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The Jewish Mind
A Landmark Exploration of Jewish History and Culturee
First published in 1977, The Jewish Mind provides a penetrating insight into the complex collective reality of the Jewish people. Raphael Patai examines how six great historical encounters, spanning three millennia, between the Jews and other cultures led to both change and continuity in Jewish communities throughout the global diaspora.
A Timeless Analysis by a Prominent Scholar
Patai, a noted cultural anthropologist and historian, drew on a lifetime of research and personal experience to explore the contemporary Jewish mind in its many manifestations, including an exploration of the notion of Jews as a race, an investigation into Jewish intelligence and talents, a discussion of Jewish self-hate, and a profile of Jewish personality and character.
An Insightful New Foreword by Ari L. Goldman
Bestselling author and journalist Ari L. Goldman places the book in the context of recent turbulent events, especially in the Middle East, and confirms Patai s conclusion that Judaism remains of enormous value to humankind. Goldman calls the book a brilliant and absorbing survey of everything poured into the Jewish mind over the millennia. The Jewish Mind is a towering work of scholarship that remains relevant to anyone trying to understand Jewish culture and society around the world today.
First published in 1977, The Jewish Mind provides a penetrating insight into the complex collective reality of the Jewish people. Raphael Patai examines how six great historical encounters, spanning three millennia, between the Jews and other cultures led to both change and continuity in Jewish communities throughout the global diaspora.
A Timeless Analysis by a Prominent Scholar
Patai, a noted cultural anthropologist and historian, drew on a lifetime of research and personal experience to explore the contemporary Jewish mind in its many manifestations, including an exploration of the notion of Jews as a race, an investigation into Jewish intelligence and talents, a discussion of Jewish self-hate, and a profile of Jewish personality and character.
An Insightful New Foreword by Ari L. Goldman
Bestselling author and journalist Ari L. Goldman places the book in the context of recent turbulent events, especially in the Middle East, and confirms Patai s conclusion that Judaism remains of enormous value to humankind. Goldman calls the book a brilliant and absorbing survey of everything poured into the Jewish mind over the millennia. The Jewish Mind is a towering work of scholarship that remains relevant to anyone trying to understand Jewish culture and society around the world today.
Paperback
First published May 1, 1977
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About the author
Raphael Patai
83 books24 followersRaphael Patai (Hebrew רפאל פטאי; born Ervin György Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer, historian, Orientalist and anthropologist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 8, 2024
Book Review (Part 1 of 2)
The Jewish Mind
Raphael Pattai
5/5 stars
"Great historical overview"
*******
Of the book:
-541 pages over 18 chapters and a conclusion. 28pps/per
- 1,115 point citations, 2.1/page (=well sourced)
-Many of the chapters are broken up into 125 subsections/small essays that are between 2 and 10 pages to make it such that one concept can be finished in one sitting.
-Overall book is in three parts (definitions, historical encounters, description of the Jewish psyche.)
*******
This is actually two books bound into one, and I think that the author put them together for convenience.
It has some elements of "The Arab Mind," along with a lot more Jewish history. (It makes sense, because the Jewish history is much longer and also a lot more literary.)
Six major external influences on the Jewish mind:
1. Contact with Canaanites;
2. Hellenism;
3. Arab conquest;
4. Renaissance Italy;
5. Eastern European Jews and Christian sectarian movements;
6. Jewish enlightenment/Haskallah
*******
Actual historical details not withstanding, the basic formula is that:
Jews / Israelites (because they have been different things at different times) lived in place X. They came in to contact with and were influenced by ideas X1, X2, X3.
After they figured out how to Judaize the idea, the upshot is XJ1, XJ2, XJ3.
So, one example is:
1. Israelite culture has a nomadic desert substructure with the influence of settled Canaanite people.
2. Israelite sacrificial ritual was adopted from Canaanites, except to ONE Gd instead of multiple. Even though there are vestiges of the sacrificial system, it must be clear that Rabbinic Judaism did not spring fully formed from prehistory.
Another example is:
1. Hasidim lived in Russia, and it was a deeply Xtian place that was in the process of religious ferment because of schism between different groups. And so certain elements were borrowed from the church and various fringe groups, but re-adapted.
2. Polish Catholics rank their clergy, so of course Hasidim could rank their rebbes. Confession is a big thing with the Catholics, so of course Hasidim could go and confess and speech to their Tzaddiqim. (p.213).
*******
Second order thoughts:
1. The events in the book were both too numerous and too shocking to do justice by even listing a small fraction, and even that much would expand the review to unreadable lengths.
The best that I can do is try to summarize the takeaway messages:
a. The insular nature of the shtetl was not the case for all of Judaism, and there were very long periods where there was contact with neighbors and therefore influence.
As much as I would like to believe in the complete impermeability of Judaism to any surrounding influences, that belief went from "difficult to sustain" before this book to " impossible" afterward.
b. The shtetl was not even enough to prevent any type of inflow from the surrounding cultures. Hasidism is extremely Christologically awkward in many respects. (Reincarnation. Confession. Spiritual leaders in an intercessionary capacity. Loopy mysticism.)
The Chabad Mesichists did not come out of the blue, and there is a direct line from Jews living around churches to..... that.
c. This two-way borrowing is several thousand years old. It is disgusting for Hanukkah to be repurposed as the "Jewish version of Xmas" (gift-giving, "Hanukkah bushes," etc.)---and it is for this exact reason that I don't give Hanukkah presents
Be that as it may, it has several thousand years of precedent.
2. I thought that this book would be read once and done, but apparently there's so much information that it should be reread maybe a year or two after the first reading to try to extract as much information as possible. (How easy is it to separate the concepts of ethno-history versus inner history?)
3. This book talks about certain topics that were included in the Paul Johnson tome "A History of the Jews," but it is substantially more readable.
4. The Hasidim of today are emphatically not the same thing as their forbearers. The collective unconscious is not a reliable source of the way that things actually were.
5. Hasidism are an example of how:
i. If you want your belief system to survive, it's better that you have plenty of babies and try to influence them than to try to influence people that have nothing to do with you.
ii. You can become mainstream if you merely stand your ground. (I wonder if Open Orthodoxy is the Hasidut of yesterday. If they stand their ground, they just might be.)
6. The Vilna Gaon:
a. Actually studied grammar and cantillation--in contrast to the proud and defiant ignorance of today's Haredim.
b. Wrote dozens of rabbinical books, and none were published in his lifetime. (p.256).
c. Did have an interest in Kabbalah, in spite of his incandescent hatred of Hasidim.
7. East European Talmudism (The focus on the study of Talmud to the exclusion of anything else) is something that came from one particular period, and was not always the norm.
8. Before I read this book, I thought that the rate of Jewish people who converted to Xtianity was on the order of one out of a million. But, this book makes me believe that it is a lot more common than that. (50,000 in Spain converted and 200,000 left. [p.150])
9. Jews have been selling their brain power for a very long time. In a lot of different empires.
10. It'll be very interesting to see what happens in Israel: This is the first time in a couple of thousand years that modernists and traditionalists have had to sort out the relationship between themselves, without an outside power imposing a solution. Amos Oz has suggested that when / if Israel tears itself apart, It will go back to the status quo of Gentiles stopping Jews from being at each other's throats. Pattai observed this half a century earlier about events from 1796.
Vocabulary:
autocephalous
synarchy
quiddity
eo ipso
epispasm
ephebion
petasos
musive (style of writing)
dionysian
ecumenism
antinomianism
nostrum
ethos/logos/pathos
quadriga
apotropaic
terzina
sestina
cazona
canzonetta
madrigal
horatory
neofiti
Paris Sanhedrin
adytum
salon
salonnardes
Quotes:
(p.44) Each of these processes can be considered an example of the Jewish intellectual facility to make a virtue out of necessity, to acquire a vernacular from the Gentile environment, and to 'Judaize' it intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally.
(p.266) With the Enlightenment, the Jewish unity came to an end. A wide gap opened up between those who continued in their old, traditional Jewish way of life, and the increasing number of those who acquired Enlightenment, and whose cultural orientation there upon turned away from religious Judaism toward secular Europe.
(p.263) In East Europe, where most of the Jews lived and where the culture of the gentile environment had little attraction, the traditional concept of Jewish peoplehood underwent an inverse modification to that it evinced in the West.
(p. 258) Therefore any change which impinged upon it [Judaism] must be opposed and combatted; all innovation had to be fought simply because it was innovation
(p. 254) The general tendency was toward more and more stringent restrictions; that is, the area of the forbidden was gradually enlarged - - this was always considered sound and safe Rabbinic practice - - while even the most outstanding rabbi would never presume to declare allowed something that had been forbidden of old.
(p. 253) The conflict between modernist and Orthodox Jews, which began about 1775, has not ended to this day.
(p. 248) These [German Jewish] salons were frequented by Prussian officers, diplomats, and courtiers, who often entered into dalliances and love affairs with the lovely daughters of Israel.
(p. 243) Mendelssohn and his coworkers for the Haskallah we're mainly responsible for launching the Jewish people on the perilous road to assimilation which led a sizable portion of German jewelry to conversion to Christianity - - among them four of Mendelssohn's own six children, and most of the rest into the Twilight zone of cultural assimilation from which for several generations many Jews continue to pass over into the majority religions.
(p. 182) The first student of Hasidism who commented on the non-Jewish influences it absorbed was SJ Hurwitz, a bitter opponent of the movement, whose purpose in writing a booklet about it was to attack and to heap ridicule on Hasidic leaders and followers alike.
(p. 150) ..... also led to a magicization and demonization of life. With the passage of time and the growth of religious ignorance among the Jewish masses in 17th to 18th century East Europe, this magic element became a dominant characteristic of traditional Jewish life.
******
(Part II)
******
This book was so lengthy that it took about 6 months to read, and fits and starts.
In spite of the fact, this is not going to be an easy book to get rid of because it seems like there is just so much linkage to the authors and data that characterize the ideational rhizomes that make Judaism what it is today.
I've already reviewed the first half of the book (linked).
While there were some interesting thoughts/data in the second half, it was a bit of a comedown compared to the history of the first half.
1. The data that he uses to quantify Jewish people were written down a half century ago, and much of the data was even a quarter century before that. A lot of the psychological / psychiatric concepts of that day are recognized to no longer exist. (How many versions of the DSM have we been through since then?)
In reality, sequencing genomes has become cheap enough that these questions are beginning to be studied more rigorously--therefore obviating all such pseudoscientific psychological speculation / claptrap.
2. The rate of intermarriage for Jewish people has been about 70% for many decades at this point, but Jewish people have not disappeared - - all of the anguished hand-wringing notwithstanding.
3. A lot of these points are rendered moot by future developments. So, for example, he talks about inter- ethnic distinctions within the context of Israeli marriage. But, several decades after this book has been written marriages between Ashkenazim and Sephardim are so common as to be unremarkable. (That is with the notable exception of the Neanderthal Haredim; They are what they are.)
4. Some things that he talks about may have had some statistical mass, but they don't square with this author's experience of reality. So, he talked about Jewish alcoholism (p.443), overeating (p.447) and drug abuse (p.453). I have lived in a good sized Orthodox Jewish community for about 11 years as of the time of this review, and I have met ONE alcoholic the entire time, ONE former drug addict, and probably no more than 20% of (genetically) Jewish (American) persons are overweight--compared to about 73.6% of non-Jewish Americans.
*******
A lot of this is preaching to the choir:
1. It has been known for a long time that Ashkenazi Jews have an IQ that is, on average, higher than all other ethnic groups.
2. It has been known that certain mental illnesses are a lot more common among Jews than others. (The author notes rates of Insanity of Jews that are 4.6 times higher than their neighbors. [p. 414].) The concept of the "neurotic Jew" still exists, even though being neurotic (in the Freudian sense) is something that people stopped believing in long ago.
*******
The chapter on Jewish antisemitism was quite enlightening. The hackneyed Freudian expression "internalize the hatred of the oppressor" is one that I'm reluctant to believe *specifically* because Freud said it was true.
But, this author actually attributes Jewish antisemitism to the Enlightenment, and with the imbibing of Western philosophy/modes of thought, Jews begin to see themselves through the (anti-Semitic) eyes of their much more numerous Gentile neighbors.
And *that* is the origin of Jewish antisemitism that has never been resolved.
What is sauce for the goose can be sauce for the gander: When Israel was reunified, a lot of Sephardim/Mizrahim began to internalize self-rejection because they saw themselves through Ashkenazi eyes (p.478), which saw them as having "aggressivity, undesirable personal trades, lack of culture, dirtiness, and bothersome children.
Verdict: Recommended
Quotes:
(p. 461) The negative features in this self stereotype can be so strong that they assume the character of self-hatred.... In low status minority groups, the desire arises for the respect and rewards enjoyed by the higher status majority.
(ibid) One of the greatest effects of the enlightenment was.... Intensifying the negative features in the Jewish self-stereotype.
(p. 479) My own experience with Oriental Jewish adults and youths in Israel was that frequently they were ashamed of their origin and tried to appear as if they were of Ashkenazi extraction. For example, if one asking North Africans you his place of origin, one would typically get the answer "Paris" or "France." Several further questions would be needed until one elicited the admission that he was, in fact, from Algeria or Morocco.
(p. 480) The curious phenomenon of Jewish supporters of black anti-Semitism could be understood as their acceptance, or rather demand, of a 'share of guilt for the enslavement of the African in America. A way in which they tacitly assert their membership of the dominant even if guilty majority.'
(p. 499) Every rabbinic scholar exercised authority to the extent to which his decisions were accepted by others.
(p. 501) But without the Evil Desire, however, no man would build a house, take a wife and beget children (Bereshit Rabba
9:7)
The Jewish Mind
Raphael Pattai
5/5 stars
"Great historical overview"
*******
Of the book:
-541 pages over 18 chapters and a conclusion. 28pps/per
- 1,115 point citations, 2.1/page (=well sourced)
-Many of the chapters are broken up into 125 subsections/small essays that are between 2 and 10 pages to make it such that one concept can be finished in one sitting.
-Overall book is in three parts (definitions, historical encounters, description of the Jewish psyche.)
*******
This is actually two books bound into one, and I think that the author put them together for convenience.
It has some elements of "The Arab Mind," along with a lot more Jewish history. (It makes sense, because the Jewish history is much longer and also a lot more literary.)
Six major external influences on the Jewish mind:
1. Contact with Canaanites;
2. Hellenism;
3. Arab conquest;
4. Renaissance Italy;
5. Eastern European Jews and Christian sectarian movements;
6. Jewish enlightenment/Haskallah
*******
Actual historical details not withstanding, the basic formula is that:
Jews / Israelites (because they have been different things at different times) lived in place X. They came in to contact with and were influenced by ideas X1, X2, X3.
After they figured out how to Judaize the idea, the upshot is XJ1, XJ2, XJ3.
So, one example is:
1. Israelite culture has a nomadic desert substructure with the influence of settled Canaanite people.
2. Israelite sacrificial ritual was adopted from Canaanites, except to ONE Gd instead of multiple. Even though there are vestiges of the sacrificial system, it must be clear that Rabbinic Judaism did not spring fully formed from prehistory.
Another example is:
1. Hasidim lived in Russia, and it was a deeply Xtian place that was in the process of religious ferment because of schism between different groups. And so certain elements were borrowed from the church and various fringe groups, but re-adapted.
2. Polish Catholics rank their clergy, so of course Hasidim could rank their rebbes. Confession is a big thing with the Catholics, so of course Hasidim could go and confess and speech to their Tzaddiqim. (p.213).
*******
Second order thoughts:
1. The events in the book were both too numerous and too shocking to do justice by even listing a small fraction, and even that much would expand the review to unreadable lengths.
The best that I can do is try to summarize the takeaway messages:
a. The insular nature of the shtetl was not the case for all of Judaism, and there were very long periods where there was contact with neighbors and therefore influence.
As much as I would like to believe in the complete impermeability of Judaism to any surrounding influences, that belief went from "difficult to sustain" before this book to " impossible" afterward.
b. The shtetl was not even enough to prevent any type of inflow from the surrounding cultures. Hasidism is extremely Christologically awkward in many respects. (Reincarnation. Confession. Spiritual leaders in an intercessionary capacity. Loopy mysticism.)
The Chabad Mesichists did not come out of the blue, and there is a direct line from Jews living around churches to..... that.
c. This two-way borrowing is several thousand years old. It is disgusting for Hanukkah to be repurposed as the "Jewish version of Xmas" (gift-giving, "Hanukkah bushes," etc.)---and it is for this exact reason that I don't give Hanukkah presents
Be that as it may, it has several thousand years of precedent.
2. I thought that this book would be read once and done, but apparently there's so much information that it should be reread maybe a year or two after the first reading to try to extract as much information as possible. (How easy is it to separate the concepts of ethno-history versus inner history?)
3. This book talks about certain topics that were included in the Paul Johnson tome "A History of the Jews," but it is substantially more readable.
4. The Hasidim of today are emphatically not the same thing as their forbearers. The collective unconscious is not a reliable source of the way that things actually were.
5. Hasidism are an example of how:
i. If you want your belief system to survive, it's better that you have plenty of babies and try to influence them than to try to influence people that have nothing to do with you.
ii. You can become mainstream if you merely stand your ground. (I wonder if Open Orthodoxy is the Hasidut of yesterday. If they stand their ground, they just might be.)
6. The Vilna Gaon:
a. Actually studied grammar and cantillation--in contrast to the proud and defiant ignorance of today's Haredim.
b. Wrote dozens of rabbinical books, and none were published in his lifetime. (p.256).
c. Did have an interest in Kabbalah, in spite of his incandescent hatred of Hasidim.
7. East European Talmudism (The focus on the study of Talmud to the exclusion of anything else) is something that came from one particular period, and was not always the norm.
8. Before I read this book, I thought that the rate of Jewish people who converted to Xtianity was on the order of one out of a million. But, this book makes me believe that it is a lot more common than that. (50,000 in Spain converted and 200,000 left. [p.150])
9. Jews have been selling their brain power for a very long time. In a lot of different empires.
10. It'll be very interesting to see what happens in Israel: This is the first time in a couple of thousand years that modernists and traditionalists have had to sort out the relationship between themselves, without an outside power imposing a solution. Amos Oz has suggested that when / if Israel tears itself apart, It will go back to the status quo of Gentiles stopping Jews from being at each other's throats. Pattai observed this half a century earlier about events from 1796.
Vocabulary:
autocephalous
synarchy
quiddity
eo ipso
epispasm
ephebion
petasos
musive (style of writing)
dionysian
ecumenism
antinomianism
nostrum
ethos/logos/pathos
quadriga
apotropaic
terzina
sestina
cazona
canzonetta
madrigal
horatory
neofiti
Paris Sanhedrin
adytum
salon
salonnardes
Quotes:
(p.44) Each of these processes can be considered an example of the Jewish intellectual facility to make a virtue out of necessity, to acquire a vernacular from the Gentile environment, and to 'Judaize' it intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally.
(p.266) With the Enlightenment, the Jewish unity came to an end. A wide gap opened up between those who continued in their old, traditional Jewish way of life, and the increasing number of those who acquired Enlightenment, and whose cultural orientation there upon turned away from religious Judaism toward secular Europe.
(p.263) In East Europe, where most of the Jews lived and where the culture of the gentile environment had little attraction, the traditional concept of Jewish peoplehood underwent an inverse modification to that it evinced in the West.
(p. 258) Therefore any change which impinged upon it [Judaism] must be opposed and combatted; all innovation had to be fought simply because it was innovation
(p. 254) The general tendency was toward more and more stringent restrictions; that is, the area of the forbidden was gradually enlarged - - this was always considered sound and safe Rabbinic practice - - while even the most outstanding rabbi would never presume to declare allowed something that had been forbidden of old.
(p. 253) The conflict between modernist and Orthodox Jews, which began about 1775, has not ended to this day.
(p. 248) These [German Jewish] salons were frequented by Prussian officers, diplomats, and courtiers, who often entered into dalliances and love affairs with the lovely daughters of Israel.
(p. 243) Mendelssohn and his coworkers for the Haskallah we're mainly responsible for launching the Jewish people on the perilous road to assimilation which led a sizable portion of German jewelry to conversion to Christianity - - among them four of Mendelssohn's own six children, and most of the rest into the Twilight zone of cultural assimilation from which for several generations many Jews continue to pass over into the majority religions.
(p. 182) The first student of Hasidism who commented on the non-Jewish influences it absorbed was SJ Hurwitz, a bitter opponent of the movement, whose purpose in writing a booklet about it was to attack and to heap ridicule on Hasidic leaders and followers alike.
(p. 150) ..... also led to a magicization and demonization of life. With the passage of time and the growth of religious ignorance among the Jewish masses in 17th to 18th century East Europe, this magic element became a dominant characteristic of traditional Jewish life.
******
(Part II)
******
This book was so lengthy that it took about 6 months to read, and fits and starts.
In spite of the fact, this is not going to be an easy book to get rid of because it seems like there is just so much linkage to the authors and data that characterize the ideational rhizomes that make Judaism what it is today.
I've already reviewed the first half of the book (linked).
While there were some interesting thoughts/data in the second half, it was a bit of a comedown compared to the history of the first half.
1. The data that he uses to quantify Jewish people were written down a half century ago, and much of the data was even a quarter century before that. A lot of the psychological / psychiatric concepts of that day are recognized to no longer exist. (How many versions of the DSM have we been through since then?)
In reality, sequencing genomes has become cheap enough that these questions are beginning to be studied more rigorously--therefore obviating all such pseudoscientific psychological speculation / claptrap.
2. The rate of intermarriage for Jewish people has been about 70% for many decades at this point, but Jewish people have not disappeared - - all of the anguished hand-wringing notwithstanding.
3. A lot of these points are rendered moot by future developments. So, for example, he talks about inter- ethnic distinctions within the context of Israeli marriage. But, several decades after this book has been written marriages between Ashkenazim and Sephardim are so common as to be unremarkable. (That is with the notable exception of the Neanderthal Haredim; They are what they are.)
4. Some things that he talks about may have had some statistical mass, but they don't square with this author's experience of reality. So, he talked about Jewish alcoholism (p.443), overeating (p.447) and drug abuse (p.453). I have lived in a good sized Orthodox Jewish community for about 11 years as of the time of this review, and I have met ONE alcoholic the entire time, ONE former drug addict, and probably no more than 20% of (genetically) Jewish (American) persons are overweight--compared to about 73.6% of non-Jewish Americans.
*******
A lot of this is preaching to the choir:
1. It has been known for a long time that Ashkenazi Jews have an IQ that is, on average, higher than all other ethnic groups.
2. It has been known that certain mental illnesses are a lot more common among Jews than others. (The author notes rates of Insanity of Jews that are 4.6 times higher than their neighbors. [p. 414].) The concept of the "neurotic Jew" still exists, even though being neurotic (in the Freudian sense) is something that people stopped believing in long ago.
*******
The chapter on Jewish antisemitism was quite enlightening. The hackneyed Freudian expression "internalize the hatred of the oppressor" is one that I'm reluctant to believe *specifically* because Freud said it was true.
But, this author actually attributes Jewish antisemitism to the Enlightenment, and with the imbibing of Western philosophy/modes of thought, Jews begin to see themselves through the (anti-Semitic) eyes of their much more numerous Gentile neighbors.
And *that* is the origin of Jewish antisemitism that has never been resolved.
What is sauce for the goose can be sauce for the gander: When Israel was reunified, a lot of Sephardim/Mizrahim began to internalize self-rejection because they saw themselves through Ashkenazi eyes (p.478), which saw them as having "aggressivity, undesirable personal trades, lack of culture, dirtiness, and bothersome children.
Verdict: Recommended
Quotes:
(p. 461) The negative features in this self stereotype can be so strong that they assume the character of self-hatred.... In low status minority groups, the desire arises for the respect and rewards enjoyed by the higher status majority.
(ibid) One of the greatest effects of the enlightenment was.... Intensifying the negative features in the Jewish self-stereotype.
(p. 479) My own experience with Oriental Jewish adults and youths in Israel was that frequently they were ashamed of their origin and tried to appear as if they were of Ashkenazi extraction. For example, if one asking North Africans you his place of origin, one would typically get the answer "Paris" or "France." Several further questions would be needed until one elicited the admission that he was, in fact, from Algeria or Morocco.
(p. 480) The curious phenomenon of Jewish supporters of black anti-Semitism could be understood as their acceptance, or rather demand, of a 'share of guilt for the enslavement of the African in America. A way in which they tacitly assert their membership of the dominant even if guilty majority.'
(p. 499) Every rabbinic scholar exercised authority to the extent to which his decisions were accepted by others.
(p. 501) But without the Evil Desire, however, no man would build a house, take a wife and beget children (Bereshit Rabba
9:7)
January 9, 2021
All things considered, a very good book. I disagree with some contentions & perhaps a non-negligible part is either obsolete or simply wrong (it would take me too long to analyze..).
Patai is, in my opinion, right about the question: who is a Jew? The answer: someone who considers himself/herself a Jew and whom others consider to be that, too. Jewish history up to the 19th C is not very difficult to explain: this is a very Near East story of a chosen community under their god with whom they have an S & M relationship and whose main concern is that they remain separate from surrounding peoples by following various rituals & taboos. Jews thought they were better than the rest, but that’s the way all human collectives work (Hindus, especially Brahmins, Muslims, classical & modern Chinese ..). What is more interesting is that modern Jews, as a group, continue to survive & they stick together as before. They’ve lost their faith (God, chosen group,..)- and yet, they don’t assimilate. Of course, Israel being a nation-state is something perfectly natural; on the other hand, there is an increase in intermarriage in affluent West, but I don’t think that Jews will be swallowed by assimilation- the net result will remain either positive for them or somewhere around zero.
Probably there are two reasons for their continual survival as a distinct entity in a secularized modern Western world. One is ordinary cultural nationalism, a sense of national pride in belonging to ancient people who had influenced much of world history through their religious culture (Bible & Christianity), plus a big number of highly influential Jewish individuals in the past 150-200 years in world culture. You don’t have to believe in religious old stories to feel an elevated sense of pride in historical accomplishments of your group.
Another strong element in Jewish survival is their tragedy during WW2. They are kept together as a rather paranoid community of remembered pain & persecution. Even without media pumping of the story, it is real enough & will function as a very efficient anti-corrosive when the real threat of their dissolution among surrounding peoples or ethnic groups appears. The role of Israel as an endangered nation-state is also a powerful rallying cry. Be as it may, I would recommend this Patai’s work (that said, I am skeptical about the whole Abraham story & the notion that Hebrew language is an adopted Canaanite language; the part on the Italian Renaissance influence seems absurd. The portions on Hellenism & Arab Muslim influences, on the other hand, are extremely well written).
Patai is, in my opinion, right about the question: who is a Jew? The answer: someone who considers himself/herself a Jew and whom others consider to be that, too. Jewish history up to the 19th C is not very difficult to explain: this is a very Near East story of a chosen community under their god with whom they have an S & M relationship and whose main concern is that they remain separate from surrounding peoples by following various rituals & taboos. Jews thought they were better than the rest, but that’s the way all human collectives work (Hindus, especially Brahmins, Muslims, classical & modern Chinese ..). What is more interesting is that modern Jews, as a group, continue to survive & they stick together as before. They’ve lost their faith (God, chosen group,..)- and yet, they don’t assimilate. Of course, Israel being a nation-state is something perfectly natural; on the other hand, there is an increase in intermarriage in affluent West, but I don’t think that Jews will be swallowed by assimilation- the net result will remain either positive for them or somewhere around zero.
Probably there are two reasons for their continual survival as a distinct entity in a secularized modern Western world. One is ordinary cultural nationalism, a sense of national pride in belonging to ancient people who had influenced much of world history through their religious culture (Bible & Christianity), plus a big number of highly influential Jewish individuals in the past 150-200 years in world culture. You don’t have to believe in religious old stories to feel an elevated sense of pride in historical accomplishments of your group.
Another strong element in Jewish survival is their tragedy during WW2. They are kept together as a rather paranoid community of remembered pain & persecution. Even without media pumping of the story, it is real enough & will function as a very efficient anti-corrosive when the real threat of their dissolution among surrounding peoples or ethnic groups appears. The role of Israel as an endangered nation-state is also a powerful rallying cry. Be as it may, I would recommend this Patai’s work (that said, I am skeptical about the whole Abraham story & the notion that Hebrew language is an adopted Canaanite language; the part on the Italian Renaissance influence seems absurd. The portions on Hellenism & Arab Muslim influences, on the other hand, are extremely well written).
November 13, 2024
I finished the book last night and the only reason I read was to prove such authors wrong. The book is highly problematic book that I deeply regret reading. Rather than offering an objective or thoughtful examination of Jewish culture, it presents a skewed narrative that promotes Jewish intellectual superiority while depicting other nations in a negative light. The book's portrayal of Jewish people seems to be more in line with extremist views, rather than reflecting the values of peaceful, everyday Jewish individuals.
What’s especially troubling is the book’s advocacy for Zionism, which feels one-sided and dismissive of other perspectives. Instead of fostering understanding, it seems to reinforce harmful stereotypes and perpetuate a divisive narrative. I found this book disappointing and would not recommend it to anyone seeking an unbiased or respectful exploration of Jewish culture.
If your time is valuable, don't read this rubbish, I forced myself to read it but still I regretted it.
What’s especially troubling is the book’s advocacy for Zionism, which feels one-sided and dismissive of other perspectives. Instead of fostering understanding, it seems to reinforce harmful stereotypes and perpetuate a divisive narrative. I found this book disappointing and would not recommend it to anyone seeking an unbiased or respectful exploration of Jewish culture.
If your time is valuable, don't read this rubbish, I forced myself to read it but still I regretted it.
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