1. Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 138.
2. In view of this approach, questions of what the prophets actually said and what was added by later editors or redactors—issues discussed at length by other authors—do not appear in this volume.
3. A character named Job is mentioned at Gen. 46:13, but is it unclear whether he is the same person as the title character of the book of Job.
1. According to a parenthetical remark at 1 Sam. 9:9, navi came to replace roeh (seer). In other words, if a person wanted to know God’s will, she or he would approach a seer and then, according to changed usage, a prophet.
2. Kugel, The Great Shift, 108.
3. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:x.
4. The Hebrew word translated as “young woman” is almah, which means that the woman is of marriageable age. However, the Greek translation rendered almah as parthenos, which means “a virgin.” In the Christian reading, then, Isaiah is predicting that a virgin will give birth to a son.
5. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 2.32, 2.36. For an excellent survey of medieval attempts to explain biblical prophecy, see Kriesel, Prophecy: The History of an Idea in Medieval Jewish Philosophy.
6. Schwartz, Path of the Prophets, xviii–xix.
7. For a prophet who took money, see 1 Sam. 9:7. But see also Mic. 3:11, which recounts God’s anger at prophets who take money.
8. See 1 Sam. 9:20; 2 Kings 2:3, 2:5, 2:7, 4:1, 4:38, 5:22, and 6:1.
9. See also 2 Kings 3:15–16, where Elisha asks for a musician when asked to prophesize.
10. See Harissis, “A Bittersweet Story.”
11. Friedman, The Hidden Face of God, 22, 63–65.
12. See Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 1, Basic Principles, 9.1, where, speaking of prophets, Maimonides says “whether Jewish or gentile.”
13. Halevi, Kuzari, 1.95, 1.99, 1.115, 2.10–14, 3.1, 4.10.
14. The reason for thinking that First Isaiah came from a priestly family is that his call (6:1–8) seems to have taken place in a part of the Temple to which only priests were admitted. For a moving account of this experience, see Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 158–59.
15. Walzer, In God’s Shadow, 75–76.
16. According to Walzer, Elijah was the only prophet who got to name a successor.
17. See Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 128: “Hardly ever does he [the prophet] foretell a plainly certain future. YHVH does not deliver into his hand a completed book of fate with all future events written in it, calling upon him to open it in the presence of the hearers.”
18. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:12.
19. Kugel, The Great Shift, 240 and following.
20. Kaufmann, The Religion of Ancient Israel, 353.
21. Jer. 23:14 says that God is so incensed with the false prophets of Jerusalem that he considers them worse than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
22. By contrast, Ps. 46 and 48 suggest that Jerusalem will never be destroyed.
23. There is a vigorous scholarly debate on whether this assessment is true. For a well-argued defense of the traditional position and review of the scholarly literature that questions it, see Sommer, “Did Prophecy Cease? Evaluating a Reevaluation.” For a recent discussion of the conflicting views of ancient sources on the end of prophecy, see Kugel, The Great Shift, 230–55.
24. See Deut. 31:16–21 and 2 Kings 17:7–8, which say essentially the same thing.
25. Heschel, Prophetic Inspiration after the Prophets.
26. See Guide of the Perplexed 2, Introduction, 3.51, as well as Mishneh Torah 1, Basic Principles, 9.1.
27. The renowned biblical scholar Julius Wellhausen argued that contrary to what we might think, the direction of influence did not go from the Torah to the prophets but the other way around. In other words, much of the prophetic works were written down before the Torah was completed. If this is true, it is unclear how much of the Torah the prophets knew. See Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel. For a modern discussion, see Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 150–51.
28. Friedman, The Hidden Face of God.
29. A likely explanation is offered by Kugel, The Great Shift, 235, who suggests that prophecy did not so much cease as transform itself.
30. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 211.
31. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 57.
32. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 3.
33. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 213.
34. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 213.
1. To this day, scholars debate how much of what is collected in the book of Amos consists of words that Amos actually spoke some 2,500 years ago and how much consists of later additions. Throughout the ancient world, students or disciples commonly wrote in the name of their teacher rather than their own name in order to preserve the spirit of their teacher’s message.
2. Compare with Deut. 16:20: “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
3. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 121.
4. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 525–31.
5. See, for example, Gen. 18:19: “For I have singled him [Abraham] out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right.” Also see Deut. 8:6, Ps. 119:3, Ps. 128:1, Mic. 4:2, Zech. 19:9.
6. On this issue, see Lev. 9–11, where Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu are killed for not following the proper rules.
7. A variety of considerations, in particular the reference to the royal line of David at 9:11, suggest that this passage is a later addition. For further discussion, see Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 159–60.
8. Kaufmann, The Religion of Ancient Israel, 402.
9. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:14.
10. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:15.
11. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 525–31. It should be noted, however, that according to Maimonides, the commandments regarding sacrifices represented God’s concession to human fallibility. Because the people were accustomed to seeing animals be sacrificed, God had no choice but to include such commandments in Mosaic legislation.
12. Berachot 45a, Eruvin 14b. Note, as Sommer, Revelation and Authority, 126, does, that in this context “people” does not mean any people but those who observe the law.
13. Bava Batra 60b, Bava Kamma 70b, Avodah Zarah 36a, Horayot 3b. Also see Beitzah 30a, where the Rabbis decide to “let Israel be.”
14. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1099a31–1099b8.
15. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, 10.
16. For Hegel’s mixed reaction to the Prussia of his day, see Taylor, Hegel, 425–26, 452–61.
17. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, 213–14.
18. Plato, Gorgias 481b–c.
19. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, 123.
20. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, A313/B370.
21. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:165. Compare with Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, 6:19–20.
22. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:15.
23. Compare Deut. 4:5–8, where Moses says that Israel will be an example to all the other nations. Also see Isa. 42:6, where Israel is to serve as a “light unto the nations.” Although some have questioned whether the latter passage refers to a single individual or the nation as a whole, a reasonable understanding is that it refers to the nation.
24. Kaufmann, The Religion of Ancient Israel, 420.
25. See Walzer, In God’s Shadow, 88: “No prophet . . . showed any interest in politics of reform or any readiness for the compromises this might require.”
1. For an excellent account of the development of the concept of idolatry, see Halbertal and Margalit, Idolatry.
2. See Deut. 31:16–17; the whoring metaphor occurs near the end of the Torah.
3. Kaufmann, The Religion of Ancient Israel, 142–43.
4. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 387, 406.
5. According to 1 Kings 21:1–4 and 2 Kings 9: 21–35, the Jezreel Valley was the sight of a bloody massacre where King Jehu (842–15 BCE) defeated the followers of Ahab and Jezebel. Yet Hosea thinks that God is angry at Jehu. Thus Hosea 1:3–4: “Name him Jezreel; for I will soon punish the House of Jehu [presumably Israel] for the bloody deeds at Jezreel and put an end to the monarchy of the House of Israel. In that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6. The cult of Baal, a deity thought to be responsible for fertility, may have involved prostitutes and ritual intercourse.
7. Admah and Zeboiim are cities destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah.
8. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:26. For an extended critique of Heschel based on the idea that he has succumbed to literal interpretation of biblical language, see Berkovits, “Dr. A. J. Heschel’s Theology of Pathos.”
9. Heschel, The Prophets, 2:4.
10. For a brief history of “pathos” and “pathetic,” see Heschel, The Prophets, 2:269–72.
11. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 126–27.
12. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 81.
13. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 82. Emphasis in original.
14. For more on the topic of how to read the Bible, see Seeskin, Thinking about the Torah, 1–13.
15. An accessible English translation of Maimonides, “Helek Sanhedrin, Chapter Ten,” can be found in Maimonides, A Maimonides Reader, 401–23.
16. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 123–25.
17. Exod. 34:7 says that God will visit the sins of the parents on the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generations. But see Ezek. 18:1–3 for a different view.
18. Heschel, The Prophets, 2:5.
19. A possible counterexample can be found at Isa. 54:7–8, which says that God’s anger burned for a moment. But it also says that God will take Israel back in kindness and love, so it is not necessarily a counterexample to the argument.
1. Some scholars argue that even chapters 1–39 (First Isaiah) contain the writings of multiple authors.
2. See McNeill, “The Plague That Saved Jerusalem, 701 B.C.”
3. Although these figures are probably exaggerated, the war, especially as it was a war of two against one, would have brought significant death and destruction. See also 2 Kings 16:5–6.
4. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 167.
5. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, 330–37.
6. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 167.
7. Walzer, In God’s Shadow, 103–4.
8. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:82.
9. For further discussion of this passage and its implications, see Seeskin, Thinking about the Torah, 101–12.
10. Levinas, Difficult Freedom, 199.
1. Also see Isa. 9:2–7 and Jer. 23:5.
2. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 11.1.
3. This is an adaptation and not the exact wording of Maimonides’ twelfth principle.
4. Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, 35.
5. Josephus, The Jewish War, 6.312–13. As Josephus goes on to say, the oracle was actually about the Roman emperor Vespasian.
6. Graetz, “The Stages in the Evolution of the Messianic Belief,” 151–52.
7. See, for example, Mishnah Berachot 1:5.
8. Neusner, “Messianic Themes in Formative Judaism,” 357–74. For further discussion of the philosophic implications of Rabbinic conceptions of the Messiah, see Seeskin, Jewish Messianic Thoughts in an Age of Despair, 17–19.
9. The origin of this tradition is unclear, but see Klausner, The Messianic Idea in Israel, 400–401, 520–21. For a Rabbinic precedent, see Sukkah 52a. For a modern discussion, see Liver, “The Doctrine of the Two Messiahs,” 149–85. Some speculate that this doctrine is analogous to the Second Coming of Jesus.
10. Neusner, “Messianic Themes in Formative Judaism,” 357.
11. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 11.3, 12.1. For Rabbinic sources, see Berachot 34b, Shabbat 63a, 151b, Sanhedrin 91b and 99a. Maimonides presents a more traditional view of the Messiah in his “Epistle to Yemen,” a letter written to a Jewish community in distress in which he claims there will be cosmic upheavals and the Messiah will work wonders. But as Hartman, Crisis and Leadership: Epistles of Maimonides, 172, astutely observes: “The Epistle to Yemen cannot be treated as a paradigm of Maimonides’ theory of messianism or history.”
12. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 11.3. As many people have noted, this raises a question about resurrection, which not only is a miracle but in Maimonides’ opinion a fundamental principle of Jewish belief. For a translation and insightful commentary on Maimonides’ treatise on resurrection, see Hartman, Crisis and Leadership, 209–80.
13. Maimonides, A Maimonides Reader, 414–16. Note that when Isaiah says that the promised king will judge the poor with equity (11:1), this implies that there will still be poor people during his reign.
14. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 12.5.
15. Kellner, Science in the Bet Midrash, 291; and Kellner, “Messianic Postures in Israel Today,” 504–9.
16. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 11.4.
17. This text, which was once censored, comes from the end of Maimonides, Mishneh Torah 14, Kings and Wars, 11.
18. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 261.
19. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 248, 262, 289–91.
20. Cohen, Reason and Hope, 127.
21. Cohen, Reason and Hope, 123–24.
22. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 207.
23. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 314–15.
24. Schwarzschild, The Pursuit of the IdeaI, 211. See also Patterson, “Though the Messiah May Tarry,” 16: “The Messiah is by definition the one who tarries, signifying a redemption that is always yet to be, always future, because what we do now is never enough.”
25. Schwarzschild made this criticism at an early stage in his career. See Schwarzschild, Pursuit of the Ideal, 19.
26. Rosenzweig, Briefe und Tagebucher, 2:1150.
27. Moltmann, The Experiment Hope, 89. In this passage, Moltmann reflects on the thought of Dostoevsky.
1. See Deut. 30:14. When God’s word is in people’s hearts, then presumably there will be no need for the Ark of the Covenant (Jer. 3:16).
2. Other reluctant leaders include Saul (1 Sam. 9) and Gideon (Judg. 6).
3. Plato, The Republic 520d.
4. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:121.
5. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 204.
6. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 203. Note Buber’s next sentence: “The contact between godhead and manhood in his [Jeremiah’s] view is not bound up with the rite but with the word.”
7. See, for example, Blenkinsopp, A History of Prophecy in Israel, 146–47.
8. Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, 6:36–37. Note that both Jeremiah (17:9) and Kant seem to regard the evil dictates of the heart as inscrutable.
9. Equally controversial is the passage’s assertion of the doctrine of vicarious atonement: the belief that A’s suffering can atone for B’s sins.
10. Russell, “A Free Man’s Worship,” 113.
11. Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, 250–51.
12. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 136.
13. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 142.
14. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 16–17.
15. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 225.
16. The text references the traditional rendering of this passage rather than the current NJPS translation, which reads: “For I desire goodness, not sacrifice; / Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.”
1. See Shabbat 13b.
2. For further discussion, see Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 185–86. Note, as Brettler does, that the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael says explicitly that after the Land of Israel had been chosen, all other lands were eliminated as sites for divine revelation.
3. For criticism of this view, see Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State, 86–87.
4. Halevi, Kuzari, 2.9–24.
5. Buber, The Prophetic Faith, 209–10. Buber also objects that centralized worship compromises much of the continuity and naturalness of the religious life of the people. See also Sommer, Revelation and Authority, 72: “On a practical level, by commanding the centralization of the sacrificial cult in a single Temple, D [Deuteronomy] removes the Temple from the religious lives of most Israelites, and therefore it must provide other rituals to take the place of the local temple or altar.”
6. See, for example, Jer. 18:7–8.
7. Ezek. 22:2, 24:6. In addition to being gruesome, this terminology may well indicate that Jerusalem is impure.
8. See Ezek. 5:11, 7:4, and 9:5–6.
9. As Blenkinsopp, A History of Prophecy in Israel, 175, notes, the idea that Israel is and always will be undeserving of God’s grace has been seen as a forerunner to the Protestant doctrine of sola gratia, that redemption comes solely from the grace of God rather than from anything humans have done to merit it.
10. For an attempt to psychoanalyze Ezekiel on the basis of these and similar passages, see Halperin, Seeking Ezekiel.
11. Also see 8:1–4 and 40:1–3.
12. For more on this topic, see Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition.
13. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 6–7.
14. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 417–30. This picture presupposes a geocentric view of the universe, according to which the stars and planets are embedded in concentric spheres whose point of rotation is the center of the earth.
15. For a defense of the flawed science view, see Davies, Method and Metaphysics in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, 106–60.
16. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 177.
17. The morality of such examples is questioned by Sommer in Revelation and Authority, 27.
18. See, however, Deut. 24:16, which says that parents should not be put to death for the sins of their children nor children for the sins of their parents.
19. A similar sentiment is expressed at Ezek. 14:12 and following.
20. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 436–37.
21. The same sentiment was expressed by Pope Benedict XVI, as quoted in Sommer, Revelation and Authority, 97: “It is necessary to keep in mind that any human utterance of a certain weight contains more than the author may have been immediately aware of at the time.”
22. Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason , 6:44. As for how Kant, a Christian, perceived the doctrine of original sin, he viewed Adam and Eve’s action as symbolic of the human condition. Rather than passing on their guilt to others, Adam and Eve offered the paradigm of what sin is like: rebellion against the decrees of God. When we sin, it is as if we have reenacted their transgression.
23. On this issue, see Cohen’s treatment of the evil impulse (yetzer ha-ra) in Cohen, Religion of Reason, 181–82.
24. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 186.
25. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 195.
26. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance, 5.1–2.
27. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 193.
28. Ethics of the Fathers 2.14.
29. Ethics of the Fathers 4.22.
30. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 202–3.
31. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 201.
32. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 209.
33. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 209.
34. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 110–17. For an insightful comparison between Cohen and Soloveitchik, see Kaplan, “Hermann Cohen and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik on Repentance,” 213–58.
35. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 113.
36. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 115.
37. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 117.
38. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 117.
1. The legend that Abraham smashed his father’s idols comes from a midrash. See Genesis Rabbah 38:13.
2. Note that the Mi Chamocha prayer is taken from this passage. Emphasis mine.
3. Also see 43:10–13 and 45: 6–7. A similar claim is made at Deut. 4:35, which may have been contemporaneous with Second Isaiah.
4. Cohen, Religion of Reason, 35.
5. Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 202–3.
6. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 2.12, see also 3.51.
7. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 1.57.
8. Kugel, The God of Old, 36 and following.
9. According to Hosea 12, Jacob confronted God at Peniel.
10. Kugel, The God of Old, 61.
11. Seeskin, Thinking about the Torah, 102–3.
12. Exodus Rabbah 34:1; Numbers Rabbah 11:5.
13. Megillah 29a; Sotah 5a; Sanhedrin 46a.
14. The precise nature of the Shekhinah has long been a subject of debate. Joshua Abelson, The Immanence of God in Rabbinic Literature, argues that it is an incarnation of God. For those who think the Bible is committed to the idea of a hypostasis, or separate entity, see Friedman, The Hidden Face of God, 13; and Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel, 59. By contrast, Ephraim Urbach, The Sages, 634, argues that the Shekhinah is neither an incarnation nor a separate entity.
15. Heschel, Between God and Man, 102.
16. Josephus, The Jewish War 6.288 and following.
17. Gersonides, Wars of the Lord, 2:33–37; 3:56–78.
18. See, for example, King Lear 1.1, 109–12; 1.2, 103–37. But see as well Julius Caesar 1.2.17.
19. For Maimonides’ Letter on Astrology, see Lerner, Maimonides’ Empire of Light, 178–87. Also see Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 3.37.
20. See Sanhedrin 39b, Genesis Rabbah 8:4, and Rashi’s commentary on Gen. 21:17.
21. For the night prayer, see Birnbaum, Daily Prayer Book, 784.
22. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, 291–92. See also Cohen, Religion of Reason, 48, who says that divine uniqueness excludes any mediation between God and natural existence.
23. Levinas, Difficult Freedom, 14. For Maimonides’ attempt to de-charm the medieval world, see Kellner, Maimonides’ Confrontation with Mysticism.
24. Here, the present author follows in the footsteps of Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 290–91.
25. By contrast, Maimonides’ understanding of idolatry was severe. According to him, anyone who believes that God has multiple attributes, say wisdom and goodness, or is material or experiences emotion, is an idolater. By personal estimation, this would include more than 90 percent of the Jews who have ever lived, including many prominent rabbis and theologians.
26. Heschel, God in Search of Man, 142.
1. It is worth mentioning that the Satan who appears in this story is not yet the daemonic figure known to Christianity or Milton’s Paradise Lost. His skepticism regarding Job is perfectly justified. How can we assess Job’s faithfulness unless he is tested?
2. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 2.23, thought that the true meaning of the book of Job could be found in Elihu’s speech and God’s speech from the whirlwind, both of which stress the limits of human understanding.
3. For further discussion, see Larrimore, The Book of Job: A Biography, 218.
4. The Greek translation, or Septuagint, is shorter than the Hebrew original, and even when the missing lines are accounted for, the translation is not always accurate. Compare the two at 3:20, 9:13, 9:22, 12:6, 14:16, 16:13–14, 19:6, and 23:7. For further discussion of this problem, see Geman, “The Theological Approach of the Greek Translator of Job 1–15,” 231–40; Gard, “The Concept of Job’s Character According to the Greek Translation of the Hebrew Text,” 182–86; Orlinsky, “Studies in the Septuagint of the Book of Job.”
5. Pope, The Anchor Bible: Job, xv.
6. The issue concerns how to translate the Hebrew lo ayahel. The basis of the “Yet will I trust in Him” reading is a marginal note in the manuscript. But the context is more consistent with rebellion than perseverance.
7. For a brief discussion of the alternatives, see Brettler, How to Read the Jewish Bible, 253–54.
8. Sotah 31a, Bava Batra 16a.
9. Sotah 31a. Note, however, that this interpretation is based on the reading of 13:15 in which Job is patient and persistent.
10. Bava Batra 16a.
11. See Larrimore, The Book of Job: A Biography, 15: “There are registers of religious expression—such as lament and protest—that saccharine modern understandings of religion can no longer imagine.”
12. Berachot 32a. For further discussion of this theme, see Blank, “Men against God: The Promethean Element in Biblical Prayer,” 1–13.
13. See also Ps. 13:2, 44:24–27.
14. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil, xvii. Although I agree with Levenson on this point, I am not convinced that Job ends his quest with unqualified submission to God (xviii).
15. Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 27.
16. A goel is an advocate, avenger, or redeemer (usually a kinsman) who seeks to redress a wrong or correct a loss. The fact that Job says his goel will stand on earth does not show that he is thinking of someone other than God. Numerous biblical passages refer to God as a goel, for example, Exod. 6:6, 15:13; Isa. 41:14, 43:14, 44:6, 47:4. The idea here is that God will correct the wrong to which Job is now subject.
17. Gordis, The Book of God and Man, 119.
18. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 3.22–23.
19. Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 32–33.
20. Kant, “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy,” 33.
1. John Barton, A History of the Bible, 111.