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The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible

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The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible In memory of Belda and Marcel Lindenbaum ְרֵאַה ִחּי ִיםעִםאָּׁשֲה אֶׁשָר אַהְבָּתָ ּכְל יֵמַיחֵּיֶי הְבֶלֲָך אֶׁשָר נַתְןלַָך ּתַחַת הֶּׁשֶמֹׁש ּכְל יֵמֶיהְבֶלָך ּכִי הּוא חֶלְקְָך ִּבַחַּיים ּובַעֲמָלְָך אֲׁשֶר אַּתָ ה עָמֵלּתַחַת הַּׁשָמֶ ׁש קהלת ט, ט Enjoy happiness with a woman you love all the fleeting days of life that have been granted to you under the sun all your fleeting days. For that alone is what you can get out of life and out of the means you acquire under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:9 The editors are grateful to Targum Shlishi, a Raquel and Aryeh Rubin Foundation for making the open-access publication of this book possible. The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible This book is subject to a CC-BY-NC license. To view a copy of this license, visit Edited By Tova Ganzel,Yehudah Brandes, and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Other than as provided by these licenses, no part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or displayed by any Chayuta Deutsch electronic or mechanical means without permission from the publisher or as permitted by law. The open access publication of this volume is made possible by: The Believer and the Modern Study of the Bible Edited By Tova Ganzel, Yehudah Brandes, and Chayuta Deutsch Boston 2019 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ganzel, Tova, editor. | Brandes, Yehudah, editor. | Deutsch, Chayuta, editor. Title: The Believer and the modern study of the Bible / edited by Tova Ganzel, Yehudah Brandes, and Chayuta Deutsch. Other titles: Be-‘ene ’Elohim ve-’adam English Description: Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2019. Identifiers: LCCN 2018055402 (print) | LCCN 2018056609 (ebook) | ISBN 9781618119520 (ebook) | ISBN 9781618119513 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, Redaction. | Bible. Old Testament— Commentaries. | Tradition (Judaism) | Faith (Judaism) Classification: LCC BS1188 (ebook) | LCC BS1188. B4413 2019 (print) | DDC 221.601—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018055402 © Academic Studies Press, 2019 ISBN 9781618119513 (hardcover) ISBN 9781618119520 (ebook) Book design by Kryon Publishing Services (P) Ltd. www.kryonpublishing.com On the cover: “Tiferet,” by David Rakia (1928-2012). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Karin Rakia Simantov Published by Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com Table of Contents Introduction vii Preface to the English Translation xv Acknowledgments xvi Annotated Anthology—“Wisdom and Knowledge Will be Given to You” 1 Yoshi Fargeon A R T I C L E S 191 General Overview Shawn Zelig Aster A Personal Perspective on Biblical History, 192 the Authorship of the Torah, and Belief in its Divine Origin Yehuda Brandes The Sages as Bible Critics 207 Marc Zvi Brettler The Tanakh as History 228 Adiel Cohen Kabbalah as a Shield against the “Scourge” 245 of Biblical Criticism: A Comparative Analysis of the Torah Commentaries of Elia Benamozegh and Mordecai Breuer Tamar Ross Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Biblical 263 Criticism: Some Reflections on the Importance of Asking the Right Question Yuval Cherlow Ask the Rabbi: “Biblical Criticism is 288 Destroying my Religious Faith!” The Theophany at Sinai and the Passages of Revelation David Bigman “I Shall Fear God Alone and Not Show 300 Favor in Torah”: A Conceptual Foundation for Wrestling with Biblical Scholarship Benjamin Sommer Revelation and Religious Authority in the 321 Sinai Traditions vi Table of Contents Chezi Cohen The Torah Speaks to People 340 Avraham Shammah The Revelation Narratives: Analyses 361 and Theological Reflections on Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Classical Midrash The Ethical Challenge Chayuta Deutsch The Binding of Isaac and Historical 380 Contextuality Hananel Mack Manasseh, King of Judah, in Early rabbinic 398 Literature: An Erudite, Unfettered, and Creative Biblical Critic Amit Kula Justification, Denial, and “Terraforming”: 412 Three Theological-Exegetical Models The Bible in Historical Context Yoel Elitzur The Names of God and the Dating of the 428 Biblical Corpus Joshua Berman Discrepancies between Laws in the Torah 443 Tova Ganzel Between the Prophet and his Prophecy: 463 Ezekiel’s Visionary Temple in its Historical Context Avia Hacohen The Torah of Moses and the Laws of the 481 Nations: A Study in the Teachings of Rabbi Tzadok ha-Kohen of Lublin Yaakov Medan Illuminating Inscriptions 498 Haggai Misgav Archaeology and the Bible 515 Rivka Raviv The Book of Daniel and the Twenty-First- 530 Century Religious Bible Student Index of Sources 547 Index of Names 557 Introduction or thousands of years, the Bible was studied exclusively by people of faith Fwho regarded it as a sacred text given by God. Considerable theoretical and practical importance was ascribed to this study and the literature it pro- duced. Over generations, a worldview developed that this study required the reader to be totally committed to a belief in the integrity and sanctity of the text, and its consequent immunity from human error. Sources that reflect critical thinking on the composition of the biblical corpus can already be found in classical rabbinic and medieval Jewish litera- ture—for example, in the commentaries of Abraham Ibn Ezra and Rabbi Judah the Pious. However, these early articulations were not sufficient to challenge the basic traditional assumptions about biblical books, their origins, compo- sition, and transmission. The appearance of critical biblical scholarship in the eighteenth century stunned religious readers of the Bible. For the first time, systematic use was made of scientific, analytical tools to study the Bible. Scholars presented methodological approaches and conclusions regarding the composition of the text that contradicted the naïve assumptions of preceding generations. Confronted with the cogency of biblical scholarship and cogni- zant of the challenges that this research entailed for them, those who believed in the divine origin of the Bible were forced to respond. Bewildered believers confronted these challenges in several ways. One approach was to ignore the conclusions of this research or to utterly reject them, while scorning the world of science and ridiculing academic scholarship in general. This extreme conservative reaction to the challenge of biblical criti- cism reinforced a wholescale negation of the Enlightenment in these quarters. Proponents of this rejectionist approach, who eventually came to be known as Haredi Jews, isolated themselves from the surrounding culture and lacked any interest or ability in discerning between its positive and negative aspects. On the other extreme was the belief that the Enlightenment demanded the abandonment of religion, or at least its radical reform. A third approach developed primarily in central Europe in the nineteenth century. Its proponents chose to study the conclusions of biblical research, to viii Introduction glean what could be accepted from a theological point of view, and to reject, with scholarly arguments, those positions that appeared to contradict Jewish faith, as they defined it. An outstanding example of this exegetical approach can be found in Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann’s Torah commentary and other writings. While this approach attracted many followers, it received criticism from both sides: the Haredi world objected to all contact with the Jewish Enlightenment and science, and the academic world doubted the intellectual integrity of those who approached biblical exegesis with preconceived assump- tions about the nature of revelation and divine inspiration that limited their freedom of inquiry. Today, this approach—namely, the qualified acceptance of the conclusions of scientific research coupled with the rejection of those con- clusions that do not conform to faith-based assumptions—is increasingly pop- ular in the field of Bible education in modern religious circles. A fourth approach has gained ground among religious intellectuals and academics, but it has yet to make a significant impact on the religious public. This approach recognizes the legitimacy of the questions posed by biblical scholarship. It accepts the underlying rational assumptions that are necessary to answer these questions, without perceiving this acceptance as a challenge to belief in God, acceptance of the Bible’s sanctity, or commitment to obser- vance of the commandments according to halakhah. This approach does deal directly with biblical criticism, yet it allows the possibility of engaging in aca- demic research without a priori restricting potential conclusions. Proponents of this approach attempt to clarify—theologically, conceptually, and philo- sophically—how to live a religious life based on belief in God and the obser- vance of the commandments, without basing that belief on factual knowledge that can be refuted by science—for instance, the historical authenticity of the various parts of the Bible, the integrity and unity of each of the biblical books, the date of composition of biblical literature, and the identity of its authors. A famous example of this approach is the solution proposed by Rabbi Mordechai Breuer to the question of the unity of the Torah and its date of composition. Rabbi Breuer argued that the theory known as the documentary hypothesis, as propounded by classical biblical scholarship from the middle of the eighteenth century until today, should be accepted. The documentary
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