Twelve Tribes Under God “The Jewish Roots of Western Freedom” by Fania Oz-Salzberger, in Azure (Summer 2002), 22A Hatzfira St., Jerusalem, Israel
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The Periodical Observer conquered lands were never required to sur- gained a foothold in Italy when he died in the render their property—or their faith. late 15th century; Suleiman the Magnificent Each successive Crusade was better fund- failed to take Vienna in 1529 only because ed and organized, yet each was less effective freak rainstorms forced him to abandon than the one before it. By the 15th and 16th much of his artillery. centuries, “the Ottoman Turks [had] con- The real field of battle, meanwhile, was quered not only their fellow Muslims, thus fur- shifting from the military realm to industry, ther unifying Islam, but also continued to science, and trade. With the Renaissance press westward, capturing Constantinople and then the Protestant Reformation, and plunging deep into Europe itself.” European civilization entered a new era of Only happenstance prevented Islam from dynamism, and the balance of power shifted moving farther west: Sultan Mehmed II had decisively to the West. Twelve Tribes under God “The Jewish Roots of Western Freedom” by Fania Oz-Salzberger, in Azure (Summer 2002), 22A Hatzfira St., Jerusalem, Israel. Ask a political theorist to name the histor- famous commitment to the “pursuit of life, ical foundations of Western liberalism, and the liberty, and property,” Oz-Salzberger reply will be predictable: the polis of Athens, asserts, was grounded in a theory of respon- the Roman Republic, the Magna Carta, etc. sibility and charity drawn from the Bible. Few are likely to mention the Torah—the first These philosophers tended to find in the five books of the Hebrew Bible—or the ancient “Hebrew Republic” an example that Talmud. Yet during the birth of liberalism in could correct for deficiencies in the 17th-century Europe, intellectuals of all kinds Athenian and Roman models. Three fea- found political inspiration in the Old tures of the Hebrew Bible held particular Testament, and many used the Bible in sur- interest: its emphasis on national borders, its prisingly inventive and critical ways. concern for social equity, and the unique Oz-Salzberger, a historian at the federal structure it prescribed for the University of Haifa in Israel, argues that Israelites, decentralized into 12 tribes and many influential “Hebraist” thinkers of this yet unified in one people. If the West now crucial period recognized the Old views liberty as more than the freedom from Testament as a political document—in government intrusion—in other words, if we essence, as the Israelites’ constitution. The strive for a free community, governed under English jurist John Selden, for example, a just system of law—then, Oz-Salzberger argued that national sovereignty was writes, we owe a great deal to the Bible and derived from biblical concepts of fixed bor- its 17th-century readers. ders and the division of peoples. Selden With the notable exception of Locke, helped destroy the last remnants of feudal- however, few Hebraist thinkers are widely ism and pave the way for nation-states: remembered, and even Locke’s thought “Total borders made total sovereignty, and was largely purged of its religious themes fostered the modern system of internation- in subsequent interpretations, especially al relations.” Petrus Cunaeus, another during the 18th-century Enlightenment. prominent Hebraist, found in the Bible Under the cultural reign of rabid anti-tra- “what Aristotle, Cicero, and the Stoics all ditionalists such as Voltaire, and with lib- lacked: a clear notion of social responsibil- eralism acquiring a focus on political insti- ity and communal justice.” The godfather of tutions, the Bible’s role shrank markedly. liberalism himself, John Locke, was a noted The “book of books had been removed Old Testament scholar who based his Two from the desk of the political philosopher. Treatises of Government in part on an inter- It is back in its late-Renaissance place, on pretation of the Book of Genesis. Locke’s the preacher’s pulpit or under the philol- 102 Wilson Quarterly ogist’s lamp,” Oz-Salzberger observes. Yet matic stories of political actors. The Bible, the biblical tales of Saul and David and she concludes, still has something to teach Gideon and Deborah remain the paradig- us about politics and human liberty. Science, Technology & Environment Catching the Wind “Wind Power for Pennies” by Peter Fairley, in Technology Review (July–Aug. 2002), One Main St., 7th fl., Cambridge, Mass. 02142. Wind power’s potential has long been $1 million per megawatt, compared with praised by dreamy environmentalists and $600,000 for a conventional gas-fired power derided by hardheaded energy experts. plant. Denmark, which gets 20 percent of its Wind-driven generators today produce less power from wind, has been willing to pay than one percent of U.S. electricity. But a new the price, in part because fossil fuels are so lightweight wind turbine with a radically dif- costly in Europe. The United States is a dif- ferent design “just may change the fate of ferent story. wind power,” reports Fairley, a writer based Enter the new lightweight prototype, in Victoria, British Columbia. designed by Wind Turbine of Bellevue, Like “giant fans run in reverse,” wind tur- Washington, and erected two years ago at bines “use airfoils that catch the wind and Rocky Flats in Colorado, the Energy crank a generator that pumps out electricity,” Department’s proving ground. The turbine he explains. Many now in use have three- has two blades (not three) stretching about 44 bladed rotors that span 87 yards—almost the yards. There’s a radical departure in design: length of a football field. “Power production The blades are flexible and hinged, and the rises exponentially with blade length,” but the rotor is positioned downwind, so the blades huge structures must be able “to endure gales don’t slam into the tower. (In the Danish and extreme turbulence.” design, the blades face the wind, and must be During the 1980s and early 1990s, heavy to avoid bending back and hitting the American companies and the U.S. Depart- tower.) The result: turbines that will be 40 per- ment of Energy poured hundreds of millions cent lighter and up to 25 percent cheaper to of dollars into a fruitless quest for lightweight make. A second prototype, being erected turbines that could withstand those forces. near Lancaster, California, should have Danish researchers, meanwhile, perfected a blades that span 66 yards—“full commercial “heavy-duty version...and it has become the size”—by the end of the year. Microsoft Windows of the wind power Staffers at the National Wind Technology industry,” says Fairley. An 80-turbine, $245 Center at Rocky Flats have been skeptical. million “wind farm” is being built off the They’ve seen a lot of failures, Fairley notes. Danish coast. But “today, despite some minor setbacks, To construct a wind farm costs about those doubts are fading.” Heartfelt Thanks “Leland C. Clark and Frank Gollan: Bubble Oxygenators and Perfusion Hypothermia” by Robert S. Litwak, in Annals of American Thoracic Surgery (Aug. 2002), Elsevier Science, P.O. Box 945, New York, N.Y. 10159–0945. Hundreds of thousands of people around year, some 750,000 Americans undergo such the world have a special anniversary to mark next surgery, from relatively routine bypasses to year: the debut in 1953 of the basic heart-lung more complex procedures; without it, virtual- machine used in open-heart surgery. Every ly all would die. (Even so, heart disease Autumn 2002 103.