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Conservatjve Judaism CONSERVATJVE JUDAISM Volume XXXIII, Number 4 Summer 1980, c"wn THE JEWISH RESPONSE TO CRISIS Mortimer Ostow TRIBUTE TO ADELE GINZBERG Eli Ginzberg THE NEW ASSIMILATIONISTS Arnold Jacob Wolf z o A VIEW OF SWEDISH JEWRY H:;:.. Morton H. Narrowe INDEX TO VOLUMES XXXI-XXXIII OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM review essays / mekorot book reviews BOOK RE"'lEWS Perspectives on Jews and Judaism: Essays in emerges. The unity is the unity of the Honor of Wolfe Kelman, ed. by Arthur Chiel, humanities: seemingly narrow studies yield New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1978, 483 teachings of broad significance and profound pp, $25.00. importance. Though articles are arranged alpha­ PERSPECTIVES ON JEWS AND JUDAIS~ is mar­ betically, any histOrically-minded person will velously fascinating to read for precisely the begin this volume v.ith David Lieber's same reason that it is maddeningly difficult to analysis of biblical leadership. Prophets, review: it covers more subjects than anyone priests, and wisdom teachers, Lieber demon­ person could possibly write about with strates, were men who "emerged as the lead­ authority. Gone are the days when a scholar ers because they permitted themselves to be can lay claim to the whole field of Jevvish led." Like all great leaders, they were rooted Studies. Ours is the era of specialization: the in their society, while simultaneously trans­ "expert at everything" meets universal scorn. cending it. A second Bible article comes from The value of in-depth study cannot be de­ the pen of Shlomo Balter. He finds, hidden nied; still, one can only lament the disappear­ away in Psalm 1, the "fundamental meaning ance of what once was known as the commu­ of Torah." God's moral teachings and man's nity of Jewish scholarship. Increasingly, spe­ praise enter into dialogue. Ultimately, both cialists in different fields of Jewish Studies agree: Torah and happiness are interrelated. ignore everything but what goes on in their A different kind of relationship finds ex­ own narrow disciplines. Those that do ven­ pression in Jacob Agus's study of the Book of ture out move to the secular world, usually Acts. Viewed anew from a Jewish perspec­ that closest to their own speciality. Too often, tive, Acts emerges as an important document they allow advances in other Jewish fields to in the early divergence of Christianity from pass unnoticed. Cross-fertilization in Judaic Judaism. Studies becomes ever more difficult. Continuing into the Rabbinic period, one A cheer, therefore, is in order for the finds Louis Finkelstein's important study on festschriften and journals that resist currents "The Origin and Development of the of change and stubbornly insist on bringing all Qedushah," David Novak's inquiry into the aspects of Jewish Studies within their pur­ "Origin of the Noahide Laws," and Isaac view. The volume at hand is particularly Klein's exploration of "Euthanasia: A Jewish cheering: its almost two score of studies span View." David Weiss Halivni's "Can A Reli­ the entire Jewish experience (though, surpris­ gious Law Be Immoral?" is as timely as ingly, the field of Holocaust Studies goes un­ Klein's piece and has already been v.idely represented). As Gerson Cohen points out in quoted for polemical ends. Its innocent title his masterful introduction, such diversity of notwithstanding, the article has direct bear­ subject is suitable tribute to the honoree, ing on what Halivni pleases to call "our pre­ Executive Vice-President of the Rabbinical sent religious predicament." We await his Assembly and a man "enormously well-read more detailed work which is in progress, and sensitive to issues both classical and Today's renewed interest in Hasidism may modern." The diversity is also a tribute to the or may not relate to "our present religious editor, who liberally granted contributors predicament," but it is symptomatic of a free rein to honor "Volfe Kelman in any man­ widespread dissatisfaction with past social and ner they found most appropriate. religious certainties. Here, four articles ex­ From amidst all this delightful diversity, a plore aspects of hasidic thought, each in a certain overarching unity nevertheless different way, The late AbrahamJoshuaHesch- 92 el (translated by Samuel H. Dresner) re­ :\fenahem Schmelzer traces the modern his­ counts the legendary story of how Rabbi tory of the unique manuscript of Isaac Ibn Pinhas of Koretz prevented a Russian inva­ Ezra's Diwan, now safely ensconced in the sion of Poland. Pinchas Hakohen Peli discus­ Jewish Theological Seminary Library. More ses the Sabbath as found in the writings of broadly, Sefton D. Temkin, Louis Jacobs, Rabbi Zvi Elimelech of Dinor ("we can infuse Abraham J. Karp and Seymour Siegel analyze the temporal world with eternity, and raise various aspects of the great nineteenth­ ourselves to the heights of Sabbath each day century Jewish tension between tradition and of the week"). S. Michael Gelber compares change, a tension which spawned and con­ psychoanalytic insights to hasidic ones, "to tinues to strain the entire Conservative substantiate the strong suspicion of wisdom in movement. Temkin discusses Max Lilien­ both their sets of insights." Using a different thal's effort to set up a bet din in New York in approach, Jacob Yuroh Teshima contrasts 1847. Jacobs and Karp portray two rabbis, hasidic insights to Zen Buddhist ones, par­ Joseph Hayyim of Baghdad and Jacob David ticularly in relation to "Strange Thoughts" Wilowsky (Ridwas), originally from Grodno, ("while Zen Buddhism denies their who held fast to the reins ofhalakhic tradition Significance from the outset, Hasidism came even as wild forces of change ernpted around to discover [their] cosmic significance"). them. Focusing his lens somewhat differ­ Thoughts, strange and otherwise, form the ently, Siegel concentrates on the Lithuanian subject matter of other scholarly articles in "War of Kitniyot" (1868), a battle over this collection. David Wolf Silverman whether drought conditions permitted rabbis examines Gersonides' remarks on prophecy to sanction as an emergency measure the con­ ("the Active Intellect is the operative cause of sumption of legumes on Passover. Here as miraculous events"). In an examination of elsewhere the strnggle turned more on has­ Hebrew personal pronouns, Jose Faur deals kalah than halakhah. with the paradoxic nature of human speech Zionism, the explosive issue that is to twen­ ("speech is both the grounds of isolation and tieth century Jewish history what Hasidism the means by which isolation is resolved"). and Reform were in earlier years, receives Lcon J. Goldstein investigates Martin equal billing with them in the table of con­ Buber's conception of the Interpersonal En­ tents: four papers. Simcha Kling tries to counter, "the disinterested knowledge of our prove that "from its earliest days. Conser­ fellow man." A different kind of encounter, vative Judaism wholeheartedly embraced the that between body and soul, is re-examined Zionist idea." Benjamin C. I. Ravid publishes by Harlan J. Wechsler in light of modern fascinating snatches from correspondence be­ medical technology's advances in radical, tween David Ben Gurion and Simon perhaps dehumanizing brain surgery. After Rawidowicz dealing with the State of Israel this, it comes as something of a relief to find and the Diaspora. "I do not accept this [Ben three papers (Harold M. Schulweis, Simon Gurion] decision, which excludes the ten Greenberg, Ben Zion Bokser) dealing with million souls in the diasporas, and myself God: His personality, forbearance, and the among them, from the totality of Israel. I religious dimensions of His supposed have been a man of Israel all my life," nonexistence. Rawidowicz insisted in 1957. He would no Happily, participants in this festshrift have doubt have been pleased to see the articles in not slighted the editor's area of specialization: this volume by Nahum Goldmann ("Israel's modern Jewish history. Arthur Chiel himself Cultural Mission") and Arnold Jacob Wolf investigates Hebraic allusions in Marc Les­ ("On the Dialectics of Zionism"), which con­ carbot's History of New France (1609). vincingly demonstrate that the issues he Book Reviews 93 raised over two decades ago are current still. Masot beguf rishon (Essays in the First Per­ Equally current, alas, are those problems son), by Aharon Appelfeld, Jerusalem: Hasif­ which the Diaspora must face all by itself. riah hatsionit al yad hahistradrut hatsionit "The core identity offered to Jewish children ha'olamit, 1979, 14 pp., $3.00. is attenuated in several respects," Mortimor Ostow warns in his "The Psychologic Deter­ AHARON ApPEL¥ELD is the Israeli author minants of Jewish Identity." Rela Geffen whose literary works, almost in their entirety, Monson demonstrates that the Jewish family revolve around the Holocaust. Recently a col­ in America has its identity problems, too. lection of his essays has appeared in which the Happily, both Monson and Ostow assure us author speaks directly rather than through his that the situation is fur from critical. Milton fictional characters, their situations and Himmelfarb ("A Haunting Question") offers crises. While in much that is written on the no such comfort. He sees us committing subject of the Holocaust the words tend to "demographic suicide," and in a sprightly shout out to the reader, this very sensitive written mock interview wonders how a sur­ book is more like various hues and shades of vivor from our time will justifY his actions whisper. Appelfeld belongs to a generation of forty-five years hence. Hebrew writers who have rejected the style Himmelfarb is only one of several con­ and ways of thinking of pathos. The quiet tributors who decided to honor Wolfe Kel­ reflective tone of these essays is related to man in some unconventional way. Others­ Appelfeld's conviction as to where the crucial Chaim Grade (in his original Yiddish), Walter truth of the Holocaust experience lies; not in Kaufmann CIsrael: A Cycle of Poems"), and the realm of things that can be recorded in Elie Wiesel CThe Tale of a Niggun") prof­ historical studies but rather within the hidden fer poetry.
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