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Continuity and Change: A Festschrift in Honor of Irving Greenberg's 75th Birthday
This collection of essays was inspired by the desire to create a suitable tribute to Dr. Irving Greenberg. Dr. Greenberg has been one of the truly major figures in the American Jewish community for the past forty years. A community activist and a theologian of distinction, he has influenced not only the practical direction of Jewish life, especially through his work with the leadership of Jewish Federations throughout the country, but also the shape of contemporary Jewish thought through his writings on the Holocaust, the State of Israel, and traditional Jewish themes. The outstanding list of authors who have contributed to this volume, writing on central issues in traditional and modern Jewish thought and history, are a testimony to Dr. Greenberg's repercussive presence and theological contribution. Those interested in the contemporary American Jewish community and the nature and shape of modern Jewish thought at the beginning of the new millennium will find this a valuable, thought-provoking addition to their libraries.
330 pages, ebook
First published December 7, 2010
2 people want to read
About the author
Steven T. Katz
58 books6 followersSteven Theodore Katz is an American philosopher and scholar. He is the director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, United States, where he holds the Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair in Jewish and Holocaust Studies.
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August 12, 2025
Allow me to introduce a new word to you all: “Festschrift.”
And now allow me to define it, but not by simply pasting the Oxford definition, but rephrasing it in a way we moderns can more easily parse: “academic street cred.” A comedian who has achieved it all may receive a roast, a bodybuilder a Sandow, a lottery winner...uh, money (and stress!). But an academic? They’re thankfully nerds (and I mean this in a positive way!) so they take the harder route: a group of them will get together and pen a series of long-form essays to honor one of their own. It’s a win-win if you ask you me, a fan of consuming knowledge like others consume never-ending social media feeds of melting ice cream and industrial-strength machines crushing cars from the 70’s.
A Festschrift is where one receives street cred and those who give it simultaneously get to flex their own intellectual muscles. The end results are great books full of diverse pieces all somehow relating to the field of study of the person they are honoring. “Continuity and Change A Festschrift in Honor of Irving Greenberg's 75th Birthday” follows this trend and it marks the second book I am reading done this way and the fifth or so ‘essay book’ I have the pleasure of reviewing.
Before diving into individual remarks for each essay, it pays to mention (and briefly, don’t worry) just how influential Yitz Greenberg has been. An Orthodox rabbi who has crossed lines like no other, a friend to all, a believer of “we’re all in this together”. Just the other year after turning 90, he penned his own “sefer l’chaim” called Triumph of Life which marked my first book by him, but not the first book I learned about him (that’d be “Soloveitchik's Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America” by Daniel Ross Goodman). It may make sense for those not familiar with Rabbi Greenberg to first read his magnum opus and then come back, but it’s not required as “Continuity and Change”, as noted above, is a Festschrift of 17 (!) essays by some of the biggest names in Jewish academia and beyond writing excellent pieces that cover darn near everything in honor of one of the world’s best living rabbis.
Below are my remarks for each essay and after that, a conclusion to close this all out. Enjoy!
---
Essay 1: Dr. Irving Greenberg: A Biographical Introduction by Steven Bayme
Remarks: We begin with a short biographical sketch of Rabbi Greenberg that briefly covers his activities from the 60’s through the present. The amount of organizations and movements he has been part of may cause those on keto diets to experience nausea. This is a man who has done more in one decade than most can achieve in one lifetime. What’s more, we succinctly are introduced to the three pillars of ‘Greenbergism’ (my word, not the author’s) that cover his purpose outside of Holocaust studies: “Greenberg specified three areas where he maintained contemporary Orthodox leadership had failed to respond to the challenges of modernity. The areas in question concerned pre-marital sexual contact, biblical criticism, and relations with the non-Orthodox movements.” (page 2, eBook)
I appreciate this time around the book as a whole does not begin with the standard introduction that provides a roll call of upcoming essays; the element of surprise is something I love even in academic books. As of writing this, the only thing I remember from perusing the Table of Contents is the last essay being written by none other than...
Essay 2: Intra-Aggadic Control of Theological Freedom: A Speculation by Eugene B. Borowitz
Remarks: I’m in a bind in a way because this is an interesting essay that I am having difficulties composing remarks on. But perhaps that is also intentional? After all, given the topic of ‘intra-aggadic control’ where we are presented examples of just that: notably the account of God placing Moses in a cleft while He passes by him in a way where he can only see His back, it may be difficult to put pen to paper commenting on what’s purposely a read-between-the-lines moment of Scripture. We later on jump to more current times to see how various Jewish communities relate to the concept of God. This surprisingly heavy piece done by one of Yitz’s contemporaries I’ve a feeling may be the star of the show.
Essay 3: Has the Holocaust Been a Turning Point in Christian Theology about Judaism? by Alice L. Eckardt
Remarks: Pleased—OK, not the best word to use, but in terms of going in with pre-set knowledge, it’s a good feeling I came prepared. Being an essay all about Christian Theology towards Judaism after the Holocaust and one that spends time on WW2 era Germany no less, having recently read ‘The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany’ by Susannah Heschel made this essay an easier dive than what otherwise it would have been. The sad reality of Nazi era Germany per churches was that they all pretty much hated Jews with very few (and mostly private, individual) exceptions. We fortunately jump pretty quickly from those darkest times to what came after though it still took some churches longer than it should to realize Jew-hating and Jew-converting were both bad business. And towards the end in a sign of an epic lens turning inward if there ever was one, we get this: “Stephen Smith is prepared to go further. He suggests that much of Christian discourse about and with Judaism is really a ‘defense of Christian continuity rather than a challenge to it.’ But ‘the reality of the Holocaust is that you must question [all of Christian theology] and be prepared, if necessary, to let it go.’” (page 41)
Essay 4: Amalek, Zionism and Belief in the Messiah: Further Reflections on Jewish Faith and Jewish Power by Arnold Eisen
Remarks: Right off the bat things get interesting: “The rabbis taught long ago, and Greenberg taught again in our generation, that Purim is actually the most serious of all Jewish holidays. It summons Jews to political work in the world that is ever fraught with paradox and danger.” (page 47) We can rejoice (and for some, get drunk), but there’s work needing to be done. This leads to a paradox like no other and that to the bulk of an essay heavy on the subject of messianism and its relation to Zionism: “The text, reaching beyond all human experience thus far and so beyond language itself, falls back on an ultimate paradox. How does one remember to blot out memory, thereby apparently ensuring preservation of the very memory that one is commanded to remember to forget? One does so, I think (or, better, imagine) by so transforming the world that even the idea of doing what Amalek did is inconceivable.” (page 50-51)
Essay 5: Colleagues and Friends: Letters between [Orthodox] Rabbi Samuel Belkin and [Reform] Rabbi William G. Braude by David Ellenson
Remarks: Do note, the brackets above I added and are not actually part of the title. Two things already piqued my interest one page into this submission: that we are privy to not a heated, but a folksy exchange on theological matters between rabbis of vastly different denominations and that it is presented by none other than David Ellenson whom only four years after this book received his own excellent Festschrift (“Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity: Rethinking an Old Opposition, Essays in Honor of David Ellenson” that I read and HIGHLY recommend). Thus, we’re in good hands with this piece. We’ve both rabbis sending an exchange of letters that surprisingly focus more on technical minutiae (a major discussion about “who is a Jew?” in terms of levirate marriages is the centerpiece) rather than overarching theological disputes between denominations, but in the lacunae we find…
Essay 6: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady [Founder of Chabad] as an Educator by Immanuel Etkes
Remarks: As with the above essay, the brackets in the title I added for clarity. Given the author of this piece among other things penned an entire book on the BeShT, we’re again in good hands here. Also, just how this book began with a light biographical sketch of the man of the hour, perhaps this essay situated where it is, can be seen as an interlude (of sorts because it’s quite long!) that shines a similar light on another important Jewish leader, Rabbi Shneur Zalman aka RaShaZ aka ‘the person who started Chabad’. What seems like the biggest alteration between RaShaZ and other Hasidic leaders was his book, The Tanya, noted more eloquently by our author: “However, all of these arguments cannot dull the sharpness of the change in direction that RASHAZ announces: from now on the Tanya will serve as a book of instruction in the worship of God, to accompany every one of the Hasidim during his daily life. This book is intended to replace, at least to a degree, personal interviews with RASHAZ.” (page 94)
Essay 7: The Jewish Outreach Enterprise: Rhetoric and Reality by Sylvia Barack Fishman
Remarks: Think kiruv, but for all of Yiddishkeit both from non-denominational and Orthodox (funny how anything not Orthodox is just lumped together, but that’s a tale for another day). Jumping to the conclusion of the essay, an interesting observation is brought up: “If either inreach or Outreach for some incomprehensible reason needed to be abandoned, it would be better to abandon Outreach than inreach. (page 124) Does it make more sense to reach out to intermarried families and Jews who don’t really associate with their background or wait for them to make the first step? “Rabbi Alexander Schindler, then President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now Union for Reform Judaism, URJ)” perhaps said it best: “take intermarriage out of the house of mourning and bring it into the house of study.” (page 108) There’s a lot more I’d like to say about this essay, but these quotes cover the basics for an especially intriguing read.
Essay 8: The Kippah Comes to America by Lawrence Grossman
Remarks: Who knew an essay about the history of the yarmulke with a large focus on its adaption in USA would be so interesting! And on that note, the biggest surprise from the traditionalist perspective is outside of especially devout Jews in Eastern Europe, head covering was seen as somewhere between “you may want to put it on when praying” to “technically, you don’t really need it” but as we know, Joseph Karo’s interpretation may have won the day per current trends even though we’ve great minds of the same era like the Maharshal saying otherwise. There’s tons of juicy things I’d love to quote, but instead I suggest the curious reader to see where this all ended up: the Supreme Court case of Goldman vs Weinberger, also covered near the end.
Essay 9: “Jewish Religious Thought and Practice during the Holocaust” by David Hartman
Remarks: The quotes are intentional! What we have here may be a mistake as David Hartman, someone very close in the orbit of Yitz Greenberg penned a thought-provoking essay on harmonizing the supposed two sides of Maimonides, not an essay about the quoted subject line. I’m not sure what’s going on here per the potential snafu and the next piece by Steven T. Katz appears correct in name and subject matter. This was a tough essay—perhaps the most difficult in the book given the ample quoting of Rambam doing what Rambam does best: write to make one thing so hard a brain cell or three ruptures. But that’s no attack on the man nor his writings. Rather, a challenge for me (and other curious readers) to expose themselves more to the battleground that is relating secular philosophy with halakha, the focus in this surely misnamed essay.
Essay 10: The Murder of Jewish Children during the Holocaust by Steven T. Katz
Remarks: As dark as dark gets and sadly unlike the previous essay, the title here is all too accurate. Even the Egyptians during the final moments of the penultimate plague had nothing on the subject matter of this essay laid out in cold hard facts with just enough anecdotes to bite where it hurts most. The plus side—and there’s only one (or two since Steven T. Katz penned a great piece) is I found a lot more books to read on the issue. When you read something like this, no matter how much Israel remains the punching bag of most worldwide, there’s a reason why “never again” means what it does and if Samson ever had to be woken up to keep it that way, it’s a risk they’ll take. Really, after reading this piece, you begin to understand—not “agree”, mind you—what made Abba Kovner and his Nokmim decide to try and carry out Plan A. The Holocaust may not have the highest body count of all manmade disasters and conflicts in human history, but nothing—and this includes Stalin, Khmer Rouge, Chinese conflicts, and even Genghis Khan--comes close to it in its targeted inhuman brutality of millions with a focus first and foremost on children.
Essay 11: Mah Tovu as a Psychological Introduction to Prayer by Reuven Kimelman
Remarks: Mind bleach was needed after the previous essay and we get that here in amounts most cloying. Admittedly, the one type of religious reading that gels the least with me may be surprising to some: devotional. Ritualistic aspects including prayer and one’s “awe” of it I understand for many are the most important points of faith, but for me, the opposite holds true: intellectual pursuits of it. Thus, this piece fell a bit flat, but as usual, I learned a thing or two: “Mah Tovu serves as a threshold prayer seeking to help the would-be worshiper overcome his/her reluctance and uneasiness of entering the Lord’s house.” (page 190)
Essay 12: Interpreting Rabbinic Religion through the Lens of the Three Eras by David Kraemer
Remarks: There are times in this essay I can’t tell whether the writer is stating the obvious or making some pretty unique observations: “Against this background, rabbinic Sabbath law takes on a radically new meaning. Let us begin with what may no longer be taken for granted: the rabbinic judgment that saving a life pushes aside Sabbath restrictions.” (page 206) It should be noted he is not basing claims such as this from our time looking backward, but from pre-rabbinic times looking forward. Thus, my hunch, always leaning positive is, we’ve an essay that’s providing such a unique way to see how rabbinic Judaism become the law of the land, one halakhic ruling at a time. This one makes you think and it could be one of the more striking essays in the book because of it (not that any are sub-par!).
Essay 13: Yavneh and Irving Greenberg: Envisioning a Jewish Educational Revolution by Benny Kraut
Remarks: Here we focus both on the Yavneh university program of the 60’s and 70’s though the real star of the show is its year in Israel and how...well, it bombed and bombed hard: “Differences in educational background, age, and life experience took their toll on group cohesiveness.” (page 235) A huge feat, a huge challenge to enhance the lives of Orthodox college students in USA, but perhaps too much, too early, and did not take into account student body diversity both among American students sent abroad and the Israeli students they’d be integrating in. And oh yea, culture shocks galore. I had no idea about Yavneh before this and am happy this extra deep dive of an essay provided intriguing background information on one of Rabbi Greenberg’s earlier projects and proof-positive that if one fails, you get back up and try again.
Essay 14: The Message of the Gog Pericope, Ezekiel Chapters 38-39 by Jacob Milgrom
Remarks: The shortest essay, but we can let that fly given Rabbi Milgrom probably still was recovering from penning his 3,000 page (!) book on Leviticus (a must-read even in its ‘abridged’ 500 page Continental Commentary form that I challenged with a few years ago). In fact, I am not sure if even calling this an ‘essay’ is appropriate and to be honest, a focused study of Gog in Ezekiel 38-39 does not seem to gel that much to be part of this Festschrift. But given the writer’s credentials and the piece itself which is intense (read: difficult to parse outside of those really into Bible semantics), one can’t really find fault for it being here.
Essay 15: The Fate of Hope in a Time of Renewed Antisemitism by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Remarks: An overview of antisemitism in the media and beyond...circa 2010 (when this book was published). Sadly, nothing has really changed so if you’ve been paying attention to all the antisemitism dog whistles, there may not be too much new information here and sadly what’s given is not as sourced as I’d like. On the flip side, the author having written a few full length academic books on the issue does come from a position of authority.
Essay 16: It Is 2010: Are We One Jewish People? by Jacob B. Ukeles
Remarks: So, the answer remains a resounding NO. But fortunately, we remain strong albeit divided, disagreeing on various things such as conversion, matri/patrilineal descent, the ideal type of bagel (everything, of course because you can just wipe away what you don’t want, c’mon!), but that’s what we’re known for. These are both my opinions and coming as little surprise, those of the author’s (OK, the bagel was not mentioned as he has more class than me) though in his case, it’s based on actual data rather than feels.
Essay 17: Rebbe Israel of Kozhenitz by Elie Wiesel
Remarks: The master and a fitting way to conclude this book. If Elie Wiesel had time to pen a 1500 page book that was just stitched together anecdotes on past rebbis, it’d still be a national bestseller. If you’ve read his other works on hasidic legends, you’ll be at home here and fortunately, you can jump in at any time: “How is one to solve these problems of chronology and geography? Fortunately Hasidism chooses to pay attention to neither.” (page 278) There’s a way he writes that feels as timeless as the legends he tells, and in a way, even though this essay is not necessarily about Yitz, it’s very much in tribute to him and our people.
---
There has yet been an ‘essay book’—or a Festschrift--I have not loved. They are in a way academic mystery grab-bags where the reader has the pleasure of experiencing so much variety by so many people who (normally) know what they’re talking about. Even if essays across a book may all stick to ‘academic speak’ (definitely not the case here especially with the final essay!), the sheer variety rules out and the footnotes are a cornucopia of future reads.
And now allow me to define it, but not by simply pasting the Oxford definition, but rephrasing it in a way we moderns can more easily parse: “academic street cred.” A comedian who has achieved it all may receive a roast, a bodybuilder a Sandow, a lottery winner...uh, money (and stress!). But an academic? They’re thankfully nerds (and I mean this in a positive way!) so they take the harder route: a group of them will get together and pen a series of long-form essays to honor one of their own. It’s a win-win if you ask you me, a fan of consuming knowledge like others consume never-ending social media feeds of melting ice cream and industrial-strength machines crushing cars from the 70’s.
A Festschrift is where one receives street cred and those who give it simultaneously get to flex their own intellectual muscles. The end results are great books full of diverse pieces all somehow relating to the field of study of the person they are honoring. “Continuity and Change A Festschrift in Honor of Irving Greenberg's 75th Birthday” follows this trend and it marks the second book I am reading done this way and the fifth or so ‘essay book’ I have the pleasure of reviewing.
Before diving into individual remarks for each essay, it pays to mention (and briefly, don’t worry) just how influential Yitz Greenberg has been. An Orthodox rabbi who has crossed lines like no other, a friend to all, a believer of “we’re all in this together”. Just the other year after turning 90, he penned his own “sefer l’chaim” called Triumph of Life which marked my first book by him, but not the first book I learned about him (that’d be “Soloveitchik's Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America” by Daniel Ross Goodman). It may make sense for those not familiar with Rabbi Greenberg to first read his magnum opus and then come back, but it’s not required as “Continuity and Change”, as noted above, is a Festschrift of 17 (!) essays by some of the biggest names in Jewish academia and beyond writing excellent pieces that cover darn near everything in honor of one of the world’s best living rabbis.
Below are my remarks for each essay and after that, a conclusion to close this all out. Enjoy!
---
Essay 1: Dr. Irving Greenberg: A Biographical Introduction by Steven Bayme
Remarks: We begin with a short biographical sketch of Rabbi Greenberg that briefly covers his activities from the 60’s through the present. The amount of organizations and movements he has been part of may cause those on keto diets to experience nausea. This is a man who has done more in one decade than most can achieve in one lifetime. What’s more, we succinctly are introduced to the three pillars of ‘Greenbergism’ (my word, not the author’s) that cover his purpose outside of Holocaust studies: “Greenberg specified three areas where he maintained contemporary Orthodox leadership had failed to respond to the challenges of modernity. The areas in question concerned pre-marital sexual contact, biblical criticism, and relations with the non-Orthodox movements.” (page 2, eBook)
I appreciate this time around the book as a whole does not begin with the standard introduction that provides a roll call of upcoming essays; the element of surprise is something I love even in academic books. As of writing this, the only thing I remember from perusing the Table of Contents is the last essay being written by none other than...
Essay 2: Intra-Aggadic Control of Theological Freedom: A Speculation by Eugene B. Borowitz
Remarks: I’m in a bind in a way because this is an interesting essay that I am having difficulties composing remarks on. But perhaps that is also intentional? After all, given the topic of ‘intra-aggadic control’ where we are presented examples of just that: notably the account of God placing Moses in a cleft while He passes by him in a way where he can only see His back, it may be difficult to put pen to paper commenting on what’s purposely a read-between-the-lines moment of Scripture. We later on jump to more current times to see how various Jewish communities relate to the concept of God. This surprisingly heavy piece done by one of Yitz’s contemporaries I’ve a feeling may be the star of the show.
Essay 3: Has the Holocaust Been a Turning Point in Christian Theology about Judaism? by Alice L. Eckardt
Remarks: Pleased—OK, not the best word to use, but in terms of going in with pre-set knowledge, it’s a good feeling I came prepared. Being an essay all about Christian Theology towards Judaism after the Holocaust and one that spends time on WW2 era Germany no less, having recently read ‘The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany’ by Susannah Heschel made this essay an easier dive than what otherwise it would have been. The sad reality of Nazi era Germany per churches was that they all pretty much hated Jews with very few (and mostly private, individual) exceptions. We fortunately jump pretty quickly from those darkest times to what came after though it still took some churches longer than it should to realize Jew-hating and Jew-converting were both bad business. And towards the end in a sign of an epic lens turning inward if there ever was one, we get this: “Stephen Smith is prepared to go further. He suggests that much of Christian discourse about and with Judaism is really a ‘defense of Christian continuity rather than a challenge to it.’ But ‘the reality of the Holocaust is that you must question [all of Christian theology] and be prepared, if necessary, to let it go.’” (page 41)
Essay 4: Amalek, Zionism and Belief in the Messiah: Further Reflections on Jewish Faith and Jewish Power by Arnold Eisen
Remarks: Right off the bat things get interesting: “The rabbis taught long ago, and Greenberg taught again in our generation, that Purim is actually the most serious of all Jewish holidays. It summons Jews to political work in the world that is ever fraught with paradox and danger.” (page 47) We can rejoice (and for some, get drunk), but there’s work needing to be done. This leads to a paradox like no other and that to the bulk of an essay heavy on the subject of messianism and its relation to Zionism: “The text, reaching beyond all human experience thus far and so beyond language itself, falls back on an ultimate paradox. How does one remember to blot out memory, thereby apparently ensuring preservation of the very memory that one is commanded to remember to forget? One does so, I think (or, better, imagine) by so transforming the world that even the idea of doing what Amalek did is inconceivable.” (page 50-51)
Essay 5: Colleagues and Friends: Letters between [Orthodox] Rabbi Samuel Belkin and [Reform] Rabbi William G. Braude by David Ellenson
Remarks: Do note, the brackets above I added and are not actually part of the title. Two things already piqued my interest one page into this submission: that we are privy to not a heated, but a folksy exchange on theological matters between rabbis of vastly different denominations and that it is presented by none other than David Ellenson whom only four years after this book received his own excellent Festschrift (“Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity: Rethinking an Old Opposition, Essays in Honor of David Ellenson” that I read and HIGHLY recommend). Thus, we’re in good hands with this piece. We’ve both rabbis sending an exchange of letters that surprisingly focus more on technical minutiae (a major discussion about “who is a Jew?” in terms of levirate marriages is the centerpiece) rather than overarching theological disputes between denominations, but in the lacunae we find…
Essay 6: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady [Founder of Chabad] as an Educator by Immanuel Etkes
Remarks: As with the above essay, the brackets in the title I added for clarity. Given the author of this piece among other things penned an entire book on the BeShT, we’re again in good hands here. Also, just how this book began with a light biographical sketch of the man of the hour, perhaps this essay situated where it is, can be seen as an interlude (of sorts because it’s quite long!) that shines a similar light on another important Jewish leader, Rabbi Shneur Zalman aka RaShaZ aka ‘the person who started Chabad’. What seems like the biggest alteration between RaShaZ and other Hasidic leaders was his book, The Tanya, noted more eloquently by our author: “However, all of these arguments cannot dull the sharpness of the change in direction that RASHAZ announces: from now on the Tanya will serve as a book of instruction in the worship of God, to accompany every one of the Hasidim during his daily life. This book is intended to replace, at least to a degree, personal interviews with RASHAZ.” (page 94)
Essay 7: The Jewish Outreach Enterprise: Rhetoric and Reality by Sylvia Barack Fishman
Remarks: Think kiruv, but for all of Yiddishkeit both from non-denominational and Orthodox (funny how anything not Orthodox is just lumped together, but that’s a tale for another day). Jumping to the conclusion of the essay, an interesting observation is brought up: “If either inreach or Outreach for some incomprehensible reason needed to be abandoned, it would be better to abandon Outreach than inreach. (page 124) Does it make more sense to reach out to intermarried families and Jews who don’t really associate with their background or wait for them to make the first step? “Rabbi Alexander Schindler, then President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now Union for Reform Judaism, URJ)” perhaps said it best: “take intermarriage out of the house of mourning and bring it into the house of study.” (page 108) There’s a lot more I’d like to say about this essay, but these quotes cover the basics for an especially intriguing read.
Essay 8: The Kippah Comes to America by Lawrence Grossman
Remarks: Who knew an essay about the history of the yarmulke with a large focus on its adaption in USA would be so interesting! And on that note, the biggest surprise from the traditionalist perspective is outside of especially devout Jews in Eastern Europe, head covering was seen as somewhere between “you may want to put it on when praying” to “technically, you don’t really need it” but as we know, Joseph Karo’s interpretation may have won the day per current trends even though we’ve great minds of the same era like the Maharshal saying otherwise. There’s tons of juicy things I’d love to quote, but instead I suggest the curious reader to see where this all ended up: the Supreme Court case of Goldman vs Weinberger, also covered near the end.
Essay 9: “Jewish Religious Thought and Practice during the Holocaust” by David Hartman
Remarks: The quotes are intentional! What we have here may be a mistake as David Hartman, someone very close in the orbit of Yitz Greenberg penned a thought-provoking essay on harmonizing the supposed two sides of Maimonides, not an essay about the quoted subject line. I’m not sure what’s going on here per the potential snafu and the next piece by Steven T. Katz appears correct in name and subject matter. This was a tough essay—perhaps the most difficult in the book given the ample quoting of Rambam doing what Rambam does best: write to make one thing so hard a brain cell or three ruptures. But that’s no attack on the man nor his writings. Rather, a challenge for me (and other curious readers) to expose themselves more to the battleground that is relating secular philosophy with halakha, the focus in this surely misnamed essay.
Essay 10: The Murder of Jewish Children during the Holocaust by Steven T. Katz
Remarks: As dark as dark gets and sadly unlike the previous essay, the title here is all too accurate. Even the Egyptians during the final moments of the penultimate plague had nothing on the subject matter of this essay laid out in cold hard facts with just enough anecdotes to bite where it hurts most. The plus side—and there’s only one (or two since Steven T. Katz penned a great piece) is I found a lot more books to read on the issue. When you read something like this, no matter how much Israel remains the punching bag of most worldwide, there’s a reason why “never again” means what it does and if Samson ever had to be woken up to keep it that way, it’s a risk they’ll take. Really, after reading this piece, you begin to understand—not “agree”, mind you—what made Abba Kovner and his Nokmim decide to try and carry out Plan A. The Holocaust may not have the highest body count of all manmade disasters and conflicts in human history, but nothing—and this includes Stalin, Khmer Rouge, Chinese conflicts, and even Genghis Khan--comes close to it in its targeted inhuman brutality of millions with a focus first and foremost on children.
Essay 11: Mah Tovu as a Psychological Introduction to Prayer by Reuven Kimelman
Remarks: Mind bleach was needed after the previous essay and we get that here in amounts most cloying. Admittedly, the one type of religious reading that gels the least with me may be surprising to some: devotional. Ritualistic aspects including prayer and one’s “awe” of it I understand for many are the most important points of faith, but for me, the opposite holds true: intellectual pursuits of it. Thus, this piece fell a bit flat, but as usual, I learned a thing or two: “Mah Tovu serves as a threshold prayer seeking to help the would-be worshiper overcome his/her reluctance and uneasiness of entering the Lord’s house.” (page 190)
Essay 12: Interpreting Rabbinic Religion through the Lens of the Three Eras by David Kraemer
Remarks: There are times in this essay I can’t tell whether the writer is stating the obvious or making some pretty unique observations: “Against this background, rabbinic Sabbath law takes on a radically new meaning. Let us begin with what may no longer be taken for granted: the rabbinic judgment that saving a life pushes aside Sabbath restrictions.” (page 206) It should be noted he is not basing claims such as this from our time looking backward, but from pre-rabbinic times looking forward. Thus, my hunch, always leaning positive is, we’ve an essay that’s providing such a unique way to see how rabbinic Judaism become the law of the land, one halakhic ruling at a time. This one makes you think and it could be one of the more striking essays in the book because of it (not that any are sub-par!).
Essay 13: Yavneh and Irving Greenberg: Envisioning a Jewish Educational Revolution by Benny Kraut
Remarks: Here we focus both on the Yavneh university program of the 60’s and 70’s though the real star of the show is its year in Israel and how...well, it bombed and bombed hard: “Differences in educational background, age, and life experience took their toll on group cohesiveness.” (page 235) A huge feat, a huge challenge to enhance the lives of Orthodox college students in USA, but perhaps too much, too early, and did not take into account student body diversity both among American students sent abroad and the Israeli students they’d be integrating in. And oh yea, culture shocks galore. I had no idea about Yavneh before this and am happy this extra deep dive of an essay provided intriguing background information on one of Rabbi Greenberg’s earlier projects and proof-positive that if one fails, you get back up and try again.
Essay 14: The Message of the Gog Pericope, Ezekiel Chapters 38-39 by Jacob Milgrom
Remarks: The shortest essay, but we can let that fly given Rabbi Milgrom probably still was recovering from penning his 3,000 page (!) book on Leviticus (a must-read even in its ‘abridged’ 500 page Continental Commentary form that I challenged with a few years ago). In fact, I am not sure if even calling this an ‘essay’ is appropriate and to be honest, a focused study of Gog in Ezekiel 38-39 does not seem to gel that much to be part of this Festschrift. But given the writer’s credentials and the piece itself which is intense (read: difficult to parse outside of those really into Bible semantics), one can’t really find fault for it being here.
Essay 15: The Fate of Hope in a Time of Renewed Antisemitism by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Remarks: An overview of antisemitism in the media and beyond...circa 2010 (when this book was published). Sadly, nothing has really changed so if you’ve been paying attention to all the antisemitism dog whistles, there may not be too much new information here and sadly what’s given is not as sourced as I’d like. On the flip side, the author having written a few full length academic books on the issue does come from a position of authority.
Essay 16: It Is 2010: Are We One Jewish People? by Jacob B. Ukeles
Remarks: So, the answer remains a resounding NO. But fortunately, we remain strong albeit divided, disagreeing on various things such as conversion, matri/patrilineal descent, the ideal type of bagel (everything, of course because you can just wipe away what you don’t want, c’mon!), but that’s what we’re known for. These are both my opinions and coming as little surprise, those of the author’s (OK, the bagel was not mentioned as he has more class than me) though in his case, it’s based on actual data rather than feels.
Essay 17: Rebbe Israel of Kozhenitz by Elie Wiesel
Remarks: The master and a fitting way to conclude this book. If Elie Wiesel had time to pen a 1500 page book that was just stitched together anecdotes on past rebbis, it’d still be a national bestseller. If you’ve read his other works on hasidic legends, you’ll be at home here and fortunately, you can jump in at any time: “How is one to solve these problems of chronology and geography? Fortunately Hasidism chooses to pay attention to neither.” (page 278) There’s a way he writes that feels as timeless as the legends he tells, and in a way, even though this essay is not necessarily about Yitz, it’s very much in tribute to him and our people.
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There has yet been an ‘essay book’—or a Festschrift--I have not loved. They are in a way academic mystery grab-bags where the reader has the pleasure of experiencing so much variety by so many people who (normally) know what they’re talking about. Even if essays across a book may all stick to ‘academic speak’ (definitely not the case here especially with the final essay!), the sheer variety rules out and the footnotes are a cornucopia of future reads.
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