Kuzari II

Finley, Mordecai

Kuzari II On Being a Jew: What Does tt Mean to Be a Jew? James Kugel Harper San Francisco, 1990.191 pp., $17.95 Reviewed by Mordecai Finley James Kugel has written a compelling introduction...

...Kugel makes a good case for halachic observance...
...Kugel's book is a fictional dialogue between Judd Lewis and his father's friend, Albert Abbadi, to whom Judd goes for counsel concerning his upcoming intermarriage, which, deus-ex-machina-like, aborts because his Protestant fiancee won't marry a Jew...
...Kugel's approach, through Abbadi, is refreshing and fine-tuned...
...In Kedushah Kugel links holiness to the consciousness of God and to the behavioral discipline that emanates from that consciousness...
...Tradition is a convention that requires conformity with what was established years ago...
...His controlling metaphor is the mishkan, the tabernacle, the Israelites' portable sanctuary in the desert...
...James Kugel Harper San Francisco, 1990.191 pp., $17.95 Reviewed by Mordecai Finley James Kugel has written a compelling introduction to being a religious Jew...
...In Judd's voice, he is a sensitive, inquiring student who must shift premises if he is to learn Judaism "from the inside...
...It must be practiced as it is, because that is how it is—the religious law of the Jewish people...
...Our religious behaviors (including moral behavior) create the mishkan of the heart—the place within ourselves for God to be present...
...Some chapters are truly outstanding explorations of themes common to all understandings of how God speaks to us through To-rah (and how we allow ourselves to hear that speech and how our lives are shaped by it...
...We find ourselves in the presence of a wise, witty, deeply committed traditional Jew...
...Instead of a life of white bread and consumerism, Judd finds the soft, radiant light of Torah in his new-found interlocutor and mentor...
...Rabbi Mordecai Finley serves at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles...
...He makes ample though delicate use of the nuts and bolts of the theory (not a word he would use...
...Kugel, speaking in Abbadi's voice, is an urbane, sophisticated yet straightforward proponent of traditional, halachic Judaism...
...In addition to Kugel's fine treatment of the inner mishkan, I especially liked the chapters Kedushah and Korach...
...The halachah is "music" with "fixed notes"—though some may play it allegro, others largo...
...in Korach Kugel teaches about the oral Torah and rabbinic aggadah (nonlegal parts of the rabbinic tradition...
...However, Kugel's call for consistency and fullness of ritual observance is belied by his rejection of Conservative Judaism, which—like Orthodox Judaism— calls for disciplined ritual observance (as does Reform, mutatis mutandis...
...the halachah (Jewish religious law) shapes our lives to that service...
...Kugel's treatment of Orthodoxy only nods at the theology that holds that halachah is coterminous with the divine law or will, a notion that undergirds Orthodox practice and makes its authority palatable, intellectually at least...
...The Kuzari is a dialogue between a rabbi and a philosopher king who eventually converts to Judaism...
...The content is far too close to home to evoke the cool, intellectual admiration I feel for its archetype, the Kuzari, the 11th century "apology for a despised religion," by Yehudah Halevi of Toledo, Spain, one of our great medieval poets and thinkers...
...But when it was established it was new—introduced as an innovation— mostly in the post-biblical period...
...at times compelled to snort...
...If one ignores the apologetic and polemical undertones of Kugel's argument, students and teachers of Judaism will benefit greatly...
...We pulpit rabbis sigh—if only that would happen for us...
...Some readers will notice a chasidic, pietistic development of these halachic themes...
...While reading it, I often felt compelled to nod appreciatively...
...of religious Judaism...
...The book is engaging (for some, enraging) and should be considered a standard introduction to religious Jewish practice...
...Judaism is about serving God...
...Kugel is not just making a case for religious Judaism (which he does well) but for Orthodox Judaism (a less strong case...

Vol. 16 • October 1991 • No. 5


 
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