The Hebrew Bible Reborn: From Holy Scripture to the Book of Books: A History of Biblical Culture and the Battles over the Bible in Modern Judaism

576 Pages·2007·2.99 MB·English

by  Yaacov Shavit

YAACOV SHAVIT · MORDECHAI ERAN
THE HEBREW BIBLE REBORN: FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE
TO THE BOOK OF BOOKS
≥
STUDIA JUDAICA
FORSCHUNGEN ZUR WISSENSCHAFT
DES JUDENTUMS
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON
E. L. EHRLICH UND G. STEMBERGER
BAND XXXVIII
WALTER DE GRUYTER · BERLIN · NEW YORK
THE HEBREW BIBLE REBORN:
FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE
TO THE BOOK OF BOOKS
A HISTORY OF BIBLICAL CULTURE
AND THE BATTLES OVER THE BIBLE
IN MODERN JUDAISM
BY
YAACOV SHAVIT · MORDECHAI ERAN
TRANSLATED BY
CHAYA NAOR
WALTER DE GRUYTER · BERLIN · NEW YORK
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The Holy Scriptures are not immanently holy. It
is the content that sanctifies the book, transform-
ing it into the primary element and making its
content secondary. The book exists forever, but
its content is changed by life and learning. What
have men not found in the Holy Scriptures from
the time of Philo until the present day? … In the
Holy Scriptures they all sought only the truth,
each his own truth, and they all found what they
sought, found it because they were compelled to,
for if not, the truth would not be the truth and the
Holy Scriptures would not be holy.
Ahad Ha’am, “Perurim” (“Crumbs”) (1892), “The Sa-
cred and the Profane,” In: Al Parashat Derakhim (At the
Crossroads), Vol. I (Berlin, 1930), p.138.

Acknowledgements
Several institutions and individuals assisted in the writing and transla-
tion of this book.
The internal research fund of Tel Aviv University gave me two
research grants; the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig and its direc-
tor, Prof. Dan Dinur, enabled me to spend two months in Germany,
during which time I collected part of the source material, and I am
grateful to the staff of the Institute for their hospitality and assistance.
A special thanks is due to Ms. Grit Schorch of Leipzig for her help in
locating a large portion of the sources, a difficult task which entailed
much effort on her part. My brief but productive stay in Leipzig was
doubly valuable, since a very large part of the research literature on
Judaism, Bible study and research on the ancient Near East, including
a great deal of the literature linked to the the Bibel-Babel controversy,
was printed in that city, which in the past was the center of German
publishing. The Bibliothèque de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris
was extremely accomodating and I am grateful to the director Dr.
Jean Claude Kuperminc and to the librarian, Ms. Gila Cooper, for
her gracious readiness to assist me. The collection of Jewish books
(Hebraica- und Judaica-Sammlung) at the Stadt-und Universitäts Bib-
liothek in Frankfurt am Main was of great help too.
We found numerous sources in the National Library in Jerusalem,
as well as in the Sourasky Central Library, in particular in Yaacov
Fermen’s collection of books, and in the Mehlmann library, both of
them at Tel Aviv University.
A number of colleagues read the manuscript and made valuable
suggestions to improve it: Professor Yairah Amit, Dr. Ran Hacohen,
Professor David Katz, Dr. Oded Lifschitz, Professor Nadav Na’aman,
Professor Shmuel Feiner, and Professor Elchanan Reiner. I am grateful
to them for their patience and cooperation. I am also indebted to Pro-
fessor Robert Rockway for his help in identifying the participants in
the Conference of Reform Rabbis held in Detroit in 1903. Without the
dedicated assistance of Mr. Chaim Cohen, Mr. Oren Hugi, and Ms.
viii Acknowledgements
Liat Steir-Lvny, I would have been unable to overcome some of the
difficulties involved in completing this book. Special thanks go to Dr.
Gabriele von Glasenapp of Frankfurt University for her help in finding
biographical details about some of the writers, and to Professor Chris-
toph Schulte of the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum in Potsdam. As in
my previous books, this time too, the help I received from Professor
David Shavit of DeKalb, Illinois, was inestimable.
And finally, this work could not have been written without the
cooperation of my co-author, Dr. Mordechai Eran, who in mid-2000
surprised me by generously offering to assist in the research. I told
him about the subject and my plans, which evoked his enthusiasm,
and within a short time he became a full partner in writing the study.
The English version of this book could not have been published were
it not for the interest shown in it by Mr. Yair Tzaban, and above all,
the generous financial support of the Posen Foundation, which made
it possible to expand the Hebrew version and have it translated into
English, and we are profoundly grateful to it.
“(cid:681)(cid:675)(cid:681)(cid:679)(cid:681)(cid:673)(cid:3)(cid:687)(cid:681)(cid:686)(cid:681)(cid:681)(cid:695)(cid:698)(cid:686)(cid:3)(cid:687)(cid:681)(cid:672)(cid:3)(cid:676)(cid:696)(cid:677)(cid:698)(cid:3)(cid:681)(cid:696)(cid:673)(cid:675)(cid:3)(cid:691)(cid:672)(cid:3)(cid:681)(cid:675)(cid:681)(cid:679)(cid:681)(cid:3)(cid:698)(cid:695)(cid:684)(cid:677)(cid:675)(cid:3)(cid:677)(cid:688)(cid:681)(cid:672)(cid:3)(cid:697)(cid:672)(cid:3)(cid:676)(cid:686)(cid:3)(cid:29)(cid:682)(cid:684)(cid:3)(cid:696)(cid:686)(cid:677)(cid:684)”
((cid:678)(cid:3)(cid:15)(cid:698)(cid:681)(cid:688)(cid:690)(cid:698)(cid:3)(cid:681)(cid:684)(cid:673)(cid:673))
[“In order to indicate that just as fire does not burn when isolated, so
will the words of the Torah not be preserved when studied by oneself,
alone”, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ta’anit, Henry Malter edn.,
Philadelphia, 1928, p.43.]
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.................................. vii
Introduction ....................................... 1
Part One
The Biblical Revolution in Modern Jewish History and
the Struggle over the Bible in the Nineteenth Century
1. “Back to the Bible”: The Biblical Revolution in the
Nineteenth Century ........................... 17
2. Wellhausen and his School: The Jewish Response to
Higher Criticism.............................. 85
3. “Truth Shall Spring out of the Earth”: The Initial Jewish
Reaction to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East . 156
Part Two
The War of The Tablets
4. The Babel-Bibel Controversy as a Typological Event .. 195
5. Friedrich Delitzsch and a Second ‘Tower of Babel’.... 206
6. Delitzsch’s Three Lectures on Babel and Bibel ....... 229
7. The Controversy in the German Arena: Theology vs.
Science ..................................... 256
8. At War – Within and Without ................... 276
9. Contra Delitzsch: Revelation, Originality and Ethics.. 305
10. From Noah to the Sabbath ...................... 331
Part Three
In Search of Jewish and Hebrew Bible Study
11. After Delitzsch: The Bible and Jewish Bible Study in
Germany between the Two World Wars............ 355
12. Bible Criticism Arrives in Eretz Israel: Struggle and Re-
ception ..................................... 371
x Table of Contents
13. “Extra-academic” Bible Study and Bible Criticism.... 399
14. Orthodox Bible Criticism in Eretz Israel............ 423
15. The Bible as History and Biblical Archaeology: “Can
Two Walk Together?” (Amos 3:3) ................ 435
Part Four
The Well of the Bible: The Biblical Culture in the Jewish
Society in Eretz Israel (1882–2005)
16. The National Bible vs. The Cultural Bible .......... 475
17. The Golden Age of Biblical Culture ............... 490
18. From Golden Age to Decline..................... 516
Afterword......................................... 521
Appendix ......................................... 531
Selected Bibliography ................................ 541
Index............................................. 551