Four Book Reviews
Religious Zionism of Rav Kook
By Pinchas Polonsky
Translated from Russian by Lise Brody
Machanaim, 2009, 93 pages
Pinchas Polonsky explains two novel open-minded concepts of Rabbi Abraham-Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935) in this book, concepts that could, and indeed should, radically change the way Judaism and other religions are practiced.
Rabbi Kook's first idea is that there are three ways that people should communicate with God: as an individual, a nation and all of humanity. People are for the most part still mired in the restrictive notion of individual dialogue, as is clear when they pray, but they need to improve: to think about nations and humanity. Jews, Rabbi Kook taught, now have the impetus, opportunity and need for a national dialogue because of the reestablishment of the State of Israel. In the future, hopefully soon, Jews and non-Jews will mature even further and learn why humanity must dialogue with God. Dialogue, Rabbi Kook taught, means studying the world, looking to see what has occurred and what is occurring and then seeking the divine response, "what God is telling us."
The second teaching, which flows from the first, is "continuing revelation." The original divine revelation at Sinai was important, but the Torah focused primarily, as it needed to do at the time, on the duties of individuals. How is God revealed today? God, Rabbi Kook states, is not revealed through prophets and miracles. Modern divine revelation is in daily events, in history, and in the development of culture, science, ethics and society. People, the rabbi emphasized, need to not only observe, examine and ponder these items and events, which is dialogue, but to go further and strive to understand what God is revealing.
This, writes Dr. Polonsky, is the way Rabbi Kook understood how the ancient prophets saw and interpreted what they saw. "A prophet is one who brings the word of God to the people, in particular through the understanding of the historical process as a dialogue with God. In a sense, a prophet is a religious history teacher or, more accurately, one who exhorts the people to see religious meaning in historic events." A prophet is not a soothsayer who miraculously predicts the future; the prophet teaches the people how to see God revealed in history and daily events.
Focusing on Orthodox Judaism as an example, Dr. Polonsky writes that Orthodox Jews must preserve the practices of their religion - this is Orthodoxy. However, Orthodox Jews must also incorporate the new information that the world reveals through this dialogue and revelation - this is Modernism. The two together yield Modern Orthodoxy. Both Orthodox Jews and all humanity must stop thinking of religion as something "given." Modern Orthodox and all people need to realize that they are obligated to "continue this religion and develop it" through dialogue and revelation.
The rabbi sitting in his parlor studying Talmud must not be the paradigm of the true Jew. The modern Jew must recognize his and her responsibility, exit the study hall, see and understand the world and the developments of history and science, and act and improve.
Many of Rabbi Kook's contemporary Orthodox rabbinical colleagues insisted that Jews should not attempt to reestablish a state in Israel, but rely on God to hand them the state with a miracle. Rabbi Kook, a fervent Religious Zionist, rejected this passivity. He saw in Zionism and the reestablishment of a Jewish State the possibility to both dialogue with God as a nation and also, as free people in their own land, take advantage of the continuing divine revelation.
Remarkably, Dr. Polonsky compares Rabbi Kook's two concepts to the paradoxical notion of the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797). The Gaon contended that when the Romans destroyed Israel in the year 70 C.E., Judaism gasped its last breath and died, and over the centuries the Jewish corpse decayed in its forlorn grave. It was only in his time, in the eighteenth century, when the sparks of world enlightenment were ignited and began to glow, that the Jewish people began to resurrect. Thus, counter to the thinking of many, the Gaon contended that even during the time of the Talmuds and the highly respected Talmud commentators and the writers of the Jewish Codes of Law, Judaism was dead and buried. This, though hyperbolic, says Dr. Polonsky, is similar to Rabbi Kook's view that it is only now, with the State of Israel, that Jews can revive, breath the air of modern culture as free people, have an effective national dialogue with God and tap into the continued revelation.
Dr. Polonsky laments that the classical method of talmudic analysis of problems is inadequate. Classical Orthodox Judaism of the past two hundred years focused primarily on the past, rather than on the present and future, and offered answers based on ancient considerations, proper for their own time, but not now.
It is necessary today to face and solve many current problems. How, for example, Rabbi Kook asked, can we find the inner truths of atheists, non-Jews and secular Jews, and incorporate their truths into our religious thinking and practices? Isn't the ability of atheist to doubt, think critically, be skeptical, deny superstitions, refuse to accept every tradition on faith and "merely believe," the mind-set and skills that all people, religious and non-religious, should acquire?
Atheism "is not an enemy of true religion. It is an enemy of primitive religion and an ally in the creation of a more advanced one." Jewish students "are taught (the) concept of faith (but a) new generation of religious people (must rise) up, whose views can be characterized as ‘religious post-atheism,' which uses the religious achievements of atheism in the development of Judaism. Unless it (Judaism) activates within it the aspect of doubt, religion will be primitive. Doubt is necessary for its existence." Religion must not lag behind developing culture like a mangy dog chewing on a cast-away bone; it should it join hands with all humanity, move forward together and work for human development.
Polonsky shows how Rabbi Kook would address agonizing contemporary Jewish questions such as: How can Jews identify and correct the defects in Judaism that are causing many Jews to flee bored and annoyed from a Judaism they consider not relevant? Is it possible for the various strands of Judaism to work together and help one another? How should halakha deal with the changing status of women in modern times?
He focuses also on issues relevant to the State of Israel. Should rabbis be part of the Israeli government? Why do the rabbis in the State of Israel give people who want to convert to Judaism so much unnecessary trouble? Isn't this another symptom of outdated, out-of-touch, insensitive thinking, of a disease that must be cured?
But first and foremost, he shows how and why people, nations and humanity can dialogue with God. And he shows how Judaism and humanity can improve by ridding themselves of the notion that revelation has ended.
Shabbat the Right Way
Resolving Halachic Dilemmas
By Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen
Urim Publication, 2009, 203 pages
The Jewish Sabbath, called Shabbat in Hebrew, is the most important day on the Jewish calendar. It recalls that God created the world and that God revealed laws, such as the Shabbat itself. Jews stress the staying power of Shabbat: more than a Jew keeps Shabbat, Shabbat keeps the Jew.
Shabbat has both positive and negative rules, procedures and ceremonies that Jews should practice, such as enjoying the day by wearing the finest clothes and eating and drinking good food and drink, and behaviors Jews should avoid, such as lighting fires, driving and working. The rabbis counted thirty-nine basic prohibitions, but both the positive and negative rules contain many minutiae. Rabbi Cohen addresses over 70 questions focusing on how various rabbis felt that these rules should be implemented.Rabbi Cohen states that he decides religious questions only after reviewing "proper religious sources" in an impartial manner without any preconceived desire to decide the issue leniently or stringently.
Here is an example of his methodology: When guests are present at the Friday night meal when a blessing is said over wine, called Kiddush, may a man say the blessing for all or must each male make the blessing for himself and his family? Rabbi Cohen cites seven opinions. Some prefer a single blessing while others contend that each man should make his own Kiddush. One of the seven rulings states that the solution depends on personal preference. In this case, Rabbi Cohen concludes the issue leniently: "preference should be granted to one person to recite Kiddush on behalf of everyone."
But Rabbi Cohen is not always lenient. For instance, he writes that a woman may recite the Friday night Kiddush for her husband and family. However, even though the technical halakha allows this, she should not make kiddush for non-family members since this, according to some rabbinic decisors, would be a breach of the rules of modesty.
Some may also see a stringency in the following example: although a Jew may violate Shabbat to save a person's life, it is preferable that the Jew ask a non-Jew to perform the act since "it is possible" that the person being saved is not in real danger and, if there is no fear of death, Shabbat should not be violated for that person.
Other subjects discussed include the different practices of how to begin the Friday night Kiddush and whether it is obligatory to say Kiddush on Shabbat morning. Although Jews prefer to avoid mentioning God's name, Cohen says that it is permitted when singing the Shabbat Zemirot, "songs." However, he writes that if the stanza is repeated, the word Hashem, "the Name," should be substituted in the repetition. Cohen allows inviting Jews to one's home on Shabbat even if one knows the person will violate Shabbat by driving to the home, but only if the purpose of the invitation is to guide the invitee to become more religiously observant.
Women, he writes, may apply lipstick on Shabbat. People may shower with hot water on holidays but may not bathe. Children over age five may not play ball on Shabbat. Some authorities permitted using a dishwasher with a timer on Shabbat, others disagree, and Cohen offers no opinion. One may not ride a bicycle on Shabbat, but one may ride in a rickshaw bicycle driven by a non-Jew.
Some synagogues announce that the observance of Shabbat should not start before a certain time. They differ about the time. Some rabbis say it is one hour and fifteen minutes before sunset. Other rabbis contend it is one hour and fifteen minutes before stars are completely visible. However Rabbi Cohen writes that there are rabbis who allow Jews to start Shabbat much earlier.
Some readers may feel that Rabbi Cohen leans toward making stringent decisions and emphasizes the prohibitions rather than the enjoyable aspect of Shabbat. Some readers may be bothered by some responses. For example, one reason for saying the Kiddush in synagogue on Friday night is the mystical notion that it helps heal eyes. Another example is the question why do many families eat fish at the Friday night meal? The answer is that since animals are associated with a mitzvah of proper slaughtering, but fish are not since they do not require ritual slaughtering, we associate fish with the Shabbat, which is a mitzvah.
Some of Cohen's rulings are generally ignored even by very observant Jews, such as the prohibition to greet people by saying Gut Shabbat, meaning "have a good Shabbat," before the time when Shabbat could begin.
Readers reading the many different rabbinical opinions on the various questions may ask why there are disagreements and what does this say about the significance of the rulings that are made, especially if Rabbi Cohen's ruling is stringent. Why not follow the lenient view? They may also wonder why some customs, which began fairly recently, have become obligatory. They may note that virtually all of the rabbinical rulings mentioned in the book are from rabbis who lived in the post-talmudic period, mostly during the past five hundred years, and discuss issues that did not bother the talmudic rabbis, such as wishing someone Gut Shabbat. They may also recognize that many rulings were made because of concerns about something extraneous to the matter at hand, as the case of the woman reciting the Kiddush, mentioned above.
Be this as it may, some readers will be guided by his rulings and all will find the conflicting rabbinic views rather interesting.
Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality
The Inner Life of Jews in the Ottoman Empire
By Rabbi Marc D. Angel, PhD
Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006, 202 pages
The December 5, 2009 New York Times reported that many citizens of Turkey fervently want their country to return to be a Muslim land, as it was when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. "The Ottoman Empire conquered two-thirds of the world but did not force anyone to change their language or religion at a time when minorities elsewhere were being oppressed." However, the Times also reports that these "proponents are glossing over the empire's decline and (are) glorifying an anachronistic system that...was mired in corruption and infighting in its latter years."
Jews were a small part of the Ottoman Empire during its ascendancy and its decline. What was their life like, socially, culturally, politically and religiously? How were they treated by the empire? Did they suffer a devastating decline like the empire? What caused the Jewish decline?
Rabbi Marc Angel answers these questions and more in this well-written and very informative history of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire. The book was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, and should have been the winner.
The Ottoman Empire, grounded on Muslim law, was founded in 1299 and ended in 1922. Modern Turkey, a secular state, is its successor. Jews, as reported, were granted freedom by the Ottoman Empire to observe their religion and customs, but their social life was restricted in many ways. Their life under the Muslims was usually more tolerable than under the Christians who all too often expressed their contempt for their mother religion with brutal murderous anti-Semitism. The Muslims mistreated people of other faiths, but Jews and Christians were considered to be "People of Scriptures" and were tolerated. Toleration is an interesting and telling word because no husband would dare turn to his wife and say, "My dear, I tolerate you."
The Ottoman political fabric and the life of its people started to decay and fray in the later part of the sixteenth century, the same time that Jewish life in the empire began its decline. What caused the Jewish disintegration? Are these destructive cancers present in today's Jewish society, eating away at its glory?
Rabbi Angel is very careful, considerate and sympathetic in describing the decline. While describing the economic, political and sociological factors, he also points to a spiritual problem within the Jewish community itself: The problem was an inordinate reliance on a kabbalistic/midrashic religious worldview.
The majority of Jews accepted the notions of kabbala after the horrendous expulsion from Spain in 1492, when many Jews escaped to the welcoming arms of the Ottoman Empire. Confused over the reason for the expulsion - was it the hand of God or some other force? - many Jews accepted the non-rational notions in kabbala and convinced themselves that humans lacked the ability to combat the semi-divine beings that were causing the evil they experienced. They slipped into a life of passivity, of anti-intellectualism, of seclusion from secular studies, and a mystical reliance on an outside non-human force to save them.
Rather than think for themselves, they became convinced that they must rely on the teachings of rabbis who lacked a secular education, and who offered simplistic explanations rather than sophisticated analysis.
Many Jews stumbled and sank in the muddy life draining waters of superstition, into a fundamentalist spiritual worldview of focusing their lives in otherworldliness, passivity, piety, repentance, and a general disdain for secular study.
They watched their riches pass into the hands of their economic rivals with indifference. They focused their attention on what they thought were the influences of the evil eye, demons and other supernatural forces. They sought magical incantations, rather than education and human efforts, to resolve their problems and fears.
This deterioration led millions of Jews, including many rabbis, in the mid-seventeenth century, to believe that Sabbatai Sevi was their longed-for savior. They were so misguided, so ignorant of reality, that even when this false messiah converted to the Muslim faith to save his life, they continued to be convinced that he was the longed-for Jewish messiah. Some even retained this remarkable whim after he died.
While the ancient rabbis taught many lessons by means of parables, called midrashim, Ottoman Jews-like most pious Jews throughout the world-- accepted the midrashim as historical facts. Moses Maimonides, living in Egypt during the twelfth century recognized in his work called Helek that the majority of Jews worldwide had fallen into this error and he openly called these people "fools." Although highly respected, his admonition did not help.
This tragic history is by no means unique to the Jews of the Ottoman Empire. The tragic and life draining impacts of the misunderstanding and misuse of kabbala and midrash struck every other Jewish community, and is still quite evident today.
Rabbi Angel devotes most of the book describing the five century heroic positive history of this people. He offers less space to their lamentable decline, as indeed he should. For this people, as he points out, had a strong and profound inner life, and made remarkable achievements both on the intellectual and folk levels.. Angel tells of the many renowned scholars in this community who knew Jewish and secular subjects, and who left an impressive legacy of books in halakha, midrash, ethics etc. He describes the Judeo-Spanish culture of the people, their daily family life and aspirations, and their justified inner pride.
Angel relates many interesting things about these Jews. Most European Jews, for example, recite the prayers during the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the New Year and Day of Atonement, in a sad tearful manner. This approach reflects their attitude to the holidays. In contrast, the Judeo-Spanish Jews do so in warm, joyous uplifting tones. He tells about their teaching methods that resulted in many Judeo-Spanish children knowing many parts of the Bible and the Siddur, the prayer book, by heart. .
Jewish life that flourished in the Ottoman Empire no longer exists. The once significant people are now dispersed, primarily in America and in Israel, indistinguishable from Americans and Israelis. Has their culture died?
Rabbi Angel shows that it has not. For these people produced many important books with meaningful lessons that he describes, books read today in Jewish houses of study, synagogues and homes, inspirational books, books with significant content, books that will influence the thinking of many people for generations to come.
MAIMONIDES, SPINOZA AND US: TOWARD AN INTELLECTUALLY VIBRANT JUDAISM
By Rabbi Marc D. Angel
Jewish Lights Publishers, 2009
This is an important book for people who want to understand the truth of Judaism, rather than the obscurantist notion that Jews must accept the views of authorities without asking questions.
Marc D. Angel is one of the leading American Orthodox rabbis. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and rabbi emeritus of the well-known Congregation Shearith Israel of New York City. He devotes himself to teaching a view of Judaism that is based on reason. He shows how Jews can observe the mandates of Torah in an intelligent and meaningful manner. He demonstrates that this is the view of the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138-1204).
Angel states that Maimonides asserted that there are three ways to determine if something is true: (1) It can be proved by human reason, (2) It is perceived with certainty by one of the five senses. (3) It is a Torah teaching as explained by the sages. However, if the Torah statement "contradicts verified truth, then the Torah must be interpreted to conform to established truth." The statement should be read metaphorically or allegorically.
It is this last statement that bothers many people. They ask, "Where do we draw the line? If we allow people to disagree with the literal biblical statements and interpret them rationally, these interpreters will do away with the Torah!" They, like the Church of the Dark Ages, insist that everyone accept the Bible literally, and consent to the words of clergy without question. Angel rejects this approach. He recognizes that the solution of these obscurantists is: Insist that they accept untruths, so that they do not stray.
Angel points out that while Maimonides and Spinoza stress the use of reason, the two differ. Maimonides accepted the traditional ideas and believed that God is involved with the world, revealed the Torah containing truths, He watches over people, rewards and punishes them, performs miracles, and answers prayers. When a biblical statement contradicted reason, Maimonides read it as a metaphor or allegory; it is the word of God, but it did not literally mean what it said. Torah, Maimonides taught, must be read intelligently. In fact, Maimonides felt, Torah cannot be understood without knowing the universal secular wisdom of physics and the other sciences.
Spinoza rejected these ideas. He felt that the Bible is a work that describes human longings to understand the world and God, and that it must be read as a human document, as it is written, and that it is out of date. Some Maimonides scholars contend that Maimonides would agree with Spinoza on many if not all these ideas, but Angel insists that these scholars are wrong. In any event, what is significant is that both Maimonides and Spinoza emphasized the need for people to use their minds.
The problem with religion, what makes it wrong, is that people toss reason aside and accept everything that they read or hear from "scholars" and "authorities." These unthinking people believe that these "sages," although secluded from daily human activities and usually insufficiently educated in secular studies, men who refuse to consider non-Jewish teachings, have a unique ability, an endowment of divine inspiration, to understand what Torah means and what it requires of human beings. They accept the misguided notions of these "sages" without realizing that this behavior - a practice that is no more than about two hundred years old - is akin to the notion of papal infallibility, and that they have surrendered their lives and the lives of their families to a fundamentalist anti-rational obscurantist mindset.
As a result, they live a life of corrupted Judaism. They treat biblical verses as if they are magical formulas that can effect a cure. They use religious objects such as Torah scrolls and mezuzot as charms that have protective powers. They recite incantations and magical formulas and seek blessings from "sages" believing superstitiously that these objects and people have supernatural powers. They accept the notion that the world is filled with demons and go through foolhardy ceremonies for protection. They are convinced that the "sages" can perform miracles for them, cure them, get them money, marry off their daughters, find them a job.
They wear red strings on their wrists, mezuzot around their necks, and drink and eat foods blessed by holy men; men, not women, God forbid! They imagine that they must say a kaddish for their deceased relatives, not to remember them, but to assure that "their souls rise heavenward." They fail to realize that it is absurd to think that their parent's afterlife depends on their yearly recitation of a formula. They put kvitels, notes to God, in cracks of the Western Wall, without realizing that they are insulting God; for they are saying that God is only capable of hearing prayers if they are written and placed in the outside walls of the destroyed ancient Temple.
Readers will find that Rabbi Angel addresses many other questions. What are other examples of superstitions that should be avoided? What is the status of proselytes? Why is the current procedure for conversion contrary to Jewish tradition? What is the status of women in Judaism?
This is a significant book. Whether one agrees with everything that Rabbi Angel writes is insignificant. What is important is that the book will make people think. Who can ask for anything more!
