The Horizontal Society: Understanding the Covenant and Alphabetic Judaism

690 Pages·2010·3.71 MB·English

by  Jose Faur

THE HORIZONTAL SOCIETY
EMUNOT: JEWISH PHILOSOPHY AND KABBALAH
Editorial board
Ada Rapoport Albert (University College, London)
Gad Freudenthal (C.N.R.S, Paris)
Gideon Freudenthal (Tel Aviv University)
Moshe Idel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Raphael Jospe (Bar Ilan University)
Ephraim Kanarfogel (Yeshiva University)
Menachem Kellner (Haifa University)
Daniel Lasker (Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva)
Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan), Series Editor
The Horizontal Society
Understanding the Covenant
and
Alphabetic Judaism
Volumes I & II
José Faur
Boston
2010
Copyright © 2010 Academic Studies Press
All rights reserved

ISBN 978-1-936235-04-9 (paperback)
Book design by Yuri Alexandrov
On the jacket: Elaine Langerman. Liver Series #6: «Through His Creations»

Published by Academic Studies Press in 2010
28 Montfern Avenue
Brighton, MA 02135, USA
[email protected]
www.academicstudiespress.com
In Memoriam
With the Publication of this Important Work
We Honor the Memories of our Dear Father
Sam E. (Sonny) Haddad
And Grandparents
Sophie and Eli Haddad
Victoria and Aslan Safdeye
.(cid:676).(cid:673) .(cid:694).(cid:688).(cid:698)
May their steadfast dedication to the principles
and values of our Holy Tora
Continue to inspire Generations to Come…
Eli and Lillian Haddad

Preface
This work endeavors to show that whereas all social and political organizations
are structured on the basis of hierarchic considerations, the Jewish people
alone were organized along horizontal lines. This was possible because of
two overwhelming principles. First, the Hebrew Scripture alone proposes that
every human being is created in the image of God. Jewish belief in a single
Creator, necessitates the absolute equality of every human being. Second,
the covenant at Sinai establishes the Law as the supreme authority of Israel.
Accordingly, whereas in other societies, might is the source of authority, in
Judaism all forms of authority, whether social or political, are limited by the
Law. Both these principles were summarized by the last Prophet of Israel:
“Have we not all one father? Had not one God created us? Why do we deal
treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our
fathers?” (Mal 2:10).
José Faur
14 of Nisan 5767
2 April 2007
Netanya, Israel
vii
Acknowledgements
The Horizontal Society was begun in 1997 when I joined the Law Faculty of
Netanya Academic College, in Netanya, Israel. Teaching fundamental Jewish
legal concepts and institutions to Israeli law-students was a most challenging
experience. My discussions with students helped me test traditional Jewish
principles and values in terms of current political and legal thought. Many
of the insights I gained from these discussions are embedded in the pages of
this book. Among these students I would like to mention Dr. Yair Shiber and
Ms Yasmin Mizrahi. Thanks are also due to the librarians at Netanya Law
School for their assistance, particularly to Ms Varda Presman, who spared no
efforts to locate and obtain for me the material necessary for my research.
I owe a special note of gratitude to my ‘old’ students in the States — many
of whom are themselves rabbis, teachers, and lawyers — who contributed
with brilliant insights, and helped me further broaden and develop the
principal ideas of this book. In this regard I would like to mention R. Nis sim
Elnecave, my son R. Abraham Faur, Aaron Haleva, R. Daniel Kahana, Moshe
S. Maimon, my son-in-law Morris Varon, R. Dr. Allen Yuter, and Maurice
Zalta — who read various part of the mss and gave me detailed comments and
suggestions. Special recognition is due to R. Dr. Joseph Hirsch for providing
me with substantial bibliographical material on medieval Ashkenazic liturgy
and history. I am also indebted to Mr. Lipman Bodoff for sharing with me
his views on Ashkenazic martyrdom and Kabbalah. They are particularly
valuable, not only because they are the result of vast research and scholarship,
but also because Mr. Bodoff had examined the material with the sharp eye
of a consummate lawyer, which he is. Grateful acknowledgment is made
to my esteemed friend Dr. Philip Miller, Director, Klau Library, Hebrew
Union College, New York. Among my friends and colleagues that received
the manuscript, I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Étan Levine,
Professor Norman Simms, and Dr. Ranjeet Chatterjee for their valuable
comments and suggestions. I owe a special note of appreciation to Aaron
Calvo for proof-reading the entire manuscript, diligently and thoroughly.
Above all, I want to acknowledge my wife Esther for the bliss of her
fellowship, without which, studying Tora would not have been possible.
viii
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Hebrew Transliteration Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Volume I
Section I. THE GOD OF ISRAEL
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. The Book of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Monolingualism and the Analphabetic Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3. God as a Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4. Of Scribes and Analphabetic Poets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Section II. THE BOOKS OF ISRAEL
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5. The Berit (‘Covenant’) Sinai-Moab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6. Scripture and the Mental Law of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7. The Publication of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8. Epistles and Memoranda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
9. Interpreting the Books of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10. Law and the Judiciary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
11. The Boundaries of Derasha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Section III. THE GOVERNANCE OF ISRAEL
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12. Of H(cid:789)erut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13. Hierarchic Humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
14. Horizontal Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
15. The Household of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
16. Humanity before Statehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
ix
Contents
17. God’s Territory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
18. The Three Crowns of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
19. Hebrew Theocracy: Sovereignty under the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
20. The Crown of a Good Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
21. Galut: Right without Might . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
22. Jewish Dominion over the Land of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
23. Pagan Political Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
24. A Perfect Tora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
25. The Five Doctrines Taught by Patriarch Abraham . . . . . . . . . . . 155
26. The Two-Realm Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
27. Silencing Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
28. The Road to Serfdom: Freedom without Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
29. Paul’s Theo-politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
30. Escape from Guilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
31. Imperial Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
32. The Political Dimension of Anti-Semitism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
33. Two Concepts of Human Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
34. Pax Romana and Pax Hebraica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
35. The Sabbath is the Lord’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
36. Separating Church from State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Section IV. THE MEMORY OF ISRAEL
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
37. National Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
38. The Matrix of Jewish Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
39. Walking Under the Fox’s Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
40. The Emergence of the Sword/Cross Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
41. A Crisis of Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
42. Unmasking Spurious Verus Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
43. The Publication of the Mishna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
44. Minting Tradition into Oral Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
45. National and Vernacular Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
46. Melis(cid:799)a and the Realm of the Verisimilar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
47. Expanding National Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
48. Kalla and the Formation of the Babylonian Talmud . . . . . . . . . . 292
Concluding Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Section V. THE FOLLY OF ISRAEL
Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
49. Qabbala and the Conveyence of Talmudic Tradition . . . . . . . . . 308
50. “Little Foxes” — Rabbis without Qabbala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
51. The Day of the Willow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
x