THIS little volume is five years old, but its review is always timely;
and for THE MENORAH JOURNAL very appropriate. The English language is
extremely poor in popular, yet scholarly and well-written books and
essays on Jewish literature. A great many of those who are thoroughly
versed in Hebrew literature, who regard the study of the original
Rabbinic sources as a work of love if not a profession and a life
work, have not a sufficient command of English or of systematic
exposition to be able to present the spirit of these writings in
acceptable form to the lay reader. The few scientific scholars in our
seminaries and colleges who could if they chose write authoritatively
and withal in an interesting manner concerning the course of Jewish
thought during the past two or three millenia, prefer to devote their
time and energy to the more technical aspects of the subject, which
are not designed for the uninitiated reader. And the men of
journalistic calibre and inclination, even if we had them, are not the
most desirable purveyors of Jewish knowledge. The truth of the matter
is, in the words of Nietzsche, that ears are still growing for the
intelligent American Jewish people so far as Jewish literature--Hebrew
classical literature--is concerned.
The cause of the paucity of works in English on Jewish literary
subjects is really economic. There is no lack of young men among the
people of the Book whose ideal of a well-spent life is one of complete
devotion to a scholarly career in the service of our ancient and
medieval classics. But unfortunately the very young men who give
promise of presenting in a creditable manner our intellectual heritage
for the benefit of the majority otherwise occupied, have no means of
their own, and yet are not ready (as it should not be expected of them
that they should be) to take the vow of poverty and celibacy and form
a Jewish monastic order of St. Haninah. Accordingly not a few of these
choose the Rabbinic career as the most likely profession to enable
them to keep in touch with Jewish learning--more or less a
disappointed hope to the real scholar who has no other fitness for the
modern Rabbinate except his scholarship. Others are completely
side-tracked and lost to Jewish scholarship.
Thus the lack of interest in Jewish learning and scholarship keeps
promising young men away from these unpromising studies. The result is
that the field in English remains uncultivated, which reacts again
unfavorably in a diminution of interest, and the vicious circle is
complete.
_The Need of Encouragement to Jewish Learning_
I HAVE used my text in good old fashion as a pretext for a little
sermon to the intelligent lay reader of THE MENORAH JOURNAL who may be
an influential member of the American Jewish community, pointing out
that we are sorely in need of a great many such books as the present
one, treating various "aspects of the Hebrew Genius"; and they are
sure to come just as soon as there is a real demand for them. The
Jewish students in our colleges and universities whose number is
rapidly increasing have in their midst a great many talented young men
who only need encouragement to devote their best energies to Jewish
learning. These will serve as a leaven to raise the entire Jewish
community of America to a more intelligent Jewish level. What we need
is liberal endowments for Jewish chairs in our universities and for
the promotion of Jewish education generally.
And now to proceed to my proper topic: _Aspects of Hebrew Genius_ is a
very creditable volume consisting of eight well-written essays on
several topics of Jewish history and thought. Norman Bentwich
contributes an article in which he gives an interesting sketch of the
Jewish Alexandrian period of the first two centuries B. C., whose
thought activities culminated in the works of Philo, the first man in
history who attempted an amalgamation of Hebraism and Hellenism. It
was not a success so far as Judaism is concerned, as is evidenced by
the fact that he was neglected and forgotten by his Jewish successors.
He was made use of, however, by the early Christian writers in the
formulation of the Trinitarian dogma, and by early Christian
apologists and theologians in presenting the doctrines of the new
religion in a form likely to appeal to the Græco-Roman world, which
trained as it was in philosophical thought would have been repelled by
the simple narratives of Scripture and the Gospels.
_Representative Men and Tendencies in Jewish Thought_
THE next essay by M. Simon deals with the second and more successful
attempt to enrich Jewish literature by infusing into it the spirit of
rationalistic inquiry originally derived from Greece. This time, in
the ninth and tenth centuries, the scene is placed in Babylonia. The
place of the Greeks is now taken by their medieval successors, the
Mohammedan Arabs, upon whom fell a part of the Hellenic mantle, that
represented by Greek science and philosophy. The æsthetic and literary
aspects of the Greek genius were left severely alone by the Arabs. The
man about whom this sketch centers is the famous Gaon of Sura,
Saadiah. And Mr. Simon lays great stress upon his achievements in
Biblical exegesis. As the Septuagint was the first Jewish translation
of the Bible, so Saadiah's Arabic translation was the second, and it
was enriched by introductions and a commentary in which Saadiah leads
his co-religionists, the Rabbanite Jews, from the Talmud back to an
appreciation of the Bible.
The period of systematic and rationalistic effort culminated in the
legal and philosophical works of Maimonides, the greatest Jew of the
middle ages. The Rev. H. S. Lewis gives a readable and sympathetic
sketch of this pre-eminent Jewish systematizer and rationalist. He
defends him against the strictures of Luzzatto and Graetz and points
out the great influence his thinking had on Judaism and Jews of his
own and subsequent ages, and even on the Christian scholastics.
The following four essays are devoted not to representative men but to
brief and interesting sketches of tendencies in Jewish thought and
departments of Jewish literature. The Rabbinic legalistic lore of the
Mishnah and Talmud, which finds no general treatment in the volume, is
partly represented by the article of Dr. S. Daiches, who gives a
popular account of the post-Talmudic attempts to codify the immense
legal material scattered in Mishnah and Talmud and in later additions.
Maimonides' code naturally occupies an important place in this sketch,
and a novel feature is the important place assigned to Jacob ben Asher
(1280-1340), the author of the _Turim_, who superseded Maimonides and
is popularized by Joseph Caro in his _Shulchan Aruch_.
_Jewish Rationalism and Mysticism_
THE title of the next paper, written by the competent hand of Dr. A.
Wolf, versed in philosophy as well as in Jewish literature, sounds
novel; and as the author says, is the first effort of the kind so far
made. It is well known that the philosophic movement in medieval Jewry
is characterized with few exceptions by the more or less faithful
adaptation of Aristotelian thought as represented in the Arabic
translations of his works and in the compendia and expositions made by
such ardent disciples of the Stagirite as Al Farabi, Avicenna, and
Averroes. Dr. Wolf undertakes briefly and readably to indicate how
much the Jewish medieval philosophers owed to the Greek sage and what
their attitude to him was, and interestingly summarizes the
Aristotelian point of view by the one word rationalism, as
distinguished from dogmatism and mysticism. He rightly points out that
while the specific doctrines borrowed from Aristotle and read into the
Bible by his ardent Jewish disciples are for the most part obsolete,
the spirit of systematic inquiry, the use of the reason in elucidating
disputed problems, "the exalted conception of the place and function
of human thought, the hallowing of intellectual effort," which was the
product of this philosophical activity, is a gain of inestimable value
for all time.
Rationalism and dogmatism, however, do not exhaust the aspects of
Jewish thought and literary endeavor. Parallel with the development of
Mishnah and Talmud and philosophy, there is visible, at first feebly
and in the background, and later, as circumstances favored it, more
aggressively and in full view, the mystic outlook upon life and
religion in its various phases. H. Sperling in a very interesting and
sympathetic manner traces this mystic element in Jewish literature
from the Prophets of the Bible, through the "Maase Bereshit" and
"Maase Merkaba" of the Haggadah down to the Sefer Yezira and the Zohar
and its successors.
There is no treatment of Jewish medieval poetry, and the volume closes
with a brief account of the more critical and historical treatment of
Jewish literature created in the nineteenth century by such men as
Krochmal, Rapaport, Luzzatto, Zunz, Geiger and others. Rev. M. H.
Segal gives a brief but illuminating account of this latest phase of
Jewish writing, which is not yet closed, and is likely to stay with us
for a long while.
E. M. Adler contributes an eloquent introduction by way of connecting
the necessarily independent essays and emphasizing the unity which the
collection in a great measure possesses.
The volume, as we are told in the Preface, "owes its appearance to the
Union of Jewish Literary Societies" in London, and it does credit to
their earnestness and loyalty to the cause of Jewish learning. Let us
hope it may serve as an example and incentive to the revival of Jewish
interests in this country. It is well that all should read this
useful little book and many others of the kind which we hope will
follow. But it is more important that such reading shall inspire the
student with a desire to study at first hand the original depositories
of Jewish thought. For this purpose a serious study of Hebrew is
imperative. And let us cherish the hope that we may witness a revival
of, and a wide-spread interest in, Jewish literature in this country
where next to Russia the greatest number of Jews are found and where,
moreover, they enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
_University of Pennsylvania_
[Illustration: Signature: Isaac Husik]