Modern Jewish Philosophy

In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle observed that there are reasons for friendship. He argued that the highest form of friendship is one where two friends share similar virtues and interests and respect one another's character. I believe that Aaron Panken and I enjoyed such a friendship. We not only had the highest mutual respect for one another, we also shared countless interests. Among these interests were a love of the State of Israel, a love for Rabbinic and Hebrew texts, a love for public discourse among Jewish intellectuals, and a love for the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. I hope to pay tribute to Aaron and these specific interests in which we both delighted by focusing in this essay on a debate that took place in 1946 between Rav Tzair (Chaim Tchernowitz) and Rav Binyamin (Yehoshua Radler-Feldman) over the issues of political Zionism, bi-nationalism, and the formation of a Jewish state. Rav Tzair was professor of Talmud and Rabbinic literature at the Jewish Institute of Religion and a scholar of prodigious proportions. He was a talmid muvhak of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor of Kovno and taught Chaim Nachman Bialik and other Zionist and Hebrew language luminaries in the renaissance and DAVID ELLENSON is chancellor emeritus and former president of HUCJIR. He is also former director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and professor emeritus of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University.

Generations of Hebrew (Teachers) College students studied with Dr. Arnold A. Wieder (1921-2013); beloved teacher of Bible and Rabbinic Literature, who served on the faculty from 1958 to 1991. Alone among the full-time Hebrew College faculty of his day, he was often known by his rabbinic title ("Rabbi Wieder") for he was an ordained Orthodox rabbi who had previously served such Boston-area congregations as Linas Hazedek of Dorchester, Young Israel of Brookline, and Chai Odom in Brighton. He was also the commimity moheh

Grazie all’opera di artisti e intellettuali, nel Rinascimento emerge una consapevolezza inedita del divenire storico che favorisce il culto del nuovo nelle arti, in letteratura, in filologia e nelle scienze. Il nuovo prendeva il posto del culto, una liturgia umana subentrava a quella divina. Questa rivoluzione tocca anche la cultura ebraica, motore e agente di un rinnovamento senza precedenti. Lo studio di Giuseppe Veltri ricostruisce la vita intellettuale ebraica nel Rinascimento italiano ed europeo, mettendo in luce momenti salienti del dibattito del tempo: la coscienza storica del divenire e la secolarizzazione, la funzione della poesia dantesca come ponte fra mondo ebraico e mondo cristiano, l’uso del volgare come simbolo del connubio delle diverse tradizioni, la nascita del criticismo, l’atteggiamento scettico come strategia e sintomo della crisi politica e intellettuale, il dibattito sull’immortalità dell’anima.

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Jewish life in eighteenth-century Europe was characterized by a number of significant features. Rabbinic scholarship flourished on a high level in many parts of the continent. In addition, the Jewish community was caught up in the aftershock of the mass messianic movement of Shabbetai Gevi which had captured the imagination of most of world Jewry in 1665-1666. Those who continued to maintain their belief in him even after his conversion and death were constantly being harassed by the Jewish establishment which considered them heretics. Finally, the end of the century brought with it the Haskalah movement which challenged the prevailing Jewish communal, social, religious and intellectual norms. One of the most dominant figures at that time was Rabbi Jacob Emden . Emden was intimately involved with each of these major elements in the Jewish world of his day. Reared in a learned home, he was a preeminent scholar whose achievement in the field of rabbinic literature was substantive and significant. He also played a major role in the eighteenth-century battle against Sabbatianism and, in the last two and a half decades of his life, became obsessed with exposing and hounding any vestige of the movement. Finally, he lived long enough to witness the emergence of the Haskalah. Unlike some of his more traditional colleagues, Emden was sensitive to the shifting nuances of thought represented by that movement and was aware of the changes in Jewish life that it potentially represented. This work treats Emden from all of these perspectives. In addition to presenting the story of his life for the first time, it also describes some of his rabbinic works as well as his attitude towards non-Jews, philosophy and Maimonides. It suggests some factors which should be considered in attempting to understand the virulence of Emden's anti-Sabbatianism. Finally, it assesses the level of his knowledge of a wide range of extra-Talmudic disciplines and his attitude towards the emerging Haskalah movement. * so pervasive t h a t I even wonder how he was a b l e t o manage on Shabbat when w r i t i n g i s p r o h i b i t e d by Jewish law! What d i s t i n g u i s h e s Emden as a s u b j e c t f o r a biography, then, i s not only t h e f a c t t h a t he combined some of t h e major elements of h i s time-e.g. rabbinic scholarship, anti-Sabbatianism and awareness o f Haskalah--

Article published in Bamidbar 5.2 (2015), pp. 21-55.
http://www.bamidbar-journal.org/

I explain why W. Benjamin and G. Agamben think that late modernity, especially in the form of late capitalism, fails to neutralize the authority structures of religion and therefore calls for profanation of such structures rather than secularization. This leads me to consider how Frankist Jews profaned the structures of orthodox Judaism and Christianity in a manner that allows us to imagine forms of human existence that do not merely invert the authority structures of religion but alter them. I discuss four such structures: national, gender, territorial and economic. This view of Frankism as a liberating profanation gives it more systemic affinity to members of the Frankfurt School than is usually supposed. I discuss each of these profanations in relation to the thought of Ernst Bloch and contrast them with Scholem's views, which vacillate between secularization and inwardness. In this way I hope to establish a commonality of inspiration and a continuity of purpose between Frankists like Ariyeh von Honigsberg and Frankfurtists like Bloch and Benjamin. Such commonality and continuity legitimates our regard of such thinkers as profoundly faithful exponents of critical Jewish modernity.

R. Nahman's sermons, like classical midrash, are comprised of texts reading texts. Theological speculation is always contextual, emerging via imaginative interpretation rather than via pure philosophical argumentation. Yet, while it may be true that R. Nahman's use of Scripture in Likkutei MoHaRan resembles earlier models of classical midrash and Kabbala, these models serve quite a different purpose in his Hasidic imagination. 23 Unlike midrash, R. Nahman is not focused on opening the text for purposes of reading (or rereading) Scripture. Unlike classical Kabbala, R. Nahman does not exegetically construct his homilies in order to facilitate a mystical experience, reenact the historical event of Sinai, or convey esoteric knowledge. 24 He is interested in accomplishing at least three basic objectives: (1) to create a textual representation of his own inner life, the life of the zaddik of the generation, 25 disclosing and enveloping his imagination in the garments of midrashic reading and kabbalistic imagery (his is accomplished through the complex hermeneutical scheme of his homilies in Likkutei MoHaRan); (2) to transmit his advice regarding the ways of worship, both existentially and practically, in order to enable his disciples to embody his innovative understanding of devotion, enacted within the confines of the halakhic system but not identical to it 26 (this is accomplished in Sefer Kizur Likkutei MoHaRan, 27 Likkutei Ezot, Shivhei Ha-Ran, and other advice literature including R. Nathan Sternherz of Bratslav's multivolume Likkutei Halakhot); and (3) to transcend normative modes of Torah discourse by conveying its essential messages in the garments of fable narratives. This third objective serves three distinct functions all of which have messianic implications: (a) to perfect the imaginative faculty as a prerequisite of prophecy and the necessary precursor to the messianic era; 28 (b) to "awaken the masses from slumber," an allusion to the depth of exile where the exiled lose consciousness of their exilic state; and (c) to universalize Torah by transcending its external (rabbinic) framework, i.e., text and exegesis, making way for a return to the institution of prophecy. 29 This is accomplished in his interpretations of the Raba Bar bar Hana agadot in Likkutei MoHaRan and later in his thirteen tales. 30

A lthough not usually viewed as a manifestation of modern spirituality, hasidism strikingly resembles a product of the spiritual and ideological reorientation of Western religion in the post-Copernican world.2 Largely unaware of the philosophical and theological changes in European intellectual culture, many of the hasidic masters exhibited a sensitivity to the existential plight of humankind in the modern world. tUnless otherwise indicated, translations and italics throughout the article are mine.

N.B. The interested reader is invited to turn to the expanded and more fully annotated Hebrew version of this article, to appear in the volume Ma'or va-Shemesh: History, Philosophy, Lore and Legacy, edited by Levi Cooper, Ariel Evan Mayse and Zvi Mark (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, forthcoming).

Each of the three great religions of the Western tradition is based upon a narrative that stands at the centre of its faith. For Judaism, it is the Exodus from Egypt and the receiving of Torah at Mount Sinai; for Christianity, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ; for Islam, the hijra and the revelation to Muhammad. Each sees its own narrative as standing at the centre of human history as the 'greatest story ever told', and its truth (however that term is conceived) is vital to all the faithful. Each of these faiths also bears a long history of more abstract theological truth claims, involving such issues as the unity (or trinity) of God, providence, divine authority for the rule of law, the importance of good works, and so forth. In these, the traditions may be shown to have much in common with one another, making for interesting conversation across religious lines. But the core narratives seem to stand in eternal competition with one another, and it is in their utter loyalty to them that the faiths and their faithful remain most deeply divided.

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Rabbi Yitshak Hutner (1906-1980) was a remarkable scholar, an enigmatic religious intellectual and a charismatic teacher. Drawing upon his public discourses and his written letters, I argue that Hutner's vocabulary-which remained rooted almost entirely in the vocabulary of traditional Talmudism-afforded him a ready garment in which to clothe a syncretic educational theory, which combines Hasidic approaches to spiritual instruction and remakes the traditions of Lithuanian piety and study for his new American audience. The present study interrogates a series of key themes that appear in Hutner's teachings, all of which pertain to issues of pedagogy and the construction of religious education. The essay advances a historical argument by examining the works of an important and influential modern Jewish thinker, but it is also driven by a constructive question: What does Hutner's vision of Jewish religious teaching and learning have to contribute to today's Jewish education, and to the broader world of higher education in North America in particular?

This essay interrogates the legal discourse of Shulḥan ha-Tahor, a curious-and curiously understudied-work of Hasidic halakhah written by Rabbi Yitzḥak Ayzik Yehudah Yehiel Safrin of Komarno. The book is, at heart, a systematic reformulation of Jewish law in light of Kabbalah, Hasidism, and the quest for personal mystical experience. Shulḥan ha-Tahor offers a rare case study for the interface of mystical experience , Hasidic devotional values, and kabbalistic doctrine as they explicitly shape the codified forms-and norms-of halakhah. The essay reveals a different side of Jewish modernity through a close reading of an exceptional nineteenth-century legal code.

The doctrine of the �addiq stands as the very epicenter of Hasidic spirituality. Described by Arthur Green as an axis mundi Hasidism's �addiqism is considered by many to be the most, perhaps only, truly innovative dimension of Hasidic mysticism. 1 Linking the �addiq with 'yesod'in both its literal and later kabbalistic meaningsbegins in rabbinic literature, reading the verse ve Saddik yesod 'olam ( .. .. and the Saddiq is the foundation of the world, Proverbs 10:25). This linkage continues as kabbalistic nomenclature (yesod marking the ninth sefirah) is applied to biblical verses and rabbinic dicta.2 • 2 I would like to thank Nathaniel Berman for our l;avruta in Koppel's writings See, Arthur Green, 'The Zaddiq as Axis Mun di' Journal of the American Academy of Religion 45 (1997), pp. 327-347. In terms of the doctrine of the saddiq as the only real innovation of Hasidism, see Mendel Pierkarz, Be-Yemei Zemikhat ha-lfasidut, Jerusalem' 1978, pp. 28-304 and idem, lfasidut Polin, .

When Kabbalah came, it made of God a human; when Hasidism came, it made of the human a God. -Rashbatz [The Jew] is not an independent being; rather, all of his existence is the existence of the Holy One, Blessed be He! -Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Hitva'aduyot Tashmav (5746), 515 ‫גט‬ ‫שטיקל‬ ‫א‬ ‫איז‬ ‫ייד‬ ‫א‬ ‫ט(‬ ‫ל"ב‬ ‫)דברים‬ ‫עמו‬ ‫ה"‬ ‫חלק‬ ‫כי‬ -Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Yishmaru Da'at, 44

Society doesn't exist, and the Jew is its symptom. Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology An assumption common in Jewish feminist studies is that feminists study the his tory, activities, and images of women, or, at the very least, gender as a social con struction. Feminists who turn to examine other issues, such as the case of Jewish-Christian relations discussed here, may find themselves accused of aban doning feminist scholarship.' But feminist theory can be applied to issues other than the explicidy gendered. In this essay I ask what happens when scholars engage in just such a move. Can there be a Jewish feminist scholarship that addresses a broad range of issues, themes, and topics? Some years ago, at the same dme that I was studying modern Jewish views of Je sus, I read Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's now-classic study of nineteenth-cen tury British women novelists. The Madwoman in the Attic. I noticed some striking parallels between the situation of women entering the English literary tradition and Jews entering the Christian theological tradition. I realized that feminist theorizing about women might fmitfiilly be applied to the experience of Jews. Gubar and Gilbert argued that in order to generate the language needed to produce their own literature, women were required to kill the "angel in the house," the aesthetic ideal ^ of the female promoted in male literature.^ Similarly, it seemed to me, the extensive project of modern Jewish theologians to clarify the origins of Christianity reflected ^ a Jewish effort to destabilize Christian theolo^ and create a space for Jewish theo logical self-definition. Nina Auerbach has observed in connection with women writers in Victorian England who appropriate male-authored misogynous myths that the power of

sided over the "Wolfson in the Harvard Faculty Club, which included many outstanding university professors. Numerous honors were showered upon him, but no more than were his due. Throughout his life, Wolfson found security in his Hypothetico-Deductive Method of Text Study developed by him in his twenties, when he wrote his doctoral dissertation at Harvard.