Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice

by Michael L. Satlow

How can we define "Judaism," and what are the common threads uniting ancient rabbis, Maimonides, the authors of the Zohar, and modern secular Jews in Israel? Michael L. Satlow offers a fresh perspective on Judaism that recognizes both its similarities and its immense diversity. Presenting snapshots of Judaism from around the globe and throughout history, Satlow explores the links between vastly different communities and their Jewish traditions. He studies the geonim, rabbinical scholars who lived in Iraq from the ninth to twelfth centuries; the intellectual flourishing of Jews in medieval Spain; how the Hasidim of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe confronted modernity; and the post-World War II development of distinct American and Israeli Jewish identities. Satlow pays close attention to how communities define themselves, their relationship to biblical and rabbinic texts, and their ritual practices. His fascinating portraits reveal the amazingly creative ways Jews have adapted over time to social and political challenges and continue to remain a "Jewish family."

Genres: Jewish, History, Judaism, Religion, School, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies

358 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always told my friends that in important ways, Judaism is not a religion: it's a lot more than that. Satlow helps me explain why. Jewish communities have lived in nearly every country in the world, for thousands of years, and they lived in ways that bear only a family resemblance to each other. Even today (as the first chapter shows), American Judaism and Israeli Judaism look starkly different. What is "Judaism"?

Historically, Satlow says, what has held these diverse communities together is a lively and heated conversation about three things: Jewish identity (what it means to be a Jew, who is and who's not); relationship to sacred texts (the list of which has changed over time); and practice. Jews don't have to believe the same things, which has shocked many members of other religions. Satlow tells the story of the Calvinist Dutch government in the 17th century tolerated Jews but tried to enforce their own idea of what all Jews believe! Within the Jewish fold,in the Middle Ages, Maimonides listed 13 principles of faith. Today we sing them but we don't study them.

It was only in the 19th century that Jews began to define their differences along ideological lines, and that has led to the different "movements" and in fact to "Judaism" as we know it today. Even then, Satlow makes the point that the founders of the Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox movements all kept kosher and wouldn't have any trouble sitting down for dinner at one another's tables. That has changed--but still, you cannot tell much about the everyday life of a Jewish "lay" person by asking him or her what "kind of Jew" he or she is. You would have to watch them from day to day.

I found this book fascinating because it showed me how Jews have always been influenced by the trends in the larger culture in which their communities were situated. Because we live in the early 21st century, the book is particularly interesting when it shows the ways that Jewish and Muslim currents of thought flowed in and out of each other. In the Muslim world in the 8th century, people were arguing about whether only the Qur'an was holy or whether the hadith, a set of traditions about Muhammad and his circle, should also be studied like sacred texts. Muslims considered the Torah sacred, although some thought the Jews had a corrupted text, and many believed the rabbinic interpretations of the Torah (in the midrash and Talmud) had distorted the truth given to Moses at Sinai. Look at the Jews in the same time and the same place, and you find many of the same arguments. The Karaites wanted to get rid of the rabbinic commentary and go straight back to the Torah. Meanwhile, the rabbis were working to recognize the Talmud (the work of earlier teachers, from the 2nd through 6th centuries) as equally worthy of study as the five books of Moses--and for a time, they succeeded as the Muslim scholars did with the hadith. This is a very different conversation than went on in Christian lands at the same time, or ever.

Creating Judaism is not a perfect book. It starts out strong and straightforward, but in later chapters it tries to cover too much ground too quickly and falls into the academic habit of referring to history instead of explaining it. Still, it is a perfect book for right now. It shows how we can recognize that our most cherished beliefs are historically and culturally relative and still continue to cherish them, which is the only honest way to be part of a religious community in the 21st century.

[Eli Mandel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a history of Jewish theology, so there's a fair bit of philosophy and theology in addition to the history of the development of Jewish practices.

I personally gained a lot from this book, although it is very compact and packs a lot of information, it was a good, broad history from roughly the time of the second temple to the present.

Because of its brevity on most of the topics covered the book doesn't introduce characters or movements at length, and sometimes not at all. Most of this wasn't a problem for me since I was already familiar with the topics under discussion, but when I wasn't, I felt this lack very acutely. For example, when he mentions that the thrust of Abraham Geiger's scholarship was to show "in a manner consistent with the conclusions of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement that the Mishnah and Talmud were historically contingent, not simple and timeless statements of the divine will", without telling me anything about the movement. And although he does get back to explaining the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement four pages later, you get a little bit of a mishmash feeling.

I did come to appreciate the context within which R' Akiva and others of his generation hated Talmidei Chachomim. This is something I had never understood but learning that people who devoted their lives to studying and expositing on the Torah was a new phenomenon - shortly after priests and prophets fell out of power - this finally made sense.

I also understood why, whenever I would ask, in the yeshiva setting, for explanations as to why Torah learning was the purpose of life, I would be directed to Nefesh Hachaim and nothing earlier. That is something that had always been suspicious to me, now my suspicions were confirmed.

While I doubt that this is unique to Satlow, I did wonder about the idea of seeing all developments in Jewish theology through the lens of their local Christian or Muslim settings. While this makes sense and certainly rings true, it sounds as if the Jews were passive receivers of local culture and ideas and you have to wonder; isn't it likely that the Jews also contributed to their surroundings? And, who was influencing Muslim and Christian academia?

The epilogue is a very interesting read. In it Satlow, who is religious, basically begs the reader to not take the history he has just learned as an excuse to "throw out the baby with the bathwater"! Rather, s/he should see Judaism in all its diverse glory, as a timeless expression of human thought into timeless issues. A very short but interesting defense of religion.

I have to mention that I found a few typos, not many, but a few and that surprised me seeing that this book is published by Columbia University Press.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class, but did genuinely enjoy and I learned a lot from it! I'd like to re-read it at some point in the future. Satlow packs a lot in, and I found his 'maps' of Judaism particularly helpful in understanding other information/texts presented in the class.

[Liesleest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prima. Ik waardeer de meerstemmige aanpak

[rebekah]

i dont see a point in reviewing textbooks lol but i essentially read this entire thing for my jewish studies class and i learned so so much!!! a very well-written, nuanced, and engaging text

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice single-volume text on Judaism. It focuses on how beliefs and practices shifted throughout the long history of those who call themselves Jews. The epilogue was unusually candid for a text like this, with some refreshing comments on the author's sense of the relationship between scholarship and religious practice. The main idea is that "Judaism" doesn't have much meaning. One can speak of different people who considered themselves Jews, and one can speak (within the limits of scholarship) about the beliefs and practices they might have observed. It hits on a lot of major developments: the mishnah and rabbinate, the Talmud, oral and written Torah, the Zohar and Kabbala, the Jewish Enlightenment and the rise of modern Judaism (Reform, Orthodox, Hasidic etc.)

(it was also extremely nice to read a text covering all of Judaism that did not in the slightest construe such a history mainly in terms of land or a series of post-exilic misfortunes).

After reading this text, I feel that Judaism is enormously variegated, historically complex and intellectually rich. Satlow has definitely got me more interested in the topic!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a religion class in college, but it really is an awesome, comprehensive source of the Jewish tradition.