather than dense columns of print and amplified with explanations, while the extensive English commentary has separate sections summarising points of Jewish law, examining the language and giving historical and other background.

A liberal helping of colour illustrations also make it a departure from the black and white austerity of most Talmuds.

How the rabbis made history

Rabbi Harvey Belovski — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:36:41 +0100

The second of Rabbi Dr Benny Lau's monumental Chachamim series to be translated into English, this work, like its companion three volumes (three so far), looks at the development and challenges of the Jewish people through the lives and teachings of rabbinical leaders.

Subtitled From Yavneh to the Bar Kokhba Revolt, this volume covers the tumultuous period after the destruction of the second Temple. It focuses on the struggle to develop a sustainable Judaism in a post-destruction milieu, the challenges posed by the Roman occupation of the Land and the development of rabbinic authority and education systems in Yavneh.

He draws on an impressive range of contemporary rabbinic sources, medieval and other classic commentaries, as well as more academic scholarship. Of note are his references to Professor A.J. Heschel's approach to the seminal debates between Rabbis Akiva and Ishmael and his extensive use of scholarly historical works to support his understanding of the Bar Kochba revolt.

The style is serious yet accessible, and Lau's text (expertly translated) reads less like a collection of discrete studies than a novel-like coherent whole. One way in which he achieves this is by segueing from one section to another using a particular rabbinic figure; the study of Rabbi Akiva's personal contribution to Torah study is followed by a study of his redemptive aspirations which partial fuelled the Bar Kochba revolt. An erudite and informative work, one I recommend.

Harvey Belovski is rabbi of Golders Green Synagogue