ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES NEWSLETTER No-9 June 1973 Editor: A. J. Band

EDITORIAL most of the goals assigned to them. Each conference, utilizing the scholars available in the region, investigated the implications of Among the impressive achievements recorded by the State of the type of Geniza research executed by Prof. S. D. Goitein. The Israel in its 25 years of sovereignty, developments in Judaic abstracts of these papers will be found in this issue; the full text scholarship are rarely mentioned. This is only natural: scholarship of the papers will be published at a later date. Both conferences affects relatively few people and defies quantification. And yet, continued on p. 3 information regarding the state of the art, its evolution — if any — in the past generation, is what every scholar needs when he JSQK aos -SONS -aos god sos soe so* aofe o so* sos soe os sex plans his own research projects. We had hoped that the Encyclopaedia Judaica might have presented us a panoramic IN THIS ISSUE synthesis of the state of the art, but it turned out so uneven that comparison with the old Jewish Encyclopedia does not generate a Editorial 1 firm impression of progress. Fifth Annual Conference Program 2 Several tentative and obvious statements should be made. If there was any doubt in 1948 as to the capacity of Judaic Regional Conference Program scholarship to survive the trauma of World War II, to continue as an intellectual enterprise in spite of such unpiecendented losses, "RELIGION IN A RELIGIOUS AGE (950-1250)" it was dispelled by the appearance of many new names by the 1950's in a variety of places throughout the world, Israel in Religion in Every Day Life as Reflected in particular. Israel, of course, has emerged with the largest the Letters and Documents of the Cairo concentration of Judaic scholars, mostly supported by Israeli Geniza (S. D. Goitein) 4 universities and research institutions — a clear benefit of national sovereignty. The viability of Israel as a political entity has The Study of Philosophy as a Religious Duty attracted many to Jewish studies, and has provided study facilities on a variety of levels. In the world of Judaic scholarship, (H. A. Davidson) 4 then, Israel, is a crucial formative factor as are the Holocaust or the Emancipation, and as such, has become a legitimate object of Religion and Law (I. Twersky) 6 Judaic scholarship. Islamic Literature on Interfaith Polemics (M. Perlmann) 7 With the growth of Judaic scholarship in North America (the representation of American scholars in the forthcoming Sixth The Religion of the Thinkers International Congress of Jewish Studies is considerable) we should begin to ask: How does Judaic scholarship in America (A. Altmann) 8 differ from that in Israel? Which Israeli scholars are worthy of emulation, and which are not? While Israeli scholarship is usually The Ethics of Medieval Jewish Marriage erudite, it may often be pedestrian and atomistic. (M. A. Friedman) 8

n News in Brief 10 The concentration of colleagues in one area, such as in Israel, is enviable — despite its possible drawbacks. We, in this country, Bibliographia Judaica work in isolation from our Judaic colleagues, and must make a EJ on (F. Talmage) 12 concerted effort to create situations for live scholarly contact. Aside from our annual conference, we have launched a series of Book Reviews (A. Green, M. A. Cohen) 13 regional conferences, partially sponsored by the National Endow- New JPS Psalms Translation (N.M.Sarna) 14 ment for the Humanities. The first two conferences of Series I, at UCLA and at Brandeis, have already been held and have achieved New Publications Received 15 )

FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

The fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies will take place on Sunday and Monday, 21-22 October 1973, at Harvard University. All sessions will be held at the Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Registration forms and additional information will be sent shortly. Conference Program Chairman is Michael A. Meyer (HUC-JIR).

Sunday, October 21,1973 4:30 P.M. Coffee

9:00 A.M. Registration; Coffee 5:00 P.M. Session IV (in Hebrew)

10:00 AM. Session I: Rabbinic Studies Non-Jewish Sources for Jewidi History in the Medieval Period Chairman: Ben Zion Wacholder Joseph Shatzmiller Hebrew Union College • Jewish Haifa University Institute of Religion (Cincinnati) Visiting Professor, University of Toronto

Talmud Criticism 6:30 PM. Sherry A Historical Review David Weiss Halivni 7:30 PM. Session V: Banquet Jewish Theological Seminary of America Reflections on a Half-century of JewiA Its Application to Jewish Law Scholarship Zvi Henri Szubin Nahum N. Glatzer City College, City University of New York Brandeis University

Its Application to Jewish History Larry H. Kar Columbia University

12:00 N. Session II: Luncheon Monday, October 22,1973 Jewish Historiography: Some Personal Observations on the General Enterprise 9:00AM. Session VI: Jewish Intellectual History Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi Harvard University Chairman: Isadore Twer sky Harvard University 2:00 P.M. Session III: Sephardic Studies Colloquium All panelists are advanced graduate students at Harvard University. Chairman: Martin A. Cohen Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute R. Meir Abulafia on the Professionalization of of Religion (New York) Scholarship Bernard Septimus How Jewish Were the New Christians? University of California - Berkeley Panel: Thomas F. Click, Boston University The Siddur of R. Ellis Rivkin, Hebrew Union College-Jewish David Shapiro Institute of Religion (Gncinnati). Harvard University; Hebrew College Herman P. Salomon, State University of New York - Albany R. Obadia Sforno on Taame Mitsvot Angela Maria Selke, University of Wisconsin Mordecai Wasserman Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Harvard University University of Toronto continued on p. &

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FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM Editorial (continued from p. 1) continued from p. 2

were well attended; the participation of graduate students was particularly encouraging. Our next series of conferences, improv- ed by the experiences of Series I, will move away from the more 10:45 AM. Coffee familiar precincts of Boston and Los Angeles. 11:00 A.M. Session VI (continued) III R. Mordecai Jaffe and the Levush Pinat Yikrat Harvard University has recently announced the establishment Lawrence Kaplan of three chairs in Ukrainian Studies at that university made McGiU University possible by "thousands of individual contributions (most of them in amounts of $1-$100)." While one might question the wisdom R. Simone Luzzatto: Economics and of establishing three chairs in a relatively exotic discipline at one Apologetics in 17th Century Venice university, the financial support can only elicit admiration. Benjamin Ravid "Ukrainian-American students began to fund the drive in 1957. Brandeis University Since then, with the help of scholars, clergymen, professional men and women, and others of Ukrainian descent, they have 12:00 N. Session VII: Luncheon raised almost $2 million from Ukrainian-American families in 300 cities." While American have, at times, supported Jewish President's Address scholarship by funding seminaries and teachers colleges, by Arnold J. Band endowing a few chairs in universities, and contributing seed- money to start programs, this support is meagre when compared University of California - Los Angeles either with other items which attract private Jewish funds or with Business Meeting the actual annual ^investment of the academic community in Jewish studies. By multiplying the number of positions now 2:00 P.M. Session Vm: existing by a projected average of salaries and support funds calculated by standard university bookkeeping procedures, one Chairman: Arthur Hyman arrives at a figure of at least $5,000,000 per annum. Most of this Yeshiva University comes from the general university budget. Unfortunately, com- munity support, however limited, is at times accompanied by The Structure of the Commandments of the Torah extensive and misleading publicity campaigns or meddling by in ' Mishneh Torah and his Guide of imcompetent bureaucrats. The truth, as Watergate has reminded the Perplexed us, will emerge sooner or later. Lawrence V. Berman Stanford University IV Discussants: Warren Harvey The growth of our Newsletter, the preparation of scholarly McGill University articles for both our annual and regional conferences, the dearth of adequate publication outlets especially for young scholars, Alfred Ivry impel us toward a regularized publication program either in the Cornell University form of proceedings or a journal — or both. The executive committee has decided to take this step, to enhance the substance 4:00 P.M. Board of Directors Meeting and effectiveness of our Association. The invitation of articles, the search for funds, the composition of an editorial board will be reported on in the annual meeting. These publications should reflect the normal intellectual interests of the community of Judaic scholars in this country, combining solid erudition with pertinent conceptualization and synthesis. Index cards and footnotes are the tools, but not the essence of scholarship. 4

"RELIGION IN A RELIGIOUS AGE (950-1250)"

Abstracts of papers delivered at the first series of the Regional Conference Program of the Association for Jewish Studies (Conference I: University of California-Los Angeles, 8-9 April 1973; Conference II: Brandeis University, 29-30 April 1973). The Association plans to publish the complete papers at a later date. The Regional Conference Program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Religion in Every Day Life as Reflected in the Letters God was very near, not only to the mouth, but also to the and Documents of the Cairo Geniza heart of these people, for they believed, like the Muslim by S.D. Goitein (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) theologians of the tenth century, that He was the creator of all their actions, including the actions of their minds, their thoughts. Popular religion i» reflected in thousands of letters and God recurs almost in every line, where an action, contemplated or documents written in the Mediterranean area, mostly during the carried out, is reported. At the same time they were deeply eleventh and twelfth centuries, and originally preserved in the pervaded by their consciousness of sin. Sin presupposes freedom so-called Cairo Geniza. These papers are mostly written in of will. How is this compatible with the idea that God creates our Hebrew characters and language, a considerable number of thoughts and actions? It is not, but they did not care, even len them also in Hebrew, but only a small minority in Arabic than the Muslim theologian Matundl(d. 944). characters. The material emanated mostly from the Jewish middle class, which was active in the countries from Spain through There seems to be another inconsistency in the beliefs of the Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, and on the writers of the Geniza letters: besides God, they maintain the trade route to India. This society has been described by me in a Stars, Fate, Time, and similar forces as influencing their destiny. three volume book, entitled A Mediterranean Society, of which But again: no incompatibility here; God arranges the constella- two have already appeared (University of California Press, 1967, tions and the times, etc., in such a way they they should have the 1971), and a third is in an advanced state of preparation. A effect described. Therefore, astrology is not blameworthy from a companion volume, Mediterranean People, Letters and Docu- religious point of view. Poor munajjims (astrologers) often appear ments from the Cairo Geniza Translated with Introductions and in the lists of the indigents receiving aid from the community. Notes, is scheduled to be published by the same Press. A shorter But I do not recall a single letter in which a writer would mention book, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, Translated from the that he had consulted an astrologer. Astrology was either a high Arabic (containing eighty items), is in print at the Princeton art, destined for the courts of the kings, or a poor technique University Press. providing false hopes to low-class people. The writers of the Geniza papers were rationalists, relying on their God, who created I have come to the conclusion that popular religion was everything, including their own thoughts, and cleaving to the nothing but a simplified version of the sometimes abstruse clear paragraphs of God's law, and to hard and fast reasoning teachings of the theologians, mixed with the professed secular guiding their day-to-day actions. ideals of the higher classes. Jewish theology of the eleventh century taught strict adherence to the law paired with equally strict rationalism. The same spirit pervades the letters. Satan is not mentioned even a single time. No mysticism. The religious The Study of Philosophy as a Religious Duty and secular values were interconnected in a way of which the by Herbert A. Davidson (University of California-Los Angeles) writers probably were not aware. After extolling in the highest vein the religious value of charity, they would equally praise the recipient's highmindedness, nakhwa (no Hebrew term for this), 1. When we think of the meeting of philosophy and. meaning his endeavour to attain fame, which was the foremost institutionalized religion in the Middle Ages we are accustomed to ideal of the Arab nobleman. After praising the religiosity, think at once of conflict. Conflict was indeed there; on an! meaning the probity, dm, of a merchant, he would invoke his intellectual plane it expressed itself in the problem of reason and muruwwa, gentlemanlike behavior, as expected from a leader of revelation, a problem with which all medieval philosophers and the profession. While people refrained from enlarging on their many other medieval thinkers struggled. But the meeting of' own misfortunes because this was a talmudic injunction, and philosophy and religion in the middle ages has another side. The' tsidduq haddin, justifying God's judgement, was a prime religious appearance of philosophy was not merely a force threatening, duty, they would say in the same breath: laisa min al-adab, "it is destruction for religion. For some medieval thinkers, those of a. not good manners", a trait of the culture of the courtiers, taken rationalist temperament, it was also an opportunity to rethink over by the Arabs from the Persians. The same combination of essential elements in their religion in a form that was more religion and adab is found in Saadya's chef d'oeuvre. satisfactory to them precisely from the religious point of view. continued on p. 5

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H. A. Davidson (continued fromp . 4) In the middle ages, philosophers and non-philosophers alike agreed that the very essence of God is unknowable. Only divine Jewish intellectuals standing in the mainstream of medieval attributes can be known, and they can be known only in an Jewish philosophy analyzed three essential elements in their incomplete and indirect manner. The attributes of God, it was religion with the aid of philosophy; belief in the existence of held, can be known only insofar as they are reflected in what God God; love of God; and the religious duty of study. In the case of has said and done. The following route to love of God was thus the thinkers I am dealing with, the appearance of Greek laid out by the medieval intellectual: Man must examine what philosophy was not an Ql omen for religion. Because their God has said and done;infer the divine attributes, especially such rationalized religion was more satisfactory for them from the attributes as the wisdom and goodness of God; and thereby strictly religious point of view, they became convinced that they inspire in himself a love of God. On this theory the emotional had to study philosophy for purely religious reasons. I refer to side of love would be the positive feeling accompanying know- the reasoning not of a single medieval thinker but of a composite ledge of God. of several thinkers, notably , , Maimonides, and, to a lesser extent, Saadia, Joseph ibn Two sources of knowledge were recognized whereby ordinary Saddiq and Albo. All the positions presented here are quotations people can learn what God has said and done. Reliable tradition, or paraphrases from those writers. crystallized in Scripture and rabbinic literature, records the words and deeds of God. And human reason can discover the deeds of 2. The medieval Jewish intellectual was certain that belief in God by examining the physical universe, the handiwork of God. the existence of God is an essential element in the Jewish religion. As already seen, the medieval intellectual had grounds for When he analyzed the concept of belief, he found that belief does preferring knowledge acquired by human reason. A systematic not consist merely in saying something, and that adequate belief knowledge of the physical universe is what is called the science of does not consist merely in thinking something without grounds physics. And a systematic knowledge of the manner in which the for doing so. Adequate belief, belief such as is required when the physical universe depends on the invisible, divine realm is what is object of belief is the deity, must rest on true and certain called the science of metaphysics. Thus in order to acquire the knowledge. requisite knowledge of divine attributes, such as God's wisdom and goodness, a man would have to devote himself completely to Hie medieval intellectual recognized two sources of knowledge "those sciences that teach ... about God"; in order properly to whereby ordinary people — people who are not prophets or fulfill the obligation of loving God, a man would have to acquire semi-prophets — might learn of the existence of God: tradition the fullest possible knowledge of both the science of physics and and rational demonstration. He credited religious tradition as a metaphysics. legitimate source of knowledge, yet found drawbacks in it: The person who believes through tradition relegates himself to a 4. Study of the Holy Law, the Torah, is a further essential second class of believers; and there is always a chance that element in the Jewish religion. It is prescribed by Scripture; and tradition is mistaken, so that knowledge through it can never be for the rabbis it was the most important single human activity. completely certain. The most adequate belief in the existence of The rabbis opposed the study of other subjects, including "Greek God or—as some held—the only adequate belief in the existence wisdom", not merely from fear of heretical opinions, but equally of God, must therefore consist in certain knowledge possessed by from fear of lost time. The medieval intellectual therefore had to the believer, through his own understanding of a rational ask himself whether his growing attachment to philosophy could demonstration. Rational demonstrations of the existence of God harmonize with the religious obligation to study only the divine were available in the middle ages from one source, from Greek Law. philosophy. It followed, for the medieval intellectual, that in order to fulfill the purely religious obligation of believing in the On a priori grounds it seemed to medieval thinkers that study existence of God, the philosophic proofs of the existence of God leading to knowledge of God and His workings in the universe has must be studied. at least as much value as study of civil and ritual law, even God-given civil and ritual law. And, it turned out, the ancient 3. The obligation to love God is unquestionably another rabbis had indeed included within the broad compass of the Law certain theological subjects, notably the so-called account of essential element in the Jewish religion. When the medieval creation and account of the chariot; the latter had even been intellectual, whose thought we are tracing, analyzed the phenom- characterized as a "great matter" in contrast to intricate legal enon of love, he found that love implies knowledge: "No one can disputations which are only a "small matter." What the original experience the enormous love (due the deity) without knowing account of creation and account of the chariot were, was already the object of his love." This means that both the existence and unknown in the Middle Ages. But since the former was a the nature of the proposed object of love must be known. For no description of the manner in which God constructed the physical sensible person will love an object unless he knows it to exist and ' unless he recognizes in it characteristics deserving love. continued on p. 6 6

Religion and Law speculation higher than a theological or ethical inquiry. A major by Isadore Twersky (Harvard University) corollary of this will be the repeated demand for curricular expansion that will provide for meta-halakic disciplines. Maimon- A tense, dialectical relationship between religion in essence and ides puts his immense weight as legal authority behind a religion in manifestation — to adopt the title of Van der Leeuw's normative decision that the religious commandment of study classic study Religion in Essence and Manifestation — is at the includes metaphysics as an intregral, indispensable component. R. core of the Jewish religious consciousness, its legal configuration Eleazar of Worms does the same. The study of philosophy or and its historical experience. Halakah is the indispensable hasidut or is thus not merely an intellectual indulgence manifestation and prescribed concretization of an underlying and but a basic religious duty. overriding spiritual essence. The tension flows from the painful awareness that manifestation and essence sometimes drift apart, This paper considers the fate of Bible study in relation to from the sober recognition that a carefully constructed, finely study and its role in this tense, complex drama, chiseled normative system cannot regularly reflect, refract or inasmuch as the reasons for the neglect of Bible as well as the energize interior, spiritual forces and motives. Yet, if the system arguments for its centrality provide a case study of the is to remain vibrant, it must. This concordia discordantium is the religion-law syndrome. The substance of the paper is a close true essence of halakah and its ultimate consummation, but is not exegesis of one key passage in the Maase Efod of Profiat Duran. always attainable. By predicating the discussion on a text from a later, turbulent period (beginning of the 15th century) and illustrating how it Hence, the following historic and conceptual focus emerges. reflects earlier sources, arguments, and tendencies — drawing On one hand, is halakocentric. Indeed, the halakocentric upon material in Bahya ibn Pakuda, Maimonides, Isaac ibn Latif, nature of Judaism and of Jewish history is probably the axial Yedayah ha-Penini, and others — as well as contemporary debate concept for purposes of thoughtful Jewish historiography and the in the circle of the centrality and durability of this governing proposition for historical analysis. A major corollary of tension will be emphatically presented. this halakocentricity is the repeated demand for and frequent achievement of a nearly exclusive emphasis on Talmud study — a curriculum oriented towards religious practice and hence weight- ed with Talmud, Talmud, and more Talmud. Study is the handmaiden of practice and Talmudic lore is the prerequisite for and source of religious performance. R. reproduces this pragmatic rationale while describing those schol- ars whose sole intellectual preoccupation is the Talmud. They plunge directly into the vast sea of the Talmud without any preliminary or concomitant studies, because Talmud provides the practical knowledge necessary for religious behavior. "For from the Talmud do we know all the commandments by means of which we shall be able to inherit the life of the world-to-come." H. A. Davidson (continued from p. 5) Inasmuch as the goal is knowledge and practice of halakah, then universe, it could naturally be conceived of as a rabbinic science proceed forthwith, dispensing with propadeutic disciplines and of physics. And since the latter was a description of the structure avoiding theoretical distractions. This conception is further of the divine realm standing behind the physical universe, it could buttressed by the contention that meticulous and exhaustive naturally be conceived of as a rabbinic science of metaphysics. study of the Talmud is the only intrinsically worthwhile, Now the most successful human attempts at a science of physics dignified subject of study which reflects the love of God and and a science of metaphysics had been made by Greek philos- consequently earns God's love. This is the program and rationale ophy. Therefore, our medieval intellectual concluded, Greek of Talmudism, the child of halakocentricity. physics and metaphysics had to be studied as the best means for reconstructing the original rabbinic account of creation and1 The other side of the ledger tells a tale of apprehension and account of the chariot. The injunction to study only the divine anxiety lest the halakic enterprise become externalized and Law thus would not exclude study of philosophy. On the impoverished: We hear resounding calls for vigilance to assure contrary, studying the Law at its very highest level now, that the halakic system and its concrete practices remain rooted ironically, required study of philosophy. . in and related to spirituality, to knowledge of God obtained through study and experience. This spiritualist concern will Analyzing belief in the existence of God, love of God, and the trigger a tendency to censure halakic intellectualism and to obligation to study the divine law, thus led the medieval' downgrade Talmudism which crowds sensibility and spontaneity intellectual to prescribe the study of philosophy for purely out of the picture or even ranks a far-fetched, impracticable legal religious reasons, as a purely religious duty.

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Islamic Literature on Interfaith Polemics ar-Revendi. They criticized the Koran, tradition, Muhammad, by Moshe Perlmann (University of California-Los Angeles) religious faith in general. Revelation is rejected: what is "reason- able" in it can be attained by reason; what is not, cannot be was troubled by numerous inner struggles and factions accepted, cannot be of divine origin. A deistic variation is which found, in due course, a theological expression. The flow of reflected in the later Epistles of the Sincere-Brethren. In the polemics among the various factions for the heart and mind of Jewish milieu this is the period of fermentation: sectarianism, and the true believer was ceaseless. Islam operated in an area where the activity of Hiwi of Balkh. Saadia set out to fight the harmful the various other monotheistic faiths continued their existence, impact of new trends and opponents. We find him battling those and where Iran's faiths, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, were whose faith has been undermined, whose belief in the Bible has still very active. In the year 1000, or even 1200, Islam was still far been shaken, and whose acceptance of the oral law and rabbinic from unchallenged in the Near East. It had to defend itself and its authority is wavering. His contemporary, the Karaite Qirqisani, claims, to fight contamination by unorthodox tenets and outside moves to some extent in the same direction. destructive impact. The penetration of Hellenistic disciplines, modes of thought and methods gave rise to systematization, the Nevertheless, specifically anti-Jewish tracts are infrequent, of a use of logic and dialectics in exposition, the emergence of low order, small impact, the work of converts. The most theology and philosophical trends. In the ensuing debates, and substantial work in the next century is a section in the XI century the clash of "faith vs. reason", a golden mean was flanked by Ibn Hazm's Fisal but apparently it had little impact. Written with extreme trends. venom, at times personal, it contains information about some remarkable individuals, some of them Jewish physicians, with Islamic literature, overwhelmingly in Arabic, produced a rationalist views about faith and who aspired to a religion of discipline of the history of religion which included a survey of universal brotherhood and tolerance. Only the XII century beliefs of various denominations. It centers on the study of Islam convert from Judaism to Islam, the physician and mathematician, with its variations, deviations, sects. But some attention is paid to Samau'al al Maghribi, succeeded in producing a tract which had other faiths, among them Judaism. About the year 1000, books lasting influence in Islam as a source of data against Jews and begin to summarize the stock of information and notions formed Judaism. Affected by the philosophical, theological, exegetical and accumulated in Muslim scholarly circles, and considered part doubts of the age, he was hardly a man of any belief. His of the academic equipment of a Muslim man of the world. The pamphlet is a means of entry and ingratiation into Islamic sources of this body of knowledge were varied: religious society. disciplines (Koran, tradition, theology), historical interest, globe- Did Jews respond to the anti-Jewish lore? There are no Jewish trotting, actual observation, inquiry, and polemics. What these tracts against Islam. But there are numerous references to Islam's compendia have to say about Jews carried much weight, but we anti-Jewish lore. It is these that Steinschneider collected so find that their discussion of Judaism is very limited; they seem far carefully a century ago. more interested in Christianity. This is understandable: during the pre-Islamic centuries, Christianity was the dominant faith in the The question arises: Why did Jews, living in the more severe Byzantine areas of the Near East (including North Africa) and atmosphere of Christian Europe, write tracts against the domin- Spain; it spread through the Sassanian Empire, Arabia, and ant faith's literary attacks, whereas, in the more comfortable Ethiopia. The might of Byzantium, even after the rise of the atmosphere of the Islamic world, they did not? Partly, no doubt, Islamic empire, was acknowledged; more and more was learned this depended on the fact that in Jewish-Christian disputations about Western European Christendom. By comparison, interest in there was a common, if contested, ground — the Scriptures; this the Jews was limited. was lacking in debates with Muslims who could never decide whether they accepted the Scriptures or not, and who, as a rule, In the ninth century Jahiz wrote a tract against Christianity simply lacked scriptural knowledge. and, parenthetically, offered a number of interesting observations on Jews and on the Muslims' attitude toward them. Although The debate was summed up, towards the end of the thirteenth Islam seemed closer to Judaism than to Christianity, the Muslims century, by Ibn Kammuna, another rationalist but of a different preferred the Christians, since their cultural and administrative moral fibre. The issues were: foundation of monotheistic religion, status impressed them. At the same time, Ali b. Rahban al Tabari, revelation, prophethood, the Law of Moses (and the objections a Christian physician who converted to Mam, put into circulation raised re its authorship, textual difficulties, contradictions, etc.), a stock of Biblical passages in favor of Islam. (The flow of abrogation of the Law, post-biblical lore. This literature is Christian-Muslim controversy actually starts with the so-called primarily for the believer, and to strengthen him, or to supply Hashimi-Kindi epistles.) We also hear of a Nestorian tract against him with arguments in debate. It does not expect to overwhelm the Jews; Zoroastrians, too, wrote in the same vein. Above all, the follower of the other faith. Writings of this kind, disputatious this was the age of rising skepticism, associated, in the Islamic and often slandeious and venomous, were hardly apt to deepen milieu, with the names of the great physician al-Razi, and Ibn humaneness and warmth of religious emotions. 8

The Religion of the Thinkers: The Problem of Free Will The Ethics of Medieval Jewish Marriage in Saadya, Bahya, and Maimonides by Mordechai A. Friedman (University of California-Berkeley) by Alexander Altmann (Brandeis University) During the Middle Ages significant advances were made in strengthening the bonds of marriage and its ethical dimensions, In his paper on "Popular Religion as Reflected in the Letters and in advancing the status of women, both through formal and Documents of the Geniza" Professor Goitein presented enactments and as a result of local custom. Marriage and divorce interesting evidence of a type of Jewish piety that was undoubt- were brought under the careful supervision of rabbinic author- edly influenced by Islam: a submission to the all-powerful will of ities. Far reaching changes were made in such fundamental areas God that actually amounted to a denial of man's freedom of as polygamy, and in the marriage ceremony itself. Some of the choice. To what degree did this radical predestinarianism find basic principles which had governed divorce laws were altered. 'I support in the religion of the thinkers? It was the purpose of my This period also witnessed the growth, in some quarters, of a paper to seek an answer to this question. The philosophers whose mystical interpretation of marriage. Elsewhere, the financial views I analyzed — Saadya, Bahya, and Maimonides — are repre- structure of the family was transformed so that the women were sentative of the three main streams of Jewish thought in the given economic powers far beyond those assumed by standard period with which the Conference was concerned. Before entering Jewish Law. These and other processes are described in the legal into the subject I offered some introductory observations on and moralistic literature of the period. Several studies dealing as a type of Jewish theology closest to popular with marriage and its institutions during this period have been religion. I described both the character of Jewish Kalam and the written. role it played during the Geonic period and beyond it. In this connection I discussed the attitude of the Geonim toward Jewish Many areas yet remain to be researched systematically. mysticism. Extensive new data and insights on medieval Jewish marriage and the family can now be derived from hundreds of marriage contracts and other documents from the Cairo Geniza, primarily In dealing with Saadya's doctrine of free will, I showed his from the tenth through thirteenth centuries. Of particular interest indebtedness to both the Mu'tazila and Aristotle. Saadya's would be an analysis of the changes in the attitudes towards emphatic rejection of Divine compulsion (jabr) upon human acts marriage and its institutions from those found in the Talmud. is reflected in his Biblical exegesis, as I was able to exemplify by a These changes developed in the East and in the West against the number of references. The picture that emerged was that of a background of Islam and Christianity. For the time being I thinker whose rationalistic stance was centered in the affirmation believe that analyses must be undertaken for specific topics of God's justice. By way of contrast, Bahya was portrayed as a before a general comparative study on marriage of this nature can thinker acutely aware of the conflicting utterances concerning be successfully attempted. compulsion and freedom found in the Scriptures, and struggling for a solution of the problem. In a sense, his answer combines the Rather than attempt a broad survey of the research which has Mu'tazilite and Ash'arite positions but does so with a tinge of been done and remains to be done on the ethics of medieval Sufi mysticism and in a manner closely akin to Abraham Jewish marriage, I shall discuss four specific topics, in each of Maimonides' attitude. which a certain emphasis will be placed on yet unpublished materials from the Geniza. These topics are: marriage formulae which signify the attitudes towards the marriage relationship; the The major part of my paper was concerned with Moses age when marriage took place, especially the question of Maimonides' theory of the will. The texts analyzed were the child-brides; the wife's freedom of movement outdoors and its Mishna Commentary on Berakhoth 9:7, chapter eight in Shem- restriction; and divorce procedures and the ethics of divorce. It is onah Peraqim, and the relevant passages in the Guide. I took issue not suggested that these topics are the most significant or the with Professor Goitein's suggestion that the first of the Thirteen most representative of the marriage relationship and its ethical 'Iqqarim as formulated in the Creed and appearing in the Siddur dimensions. They are offered as examples of the types of topics bore the marks of Ash'arite belief. My discussion of free will in which can be investigated and will hopefully be followed by Maimonides led me toward a more comprehensive inquiry into studies of other areas. The third topic — the wife's freedom of the meaning of the term will as applied to God and the relation of movement — will be discussed in greater detail than the others. will and wisdom in God. The rather intricate nature of this theme Again, this is not because of any central importance attributed to resists, I feel, any attempt at even vaguely summarizing. The same this specific question, but simply because I find it to be a most applies to the resultant characterization of Maimonides' type of interesting issue which has not yet been studied in depth. piety offered in the paper. continued on p. 9 9

l(. A. Friedman (continued from p. 8) The Geniza documents show that many Jewish husbands felt very strongly that their wives should not be allowed to move about freely outdoors. In many cases a wife agreed not to leave the house except as directed by her husband. At times it was 1. Formulae in the marriage contract. agreed that she would be permitted out for specific purposes. One document states that the husband will have the right to lock his The primacy of procreation as a goal for marriage is reflected wife in whenever he desires. These undertakings are found in in the Palestinian proposal (or acceptance) formula "wife and settlements after disputes as well as in betrothal deeds and mother of children." The relationship between husband and wife marriage contracts. It is suggested that they are more a reflection is emphasized in some traditions (Karaite, Palestinian), where the of Islamic mores than Talmudic sources. It is similarly suggested bride is spoken of as a "companion," a "helper," or "wife in that Maimonides may have been unconsciously influenced by covenant," a direct allusion to Malachi 2:14. Palestinian ketubbot Islamic culture in ruling that a wife should not be permitted describe the marital relationship as a "partnership." One formal outdoors but once or twice a month (Ishut 13:11). expression of this notion is the "mutual obligation" clauses, where the bride responds to her husband's proposal with her undertaking towards him. This is a distinctive feature of the The seclusion of women had legal ramifications concerning Palestinian ketubba tradition, and is also characteristic of Karaite court procedures. According to Rav Sherira Gaon, if a monetary marriage contracts. claim was brought against a married woman who was known to be modest and not engage in business dealings with men, she wasn't summoned to court until the claim against her had been considered. The procedure was a denial of due process and in direct violation of Talmudic law. Its source was "custom," and it was carried out in the name of protecting a woman's modesty. 2. Age at marriage The Geniza shows that many women played an active role in The dictum of Rav "It is forbidden for a man to betroth his society and the business world and appeared regularly in court. minor daughter, (he must wait) until she has grown and says T desire (to many) so and so'" (BT Qid. 41a) was often ignored or interpreted in a fashion which altered its original meaning in the Middle Ages. In Europe, marriages of child-brides were rationalized on socio-economic grounds. On the other hand, it was explained that once a girl was of age, her father could arrange her marriage without consulting her. Maimonides paraphrased the 4. Divorce words "it is forbidden" in Rav's dictum as "it is a commandment Standard Jewish law denies the wife any active role in the of the sages, not to." Both the direct and the indirect evidence of divorce process. An ancient Palestinian marriage stipulation the Geniza documents indicates that, according to the norm, girls granting the wife the right to initiate divorce proceedings is were not married until after they had at least attained full legal believed to be the source for the famous enactment of the age (12& years). The few documents describing earlier marriage Geonim regarding a moredet. One of the most exciting Geniza are to be seen as exceptions and the results of peculiar discoveries in the area of marriage and divorce has been that of circumstances. the Palestinian ketubbot fragments containing this stipulation. Maimonides taught that Talmudic law required the husband to divorce his wife if she hated him. Both the Geonim and Maimonides ruled that no action should be taken on the wife's petition for divorce when she was believed to have an ulterior 3. Wife's egress. motive, such as love for another man. This restriction is echoed in The Talmud condemned excessive restrictions of a wife's Sefer ha-Ma'asim and reflected in the Geniza. freedom of movement, such as forbidding her from (even) visiting her family (for more than a month) or, as one oveijealous A magnificent midrash teaches that a man's moral responsi- husband did, locking her in. Unrestrained social contact was also bility towards his wife continues even after divorce, and that the condemned, and the proper course of action was to permit a wife phrase "and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh" (Is. to leave the house for basic social obligations and to meet 58:7) refers to one's divorcee. A geniza document from 1089 relatives and neighbors. Islam, however, did recognize a husband's exemplifies this ethic, describing that even on the day that a man full right to lock his wife indoors and to prevent her family from remarried, he had compassion for his divorcee and undertook to visiting her. support her for four years "as a reminder of her friendship." 10

NEWS IN BRIEF New AJS Members

Sherrow Memorial Prize Chimen Ab ram sky University College (England)

The AJS has been asked to administer the award of the Fred Eliane Amado Levy-Valensi Bar Dan University (Israel) Solomon Sherrow Memorial Prize. The Prize, with a stipend of $250, is to be awarded annually for an outstanding research paper Milton Arfa Hunter College (in English, Hebrew, or Yiddish) by a graduate student or an Michal Artzy-Lerdahl Univ. of California-Berkeley advanced undergraduate on a topic related to contemporary Jewish studies. Deadline for submitting essays has been extended Joseph Badi City College, CUNY to September 5, 1973, with the award to be announced at the Annual Conference in October. Aviva S. Barzel Lehman College, CUNY

Farrel R. Broslawsky Los Angeles Valley College Israel PL-480 Program Terminated Michael G. Brown York University (Canada) The termination of the Library of Congress PL-480 Program for Israel effective 31 May 1973 was announced by the Tel-Aviv Ivan Caine Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Field Office of the American Libraries Book Procurement Center Moshe Catane Bar Dan University (Israel) of the Library of Congress. Joseph Eliash Oberlin College American University Establishes Jewish Studies Program Meyer S. Feldblum Yeshiva University The American University in Washington, D.C. has established an interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Program which will stress Henry Friedlander CCNY contemporary Jewish community and policy problems as well as Isaiah Friedman Dropsie University traditional Judaic studies. American University will thus be the first university in the Baltimore-Washington area to offer students Libby R. Garshowitz University of Toronto (Canada) the option of majoring in Jewish Studies toward a B.A. degree. Developed by Prof. Harvey Lieber of the School of Government, Irving Gefter California State University, San Diego the program is modeled after the existing interdisciplinary American Studies Program at the university. It was begun with Jane S. Gerber Lehman College, CUNY the aid of an initial grant of $100,000 for the academic years 1973-74 and 1974-75 from the Institute of Judaic Arts and Rosalie G. Gershenzon Los Angeles Valley College Studies, led by a group of Washington community and business leaders. Joseph B. Gittler Yeshiva University Bernard Grossfeld A variety of new courses are being developed, from Israeli University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Foreign Policy to Contemporary Jewish Literature, in several Jacob Lassner Wayne State University fields including philosophy and religion, Hebrew literature, history, sociology, political science and international relations. Israel O. Lehman Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati These courses will be open to other area students through the Washington Consortium of Universities, which includes Catholic, Frederick S. Plotkin University of Nevada George Washington, Georgetown and Howard universities. Raphael Sappan University of the Negev (Israel) Prof. Gershon Greenberg, formerly of the University of Rochester, is the first full-time appointment to the Jewish Studies Moshe Schwarcz Bar Dan University (Israel) Program, and he will coordinate this program. A complementary David S. Segal Brandeis University "year of study abroad" at Tel Aviv University has also been initiated with Prof. Lieber as its initial Resident Director. Several Rene-Samuel Sirat Sorbonne (France) openings are anticipated in the Jewish Studies Program for the 1974-75 academic year. For further information, contact Prof. Bernard Steinberg Rhodes University (South Africa) Greenberg, Department of Philosophy and Religion, American University, Washington, D.C. 20016. Gershon Weiss Temple University 11

News in Brief (continued from p. 10) New Appointments David Blumenthal Brown University Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies Michael Cook Asst. Prof, of Rabbinic and Intertestamental Literature Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of The Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies will take place in Religion (Cincinnati) from August 12 to August 19,1973. The program has Donna R. Divine Asst. Prof, of Jewish Studies five divisions: 1) Ancient Near East and Bible Studies; chairmen: City College, C.U.N.Y. B. Mazar and M. Greenberg. 2) Jewish History; chairmen: H. Everett Fox Lecturer on Judaic Studies Beinart and D. Carpi. 3) Rabbinic Literature; Jewish Philosophy, Boston University Law and Kabbalah; Hebrew and Yiddish literatures; chairmen: E. E. Urbach and M. Elon. 4) Jewish Philology; Folklore and the Mordechai A. Friedman Visiting Professor Tel-Aviv University Arts; chairmen: J. Greenfield and H. Rabin. 5) Special Research Projects; chairmen: H. Z. Hirschberg and Ch. Shmeruk. For ArieHa Goldberg Asst. Prof, of Hebrew Brandeis University information, contact: A. Shinan, Congress Secretary, World Union of Jewish Studies, P.O.B. 1255, Jerusalem, Israel. Judah Goldin Professor University of Pennsylvania Arthur Green Lecturer on Modern Jewish Thought As part of the Congress there will be sessions of the Council on University of Pennyslvania the Teaching of Hebrew from August 8 to August 10. For information, contact B. Z. Fischler, Council on the Teaching of Gershon Greenberg American University Hebrew, P.O.B. 7413, Jerusalem, Israel. Janet Hadda Asst. Prof, of Yiddish University of California - Los Angeles William Helmreich Asst. Prof, of Sociology & Jewish Studies City College, C.U.N.Y. Contemporary Jewish Studies Lawrence Hoffman Asst. Prof, of Liturgy Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (N.Y.C.) Dr. Zvi Gastwirt of the Centre for Jewish Education in the Diaspora at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is compiling a list Baruch Kanael Assoc. Prof, of Religion Haverford College of scholars engaged in the teaching of courses on "contemporary Jewish civilization". Such individuals are asked to forward their Jacob Katz Visiting Prof. Harvard University names to Dr. Gastwirt. Daniel Lasker Instructor in Judaica Kirkland College Shimeon Levi McGill University New Edition of Guide to Jewish Student Groups Hillel Levine Asst. Prof, of Sociology & Jewish History Yale University The second edition of A Guide to Jewish Student Groups has Ivan G. Marcus Instructor in History recently been published by the North American Jewish Students' Jewish Theological Seminary of America Network (154 West 27th Street, New York, New York 10001). Stephen M. Poppel Asst. Prof, of Religion The one hundred and thirty-nine page directory includes lists of Sir George Williams University metropolitan unions of Jewish students, campus federations and Benjamin Ravid Asst. Prof, of Jewish History groups, community groups, chavurot and garinim, publications Brandeis University and national groups. Paul Ritterband Assoc. Prof, of Sociology City College, C.U.N.Y. Norbert Samuelson University of Virginia Alan F. Segal Princeton University Workshop in Use of Archival Resources Jonathan Segal University of Texas A workshop for graduate students in the use of Jewish archival Bernard Septimus University of California - Berkeley resources will be given in 1973/74 by Z. Szajkowski, Research Daniel Swetschinski McGill University Associate of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. In the Fall Zosa Szajkowski Visiting Lecturer on Modern Jewish History Semester, the workshop will be held at the Max Weinreich Center Brandeis University for Advanced Jewish Studies at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; it will be given again at Brandeis University in the Spring semester.

U 12

EJ on Christianity from the fathers to the present. While the medieval disputation! by Frank Talmage (University of Toronto) centered around certain stock arguments and testimonia, the discussions in the modern period are of greater complexity. The latter is handled particularly well. Ben Sasson presents a carefully Although the fact that the Encyclopaedia Judaica serves as a laid out documentary with the chief participants (Orobio de "mirror of Jewish life today" may be the source of many Castro-Van Limborch, Mendelssohn-Lavater, Rosenzweig- weaknesses, it also provides for potentially interesting and fresh Rosenstock, Buber-Schmidt) introduced and allowed to speak for perspectives in certain subject areas. Foremost amongst these is themselves. Christianity and Jewish-Christian relations. From the point of view of pure scholarship, of course, one would not expect any radically new treatment of these subjects. Thus Flusser's article on Jesus lays emphasis on Jesus' Jewishness and modifies his What is noteworthy in these articles above their expression of alleged anti-Pharisaic tendencies. Yet this is by now a well scholarship is their expression of mood. With indefatigable Israeli established tradition in modern Jewish scholarship. Other articles optimism, each account must end be-khi tov. After presenting are solid but make no attempt to break new ground, if indeed Buber as seeking to divest "religious disputation of the polemical such ground can be broken. These range from Enslin's "Bible in form it had assumed throughout most of its history and Christianity" to Blumenkranz's "Church Fathers" which deals presenting it as an open and friendly meeting, ecumenical in the with patristic knowledge of Hebrew and polemics. "Jesus in fullest sense", Ben Sasson carries the theme through: "The Talmud and Midrash" is taken directly from the Encyclopedia darkness and flame of the Holocaust and the light from Zion may Hebraica while the literary-linguistic treatment of the "New illumine the pilgrimage to ecumenical coversation on equal terms, Testament" is adapted from Klausner. toward understanding and harmonious living, waiting for God to solve his own mystery in history." Even Flusser's article on Jesus In the major articles where there is more room to manoeuvre, presents the "historical Jesus... as a bridge between Judaism and we find a level of objectivity that befits an encyclopedia. Yet Christianity as well as one of the causes for their separation" for here — overtly or covertly — there is a mote of commentary. In "through the teachings of Jesus, as well as through other "Christianity", for example, Werblowsky goes beyond the mere channels, the Jewish moral method entered Christianity." Wer- lexicographic definition of "Christian" to observe that: blowsky for his part lays stress on the assertion that

In its subsequent usage in modern European languages, the adjective "Christian" has come to mean everything decent, ... many modern Christian thinkers struggled for an under- moral, and praiseworthy (e.g., "a real Christian" is a term of standing of their Christianity as a genuine fulfillment of the praise, and "unchristian behavior" is an expression of oppro- promise of biblical Israel in a manner which would not brium). In Jewish usage the term acquired a certain pejorative undercut the legitimacy and authenticity of Jewish existence. tone, referring mainly to the contrast between the profession By striving to formulate an understanding of Judaism that of high ideals (religion of love, turning the other cheek) would detract neither from the dignity of the latter nor from unmatched by actual performance (pogroms, discrimination, the dogmatic witness of Christianity, a number of Christian anti-Semitism). scholars and theologians are trying to correct the traditional caricature of post-biblical Judaism as a dead, petrified, or Werblowsky succinctly defines the tension and contention fossilized religion without spiritual vitality and dynamism. between the two religions as stemming not from mere rivalry but from the fact that Christianity itself claims to be Israel. As such the Jews could possess "nothing but an empty shell, a degenerate These articles themselves do not document the source of all and corrupt form of a misunderstood reality" in which Judaism this enthusiasm however. Werblowsky himself observes that it is develops as an "anti-sacramental order". too early to tell how effective this new reexamination is to be. On the other hand, if one is to judge by Eckert's "Church, Catholic" Werblowsky's article sets the stage for those on Jewish- and Feldman's "Protestants", the reexamination is in full swing, Christian polemics. Oddly enough, the editors have seen fit to for the impression is given that the transition from mission to include both Urbach's "Apologetics" (translated from the Hebra- dialogue is an accomplished fact. What the real numbers or the ica) and Ben Sasson's "Disputations and Polemics". While both real influence of the reexaminers is is not fully explored. The are superior pieces, there is much overlap between the two. study on "Holocaust and the Christian Churches" gives a once Urbach, of course, stresses the "apologetic", i.e. the defensive, over lightly treatment to the subject as well. While hardly while Ben Sasson emphasizes the aggressive and assertive in whitewashing the Christian Churches, the articles raise doubts as Jewish polemics thereby correcting stereotypical views of med- to whether protests by the Church would have done any good. A ieval Judaism. With his masterly skill at synthesis, Ben Sasson good case is made that they would not have, but depending on brings into relief the salient points in the Jewish-Christian debate one's assumptions, this is not always to the point. continued on p. 14 13

BOOK REVIEWS I do not find his distinction between hitlahavut and hitpa'alut particularly instructive). He does well to quote extensively from early anti-Hasidic polemics as a source both for the inner life of Hasidism and for contrasts in religious approaches. It is particu- Louis Jacobs, Hasidic Prayer. larly refreshing to see him quote nineteenth and even twentieth New York, Schocken [1973]. ix, 195 p. century Hasidic masters as sources of Hasidic thought; the early stereotype which insisted that Hasidic creativity was ended by One of the greater ironies of Jewish history in our times is the 1820 has all too often been followed by contemporary scholars. tremendous renewal of interest in Hasidism among Jews of the English-speaking world. Whether motivated by a romanticization Other students of Hasidism may of course choose to disagree of die East European past or by more serious spiritual strivings, with certain judgements and emphases of Jacobs. Thus I do not the appetite for literature on Hasidism seems to remain undamp- know why the cartwheels of the TaLK Hasidim should be ened. This literature has come to include everything from characterized as "absurd extremes" (p. 56) in an otherwise photo-essays and sociological studies of Jews in Williamsburg to generally objective study. It seems to me that the rather lengthy serious interpretations of Hasidic religious thought. treatment given the prohibition of wearing woolen garments during prayer (p. 154ff.) and other minor Halakhic matters might One of the most serious writers in the newly developing field have been better expended on greater elaboration of certain of Hasidic studies is Louis Jacobs. His two previous volumes in devotional techniques or a clearer presentation of the Sefirotic this area, a translation of the Tract on Ecstacy by Dov Baer of system. It also seems that Jacobs leaps a bit too quickly when he Lubavitch (London, 1963), and a study of the highly abstruse dismisses those "popular works" on Hasidism which elevate "the writings of Aaron of Starosselje entitled Seeker of Unity (New prayers of the unsophisticated offered in simple faith", (p. 34f.) York, 1966), are by far the best presentations of the HaBaD There exists in Hasidism, as in Franciscan and Sufi literature, a contemplative system to the Western reader. The latter work in complex dialectic of sophistication and simplicity. Could it be particular is an exemplary combination of lucid popular writing that the contemplative mystic hopes, by means of highly complex and original research. trappings, to recapture that wholeness which the man of simple faith has possessed all along? Now Jacobs has presented us with a more general volume on the very important topic of Hasidic prayer. There is no area more Arthur Green (University of Pennsylvania) central to an understanding of Hasidic piety than the vast array of instructions provided in the movement's literature for achieving kawanah and devequt in the act of prayer. Following the lead of Luriannic Kabbalah, Hasidism saw the life of prayer as the central pillar upon which all of Judaism is based. A most instructive insight from within Hasidism reinterprets Avot 1:2 as a periodiza- tion of Jewish history: until the time of Luria, Jewish life based Zosa Szajkowski, Jews, Wars and Communism. itself on Torah; beginning with Luria and on through early New York, Ktav, 1972. v. 1 (xxvii, 714 p.) Hasidism, the central emphasis was on worship. From the third generation of Hasidic masters (ca.1800) onward, deeds of The indefatigable Zosa Szajkowski has begun to publish what compassion are to play the central role (Ohel Elimelech #51, will certainly be his magnum opus. The volume before us is the contra Jacobs, p. 17). Leaving room for the ongoing world of the first of a projected series encompassing various aspects of the Lithuanian Yeshivah, the assessment is not far off the mark! It is multifaceted subject announced in his title. Bearing the sub- clear, in any case, that an English-language study of Hasidic heading "The Attitude of American Jews to World War I, the prayer is most welcome. Russian Revolutions of 1917, and Communism (1914-1945)," volume I contains a series of thirty-four chapters, each a discrete Jacob's latest book is not primarily a work of original study of an important aspect of the general theme, including a scholarship. He leans heavily upon existing studies published in consideration of such matters as 'The Attitudes of the American- Hebrew, especially those of Rivka Schatz and Aaron Wertheim. Jewish Leadership to Russia"; "Jews and Wilson's Just War"; But no matter. The chief virtue of this volume is its lucidity; it "The Attitudes of Jews to a Separate Peace between Russia and serves well to introduce the intelligent general reader to the Germany"; "Jews and the Recognition of Soviet Russia"; subject at hand. To the researches of these other scholars, Jacobs "American Jews Against Communism" and "American-Jewish has added from his particular knowledge of HaBaD Hasidism to Struggle Against Nazism and Communism in the 1930's". But it create a rather well-balanced volume. He deals with such diverse includes as well chapters or parts of chapters dedicated to such topics as contemplative technique, liturgical variations, music in matters as the patriotism of the American Jews; discrimination prayer, and the nature of Hasidic ecstacy and enthusiasm (though continued on p. 14 M. A. Cohen (continued from p. 13) The New JPS Psalms Translation against Jews and anti-Semitism in America and Russia, Com- by Nahum M. Sarna (Brandeis University) munist as well as Czarist; the relationship of the Jews to Marxism; Zionism and its persecution in Communist Russia; the Vatican In 1966 the Jewish Publication Society set up a special and the Jews; the Jews and the New York City Mayoralty committee for the translation of the Kethubim. It comprised Election of 1917; and to such personalities as Judah Leon Magnes professors Moshe Greenberg of the University of Pennsylvania, and Stephen S. Wise. Jonas C. Greenfield of the University of California (both now of the Hebrew University) and Nahum M. Sarna of Brandeis The documentation in this nearly seven hundred page volume University. Associated with them were rabbis Saul Leeman, is breathtaking. The bibliography of printed works and period- Martin Rosenberg and David Shapiro of the three sections of icals fills more than fifty pages; the vast manuscript material cited organized religious life in America. Dr. Chaim Potok served as and analyzed derives from nearly a hundred and fifty different secretary. collections. As is his custom, Szajkowski quotes liberally and The committee's first assignment was the Book of Psalms. This lengthily from his sources, giving the reader a participatory has already been completed and is due to appear shortly. Proverbs impression of events. His approach is descriptive rather than is currently being prepared. The three professional scholars met analytical and factual rather than theoretical. It is a mine of for ten days in Philadelphia at the end of December 1972 and reliable information and an indispensable reference for the completed the translation of the first fifteen chapters. student of general American as well as Jewish history. The translation is wholly in modern English, even in regard to Martin A. Cohen (Hebrew Union College- forms of address to God. In this latter respect it differs from most Jewish Institute of Religion, New York) other renderings and is faithful to the biblical Hebrew style which made no distinctions between interpersonal and human-divine forms of speech. F. Talmage (continued from p. 12) The EJ, as totseret ha-arets, is true to the rock from which it The fundamental difference, however, between the new JPS was hewn. Israeli Jews, belonging to the majority religion version and recent modern translations is the former's (especially with regard to Christianity), find it somewhat easier commitment to the received Hebrew text, eschewing emendation these days to be ecumenical. This despite the fact that Christians or rearrangement of verses. The reason for this is simply that for are bewildered by the fact that the Jewish people have Jews, the Hebrew Bible has always been the paramount and recovered a sense of their national-ethnic existence with its exclusive authority while the translation is but a secondary social and political dimensions. Thus, many Christians who are medium. The Jewish community which uses the Hebrew Bible in ready to enter into a "dialogue" with Judaism as a religious the synagogue service must have available a faithful rendering of ... entity are at a loss how to face what is to them the the text, which can boast of at least a 2,000 year old history. For "secular" phenomenon of Zionism and the modern State of the same reason, the committee felt bound to transmit the flavor Israel. (Werblowsky, "Christianity") of the Hebrew in as far as it was possible to do so without doing violence to the genius of the English language. In like manner, it has not transmitted a Semitic idiom into a modem figure Christian reaction to this latest "mystery" in two thousand borrowed from another culture. At the same time, intellectual years of mysteries is briefly dealt with in "Church, Catholic" and honesty and scholarly integrity demand that the reader be "Protestants" but clearly spelled out in Prazai's "Vatican" which informed where textual problems exist and where, as a devotes itself to the well-known story of the Holy See's attitudes consequence, any translation must perforce be uncertain, at best. to Zionism from Herzl to publication date. Rather than seeing This has been achieved by the use of marginal notes. this concentration as narrow (as suggested in an earlier review), one may perceive here a clever bit of editing. It allows for a clear Another feature of the new version is the careful attention that distinction between the Vatican (the monolith) and the Catholic has been paid to the presence of key-words in a psalm. Modem Church with its variety of approaches and opinions. translations, with few notable exceptions, have by and large ignored this important characteristic of numerous psalms. Where Unfortunately, however, yotse sekharo be-hefsedo. No amount repetition of a significant term within a given psalm clearly of indexing can make up for poor organization. It is a tortuous indicates the intention of the Hebrew poet to emphasize a key path that leads one from "Christianity" to "Church, Catholic" motif, vital to the understanding of the composition, the (Why not a sub-section of Christianity?) to "Protestants" (Why translators have made every effort to achieve consistency of not "Church, Protestant"?) to "Vatican" (Why not a subsection rendering. of "Church, Catholic"). Whether these articles will receive ecclesiastical approval is difficult to know. The reader, however, The new JPS translation is being issued initially without seems definitely to be condemned to the index. explanatory notes; however, a volume of notes is being prepared. 15

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Americana Petuchowski, Jakob J. Understanding Jewish prayer. New York, Ktav, 1972. xiv, 175 p. Learsi, Rufus. The Jews in America: a history. Epilogue: A collection of essays reprinted from various sources. American Jewry 1954-1971, by Abraham J. Karp. New York, Ktav, 1972. xiv, 422 p. Sandmel, Samuel. We Jews and Jesus. New York, Oxford Originally published in 1954. University Press [1973]. xvi, 163 p. Originally published in 1965. By myself I'm a book! An oral history of the immigrant Jewish "Preface • 1973:"pp. xixvi experience in Pittsburgh, by the Pittsburgh Section, National Council of Jewish Women, under the direction of Ailon Shiloh. Waltham, American Jewish Historical Society, 1972. xxii, 166 p. Classic texts

Texts and Studies Series in American Jewish History (Joint Abravanel, Isaac. Opera minora. [Farnborough] Gregg, 1972.5 Project of the American Jewish Historical Society and the v in 1. (Hebrew). Institute of Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew University) (1° Reprints of Ateret zekenim (1557), Zurot ha-yesodot (1557), Shamayim Hebrew). hadashim (1828), Mifdot elohim (1592), Rosh amanah (1505), Sheelot (1574). V. 1: An introduction to early American Jewish history, by "Introduction by Louis Jacobs:" pp. i-n>. Jacob R. Marcus. Jerusalem, 1971.318 p. V. 2: From dependence to mutuality: the American Jewish Almosnino, Moses. Tefillah le-Mosheh (The prayer of Moses) community and world Jewry, by Moshe Davis. Jerusalem, and Sefer pirke Mosheh (The chapters of Moses). [Farnborough] 1970.449 p. Gregg, 1971. 2 v. in 1. (Hebrew). Reprints of Salonica 1563 editions. V. 3: American Jewry: the formative years, by Bertram W. "Introduction by Herbert Davidson:"pp. 1-5. Korn. Jerusalem, 1971.381 p. Judah ha-Levi. Liber Cosri. [Farnborough] Gregg, 1971. 1 v. (Hebrew and Latin) On Books and Booklore Reprint of John Buxtorf's translation. Bade 1660. "Introduction by Herbert Davidson: "pp. i-vi. Goodman, Philip. Illustrated essays on Jewish bookplates. New York, Ktav, 1971.196 p. A collection of 10 articles reprinted from various journals. Classic works of scholarship Bacher, Wilhelm. Die Bibelexegese der judischen Religions- Habermann, A.M. Jewish book-plates (ex libris). Safed, Mu- philosophen des Mittelalters vor Maimuni. Budapest 1892. And seum of Printing Art [1972?] xix, 121 p. (Hebrew) Die Bibelexfegese Moses Maimuni's. Budapest 1896. [Farn- borough] Gregg, 1972.2 v. in 1. Roth, Cecil. Studies in books and booklore. [Farnborough] Reprints. "Introduction by J. L. Teicher: "pp. i-xiv. Gregg, 1972. ix, 287 p. (English); 59 p. (Hebrew). A collection of 31 articles reprinted from various journals. Kaufmann, David. Die Spuren Al-Batlajusi's. Budapest 1880. And Studien iiber jSalomon Ibn Gabirol. Budapest 1899. And Die Sinne. Budapest 1884. [Farnborough] Gregg, 1972. 3 v. in 1. Philosophy and Theology "Introduction by Louis Jacobs: "pp. i-m.

Recent Works Buber, Martin. On Zion: the history of an idea. New York, Schocken [1973]. xxii, 165 p. Originally published as Israel and Palestine in 1952. With a new foreword by Nahum N. Glatzer. New Periodical Neusner, Jacob, ed. Contemporary Judaic fellowship in theory and in practice. New York, Ktav, 1972. xxxii, 270 p. Bulletin of the Institute of Jewish Studies. Vol. 1,1973. A collection of essays reprinted from various sources. Published by the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College, London. 16 i

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED (continued from p. 15) John C. Branner. Prolegomenon by Yosef Hayim Yenuhafani. New York, Ktav, 1972.55,504 p. (Studia Sephardica). Originally published in 1926. < Sephardica | Judah ha-Levi. Diwan des Abu-l-Hasan Jehuda ha-Levi. Edited Baer, Fritz. Die Juden in Christlichen Spanien. Erster Teil: by H. Brody. [Farnborough] Gregg, 1971.4 (Hebrew). Urkunden und Regesten. [Farnborough] Gregg, 1970.2 v. Originally published 1894-1930. New material: "introduction, bibliography, addition*, indices to NbM < j Originally published 1929-1936. III & IV and a general index to the four volumes by A. M. Mabarmmm." Includes a new "introduction by the author" and a "select additional ( bibliography by H. Beinart." History Barnett, Richard, ed. The Sephardi heritage; essays on the history and cultural contribution of the Jews of Spain and Gal, Allon. Socialist-Zionism; theory and issues in content- , j I Portugal. Vol. 1. New York, Ktav, 1971. porary Jewish nationalism. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shenkman 11 [1973].x,223 p. i Braunstein, Baruch. The Chuetas of Majorca; Conversos and i the Inquisition of Majorca. New York, Ktav, 1972. xvii, 227 p. Katz, Jacob. Emancipation and assimilation; studies In modUn (Studia Sephardica). Jewish history. Farnborough, Gregg, 1972. xii, 293 p. Originally published in 1936. A collection of 12 essays reprinted from various journals.

Cohen, Martin A., ed. The Jewish experience in Latin Mann, Jacob. Texts and studies in Jewish history and liter- America; selected studies from the Publications of the American ature. New York, Ktav, 1972.2 v. Jewish Historical Society. Edited with an introd. by Martin A. Originally published in 1931. Cohen. Waltham, American Jewish Historical Society; New York, Includes "The reconstruction of Gaonic history: Introduction to Jacob Ktav, 1971.2v. Mann's Texts and Studies," bjt Gerson D. Cohen, v. 1, pp. xtH-xctL

Herculano, Alexandre. History of the origin and establishment Orlinsky, Harry M. Understanding the Bible through history of the Inquisition in Portugal. Translated from the Portuguese by and archaeology. New York, Ktav, 1972. ix, 292 p.

ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES Widener Library 188 I Harvard University FIRST CLASS * Cambridge, Mass. 02138

AJS CALENDAR 21-22 October 1973: Annual Conference - Harvard