Judaism's encounter with other cultures: rejection or integration?

328 Pages·2004·18.772 MB·English

by  Schacter, Jacob J

Judaism's
Encounter with
Other Cultures

Judaism's
Encounter with
Other Cultures
REJECTION OR INTEGRATION?
edited by
J.
}ACOB SCHACTER
A JASON ARONSON BOOK
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Oxford
A JASON ARONSON BOOK
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
PO Box 317
Oxford
OX29RU, UK
Copyright © 1997 by Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
First Rowman & Littlefield edition 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: rejection or integration? I
edited by Jacob J. Schacter.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-7657-5957-3
I. Judaism and science-History of doctrines. 2. Jews
Civilization. I. Schacter, Jacob J.
BM538.S3J83 1997
296.3 '875 - dc20 96-28982
Printed in the United States of America
8"'
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
CoNTENTS
Introduction
jacob j Schacttr ix
1 RABBINIC JUDAISM AND GENERAL CULTURE:
NORMATIVE DISCUSSION AND ATTITUDES
Gerald] Blidstein
Introduction: Setting the Parameters 4
The Study ofNontoraitic Materials 9
The Wisdom of the Nations-Banned Study? 9
Outside Books-Secular Works? 21
Higayyon-The Study of Logic? 23
Hebrew Scripture and Greek Text 24
Law of the Gentiles: Continuum or Contrast? 27
OfFacts and Values 39
Literary Borrowing 40
Physical Facts 42
Imitation of Material Culture 47
Concluding Comment 53
2 JUDAISM AND GENERAL CULTURE IN MEDIEVAL
AND EARLY MODERN TIMES
David Berger 57
Prefatory Note 60
v
vi Contents
The Dynamics of a Dilemma 61
The Islamic Middle East and the Geonim 61
Muslim Spain and Maimonides 72
The Great Struggle: Provence and Northern Spain from
the Late Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Century 85
The Sephardim of the Late Middle Ages 108
Ashkenaz 117
Italian Symbiosis 125
The Scientific Revolution and the Transition to
Modern Times 133
Acknowledgments 141
3 RABBINIC OPENNESS TO GENERAL CULTURE
IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD IN
WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE
Shnayer Z. Leiman 143
Introduction 146
Setting 151
From Premodernity to Modernity 152
R. David Friesenhausen: Precursor of Torah and Derekh Erq; 158
Torah Education in Western and Central Europe
at the Start of the Nineteenth Century 164
R.lsaac Bernays 166
R. Jacob Ettlinger 17 5
R. Samson Raphael Hirsch 180
Torah tt.nd Derelth Ere~: Practice 197
R. Azriel Hildesheimer 20 1
Afterword 211
Contents vii
4 TORAH AND GENERAL CULTURE: CONFLUENCE
AND CONFLICT
Aharon Lichtenstein 21 7
Introduction 220
The End ofLearning: The Problem in Perspective 221
The Beauty ofJaphet: Culture as Supplement 224
Perfumers and Cooks: Culture as Complement 236
For All Is in It: Self-Suffident Torah 250
Time's Winged Chariot: The Dilemma of Apportionment 256
After Your Own Eyes: The Corruption of Morals 273
Thorns and Thisdes: The Corrosion ofFaith 277
But with a Whimper: The Chilling of Fervor 287
Looking Before and After: Epilogue 290
Glossary 293
Contributors 297
Index 299

INTRODUCTION
Jacob J. Schacter
On February 22, 1934, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Bloch, head of a Jewish educational
institution of higher learning in Telshe, Lithuania, wrote a letter in which he
presented his opinion about the place of secular studies in Jewish tradition. His
opening programmatic statement is significant and serves as an appropriate point of
aeparture for this volume:
Regarding your request to clarify the ruling concerning the study of"the wisdom of the
nations" . . . it is extremely difficult to render a clear precise decision (lti-ha/ttkhah). For
matters like these are based very largely on ideologies and opinions that are associated
with the aggadic [or nonlegal] portions [of the Torah] .... Even though there are
several positive and negative commandments associated with them, it is impossible to
establish firm rulings with regard to them as [one can do] in the halakhic portions, that
is, to issue a ruling applicable to all. They depend very much upon the temperament of
the individual person and upon his unique mode [of life], and also depend upon the
conditions of time, place, circumstance, and environment.'
Indeed, the attitude ofJ ews throughout history to Gentile learning and culture is
not monolithic and unidimensional and cannot be reduced to any simplistic, facile
generalization. On the contrary, it is complex, changing, and nuanced, very much
I. Rabbi Bloch's letter was first published by L. Levi, "An Unpublished Responsum on
Secular Studies," Proceedings of the Association of Orthodox jewish Scientists I (I 966): I 07 -I2
and was reprinted by Levi in his "Shetei Teshuvot 'a! Limud I:Iokhmot I:Ii~oniyot,"
Ha-Ma'ayan I6:3 (1976): 11-16, and his Sha'arei Talmud Torah Oerusalem, 1981 ), 296-
301. It was most recently reprinted in Ha-Pardes 64:8 (May 1990): 9-12.
For a discussion of the context in which this letter was written, see my "Torah u-Madda
Revisited: The Editor's Introduction," The Torah u-Maddajourna/1 (1989): 1-2, and nn.
1-3.
ix