Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Menorah Review VCU University Archives 1990 Menorah Review (No. 19, Summer, 1990) Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons © The Author(s) Recommended Citation https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah/19 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NUMBER 19 • THE JUDAIC STUDIES PROGRAM OFVIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY • SUMMER 1990 For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought cal writers interpreted history as the record that the Rabbis "possessed no conception of of God's special relationship with Israel, the development of ideas or institutions," which he rewards for its obedience and Meyer offers in evidence the fact that the punishes forits sins. Uninterested in histori­ latter insisted that the Oral Law as well as the cal events as important in themselves, the written Torah had its origin at Sinai. One biblical writers were more concerned with wonders if this is a fair indictment of the interpretingthe record of history as evidence Rabbis. Can it not be said that having been of God's presence in world affairs. History traumatized by the loss of the Temple and thereby became a witness pointing to the the J udean state, they were more concerned truth of God's actions and therefore became with preserving the integrity of the halakha, a requirement in the life of Israel, God's "the Jew's City of God" (in Meyer's words) people. than in historical studies, which, like astron­ Michael Meyer has edited a first-rate With the writing of I Maccabees, the omy and geometry,they would have consid­ textbook for a course in Jewish historiogra­ first post-biblical work of Jewish history, ered peripheral to wisdom, (cf. the Ethics of phy. After pointing out that contemporary the influence of Greek secular historiogra­ the Fathers, 3.23). More to the point is forms of Jewish identity are rooted in some phy is seen. God is distant fromthe political Meyer's observation that "for the most part, view of Jewish history. Meyer shares with and military events connected with the historical considerations remained inessen­ us the problems of the historian, both the Maccabbean uprising and is never men­ tial to the rabbinic view of the world." philosophical ("How can the past be known tioned by name. Rather than focus on faith In the Talmudic periodthe author Seder when it is not present to our senses?") and and miracles, the writer of I Maccabbees 0/am sought to establish for the first time a the historiographical (or methodological) gives a matter-of-fact summary of events, chronology according to the creation of the relating to causality and judgments upon the which spurred the revolt of Mattathias fol­ world; and in the Middle Ages, Moses past. Another problem for the historian is lowed by a description of the resistance Maimonides, following the model of the periodization. However, the need to locate carried on by his sons. II Maccabbees ap­ Ethics of the Fathers, traced the unbroken natural divisions in the Jewish past is com­ peals both to secular Greek and traditional chain of halakha from Moses to his own day. plicated by the fact that Jews lived simulta­ Jewishreaderships. Thewriterthererecords In this effort he was probably motivated by neously under a variety of political, ceo­ God's direct and miraculous intervention on a desire to stem the tide ofKaraite polemics nomic and social conditions. behalf of Israel, His people in the manner of and not by a concern with historical studies Equally difficult is the attempt to find the biblical historian, even as he strives to which he, like Aristotle, considered a waste a cm�mon bond unitingJews in their several educate and entertain his readers after the of time. Even Judah ha-Levi, who valued differing cultural and historical experiences model of Greek historiography. God's presence in history at Sinai as the leading to variations in Jewish self-defini­ In Josephus Flavius, the first century most compelling evidence of Israel's faith, tion -an unresolved problem to this very C.E. Jewish historian, several influences are merely followed the model of the biblical day. Meyer observes that the attempt to find at work. Like the Mesopotamianand Egyp­ historians. Although differing from his "the spatial connection" (his term) led some tian scribes of the Bronze and Iron Ages, he contemporaries who sought a philosophical historians to search behind the events of the strove to flatter his patrons, the Flavian basis for religious truth, Halevi valued his­ Jewish past and discover certain religious or emperors, by espousing their victorious cause tory not for its own sake but as the preem­ moral or national ideals consistently present over hisJudean countrymen. And following inent foundation of that truth. and unfailingly preserved. the Graeco-Roman models, he seeks to The ninth and tenth centuries pro­ Meyer then proceeds to list the major establish historical truth for its own sake, duced two works of historical interest de- contributors to Jewish historiography and even though he is at times self-serving in his does a critical evaluation of their attempts to attempt to vindicate himself and justify the deal with the special problems of their craft. wars of Rome against its enemies. Never­ Beginning with the writers of the historical theless, Josephus fails to rise to the highest sections of the Bible, Meyer observes that in standards ofGraeco-Roman historiography. their efforts to develop a philosophy of his­ Following the destruction of the sec­ tory they broke with the historiographers of ond Temple and the end of the Judean the ancient Middle East even as they influ­ commonwealth, Jewish interest in history enced the later historians of the West. Un­ was confined to the biblical period, which like rhe scribes of ancient Mesopotamia and became an idealized and ritually repeated Egypt who were employed by emperors to heilsgeschichte through which the commu­ write about their military exploits, the bibli- nity renewed itself. In suppon of his view 2 signed to counter the Karaite efforts to dele­ Hebrew in 1558 and Samuel Usque his Immanuel Wolf this idea was the unity of gitimize the Rabbanites and the Oral Torah. Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel in God; for Abraham Geiger it was ethical These include the Seder Tannaim ve-Amo­ Portugese in 1553. Both authors follow the monotheism. There were polemical consid­ raim from the year 885 or 887 and the traditional biblical model and attribute erations in the position taken by the histori­ Iggeret [not Igeret as in Meyer's text] Rav Israel's suffering to her sins. A departure cally grounded metaphysical idealists, who Sherira Gaon written in 987. In his intro­ from this religious causality is Solomon Ibn could argue that Judaism was not of limited duction Meyer lumps Abraham Ibn Daud's Verga's Shevet Yehudawritten in the 1520s. importance, having passed its prime with the Sefer ha-Qabbalah of 1160-1161 with the Probing the causes for Jewish sufferingIbn advent of Christianity, but a force that con­ other two and dismisses it with one sentence, Verga advances-for the first time inJewis h tinues to be "an important and influencial (p. 16). In the body of the book he does historiography - secular considerations factor in the development of the human include a short extract fromIbn Daud's work ("their pretentious, envy-inspiring behav­ spirit." (I. Wolf, "On the Concept of a under the headings ''The Reliability of the iors") that may have acccounted for their Science of Judaism," quoted in Meyer, p. Rabbinic Transmission" and "The Unbro­ plight. Meyer correctly observes that this 150.) One wonders to what degree, if any, ken Chain." This bit of literary gerryman­ political concernsplayed a role in the efforts dering is probably designed to support Michael Meyer has filled a major of these historians. Certainly they were of Meyer's thesis that basic to Ibn Daud's work void in the study of Jewish prime importance to Leopold Zunz, who is "the underlying polemic against the was persuaded that a familiarity with the historiography by presenting us with Karaites," (p. 79). religious heritage ofJewry will lead enlight­ a volume that should become the Meyer's thesis here is debatable given ened statesmen to grant the Jews the same Ibn Daud's expanded treatment of the his­ standard introduction to this subject.. civil rights as the rest of the German nation tory of Spanish Jewry (which Meyer ac­ enjoys. knowledges on p. 79) and his attempt to new component in Jewish historiography Other historians like I.M. Jost, who promote the authority of the Spanish rabbis may have come from the influence of the sensed the polemical nature of the idealists, as the legitimate successors of the Babylo­ Italian Renaissance with its emphasis on the began his History of the Israelites: "It is nian academies. It is much more likely that human factors at work in historic events. In time to close the fileson the value or lack of the latter was Ibn Daud's main concern line with the new humanism coming out of value of the Jews and Judaism and to begin given the lavish attention he devotes to the Italy, Jewish writers showed an increased with an analysis of the phenomenon itself, Andalusian courtier-rabbis. The Karaite interest in the histories of the lands in which its origin and development." Meyer pays polemics notwithstanding, there is a new they lived, resulting in the histories of Ven­ tribute to Jost's "objectivity and good his­ polemical tone in the closing chapters of Ibn ice and the Ottoman Empire by the Cretan torical sense," which exceeded those of the Daud's work.