New Perspectives in Theology of Judaism

397 Pages·2013·2.516 MB·English

by  Shubert Spero

NEW PERSPECTIVES
IN THE THEOLOGY
OF JUDAISM

NEW PERSPECTIVES
IN THE THEOLOGY
OF JUDAISM
by
Shubert Spero
Boston
2013
Copyright © 2013 Academic Studies Press
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-61811-267-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61811-268-2 (electronic)
Cover design by Ivan Grave
Published by Academic Studies Press in 2013
28 Montfern Avenue
Brighton, MA 02135, USA
[email protected]
www.academicstudiespress.com
Contents
Note From the Publisher
The Chair, the Incumbent, and the Donors ...................7
Introduction ................................................9
PART I
Viewing Judaism as a Whole
Chapter 1
Is There an Indigenous Jewish Theology? ...................24
Chapter 2
Toward a Philosophy of Modern Orthodoxy .................41
Chapter 3
Is Judaism an Optimistic Religion? ........................55
Chapter 4
The Meaning of Existentialism for Orthodoxy ...............69
PART II
Torah in Depth
Chapter 5
The Biblical Stories of Creation, the Garden of Eden,
and the Flood: History or Metaphor? ......................82
Chapter 6
Paradise Lost or Outgrown? ..............................98
Chapter 7
Multiplicity of Meaning as a Device in Biblical Narrative .... 118
Chapter 8
Torat Hashem/Torat Moshe:
Exploring their Respective Roles ........................ 133
PART III
Reaching for the Heights
Chapter 9
Is God Truly Unknowable? ............................. 166
Chapter 10
Love of God .......................................... 182
Chapter 11
Selfhood and Godhood in Jewish Thought
and Modern Philosophy ............................... 194
Chapter 12
Unity of God as Dynamic of Redemption ................. 208
PART IV
The Analytic in Action
Chapter 13
Toward an Ethical Theory of Judaism .................... 220
Chapter 14
What is Self-theory, and Does Judaism Need One? ......... 244
Chapter 15
Judaism and the Aesthetic ............................. 275
Chapter 16
Providential History and the Anthropic Principle .......... 299
Chapter 17
The Role of Reason in Jewish Religious Belief ............. 316
PART V
History Come to Life
Chapter 18
The Religious Meaning of the State of Israel .............. 338
Chapter 19
Religious Zionism: What is It? .......................... 357
Chapter 20
Does Messianism Imply Inevitability? ................... 368
Acknowledgements ........................................ 385
Index ................................................... 386
Note From the Publisher
The Chair, the Incumbent,
and the Donors
In January 1983, Bar-llan University in Israel, under
the presidency of Professor Emanuel Rackman, announced the estab-
lishment of the Irving I. Stone Chair in Basic Jewish Thought, with
Professor Shubert Spero as its inaugural incumbent. The Chair was
chartered to undertake the academic examination of the implications of
Judaism, especially Jewish morality and history, for contemporary so-
ciety, and was designed to serve as a vehicle for teaching, research, and
publication in this area. In establishing the Chair’s Endowment Fund,
Irving Stone (1909-2000) wrote in the charter document:
...the main reason for our family’s establishment of the Chair
was to make it possible for Shubert Spero, who was then retir-
ing after 33 years as our spiritual leader in Cleveland, to bring
his important centrist views of Judaism to the attention of the
Israeli public.
Each term of his subsequent 29-year academic career at Bar Ilan,
the incumbent taught two sections of his signature year-long course
entitled Dat u’Musar, “Religion and Morality,” in which he expounded
on the special nature and role of morality in Judaism to the more than
3,000 students who took his course over the years. Under the aegis of
the Chair, Spero published innumerable articles in academic journals
as well as for the local press, lectured widely in Israel and abroad, and
for ten years delivered the annual Irving I. Stone Lecture at the College
of Jewish Studies in Cleveland, Ohio. His research during this period
resulted in the publication of two works: Holocaust and Return to Zion:
A Study in Jewish Philosophy of History (2000) and Aspects of Rabbi Joseph
Dov Solovetchick’s Philosophy of Judaism (2009).
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Preface. The Chair, the Incumbent, and the Donors
The link to the Stone funding has an additional dimension, beyond
the academic. This dimension comes through in the warm words of a
personal note written by Mr. Morry Weiss, chairman of the Stone
Foundation:
Shubert Spero and his wife Iris have been dear friends for well
over 50 years. As my wife and I celebrate our 50 years of marriage,
I recall that when I was courting Judy, it was Iris who volunteered
to be my character witness. She assured my future in-laws (Irving
and Beatrice Stone) that their daughter was choosing her mate
wisely. For Iris taking that leap of faith on my behalf, and in honor
of our golden anniversary, I am delighted to have the opportunity
to show our deep appreciation for two individuals we so greatly
admire by making possible the publication of this current volume
of the rabbi’s most insightful essays.
Introduction
The words “new” and “theology” in the title of this
volume may sound ominous to traditionalists. Let me therefore at the
very outset set forth the meaning of these terms according to their pri-
mary current use and outline the general thrust of this work. The term
“theology” has come to mean simply a rational analysis of religious be-
liefs, or a “philosophy of religion.” The reason I use the word “theology”
instead of “philosophy” is because it is considered the more appropriate
term to use when the analysis is being done by one who stands within
the religion being analyzed, in short a believer. The term “philosophy”
is best understood as describing an activity in which certain types of
questions are directed at almost any subject matter. These are inquiries
into the overriding purpose or underlying principles of any discipline
or enterprise. That is, they are questions which are the most general in
nature, seeking a picture of the whole, or alternatively the most basic,
seeking to uncover the ultimate nature of things. In pursuit of these
philosophical questions one is expected to use a method of thinking
which is at once analytic and critical, rather than speculative, giving pri-
ority to the search for meaning before looking for the truth, a method
which requires justification for any truth-claims. In this view, which
sees philosophy primarily as a method of inquiry, the goal is not, as it
has been in the past, to wed or reconcile Judaism with some “outside”
existing philosophic system but rather to develop a rational understand-
ing (theology) which is indigenous in the sense that it grows out of the
primary sources of Judaism.
It is safe to say that philosophical questions in the sense just de-
scribed are generally not dealt with in Judaism’s primary sources, i.e.,
the Tanach, or Written Torah. Except perhaps for the Book of Job and
some isolated verses elsewhere, Tanach in its three divisions is essentially
a library of “first order” statements about history, law, morality, poetry,
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