American Academy of Religion

Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values by William B. SilvermanReview by: D. Peter BurrowsJournal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 2, Book Review Supplement (Jun.,1975), p. 438Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1461293 .

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JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION

eucharist, then that is remarkable, and if he did, how did he use it? Professor Raitt, like almost everyone else who writes on Calvinist eucharistic theology, avoids any reference to the Genevan liturgy especially its early form devised by Calvin at Strasbourg, and also there is no reference to Beza's views on the wording of the rite in his day and his shortened version of Calvin's rite. Calvin's views are made clearer by the liturgy he wrote; did Beza alter it and if so in what sense?

University of Manchester BASIL HALL

JUDAICA

Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values. By WILLIAM B. SILVERMAN. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1971 (revised edition). 221 pages. L.C. No. 58-7436.

Dr. Silverman's Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values will be recognized by students of rabbinic literature as a recent addition to the great library of rabbinic, midrashic thesauri. The work is in the tradition of the Yalkutim, Jellinek's Beth Ha-midrashim, and Montefiore and Loewe's A Rabbinic Anthology and is laced with some rich Hasidic tales collected first by Martin Buber. In fact this second, revised edition of Silverman's work could be a modest, well-condensed primer for Montefiore and Loewe's important book. Yet it falls far short of pedagogic importance as a useful tool for rabbinic studies or of distinction as a midrashic collection. It is an entertaining, at best inspirational book, deriving its value more from the old and precious pearls strung anew than from any artful or ingenious weaving of fine goods.

The original title of the book's first edition was Rabbinic Stories for Christian Ministers and Teachers. The goal is both self-explanatory and commendable. That Silverman's project founders is due more to this original goal and the author's unwillingness to deal with the knotty problem of translating the rabbinic mind-set for the Christian reader than to any lack of sensitivity to rabbinic wisdom and Jewish values.

Dr. Silverman, in an obvious search for a key to brotherhood, has organized his material in quasi-systematic categories, as though this method might commend this gentle, startling, pre-rational rabbinic literature to the stern canons of dogmatic theology. He forgets, or has not heard of what havoc allegorization and systematic theology have wreacked upon the rabbinic parables of Jesus or even upon the responsa of Paul. The author's commentary, which is often indistinguishable from his sources and which he uses to link midrash to tale, is a hesitant, sometimes defensive (Jews rightly sense the risk of offering sweets to the ever-loving Christian lion) search for the common denominator. The effect of this simplifying commentary is to reduce the great sea of haggadah to a shallow puddle of pious proverbs and platitudes. If the Christian reader will not be seduced from his longstanding penchant for judging these rabbinic stories as charming antiquities, how much less will the world comprehend Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values. And no serious reader of any persuasion will be aided by the notable and annoying absence of source identification, bibliography, or an insightful personal translation beyond the Soncino's.

If Dr. Silverman would risk stepping out beyond brotherhood towards a redefinition of Christianity for Jews and Judaism for Christians, let him recount the midrashim with the passion of a Slonimsky, the mind-set of a Kadushin, and the strictly non-theological categories of a Solomon Schechter.

Hebreiw Union College - Jew'ish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati D. PETER BURROWS

eucharist, then that is remarkable, and if he did, how did he use it? Professor Raitt, like almost everyone else who writes on Calvinist eucharistic theology, avoids any reference to the Genevan liturgy especially its early form devised by Calvin at Strasbourg, and also there is no reference to Beza's views on the wording of the rite in his day and his shortened version of Calvin's rite. Calvin's views are made clearer by the liturgy he wrote; did Beza alter it and if so in what sense?

University of Manchester BASIL HALL

JUDAICA

Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values. By WILLIAM B. SILVERMAN. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1971 (revised edition). 221 pages. L.C. No. 58-7436.

Dr. Silverman's Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values will be recognized by students of rabbinic literature as a recent addition to the great library of rabbinic, midrashic thesauri. The work is in the tradition of the Yalkutim, Jellinek's Beth Ha-midrashim, and Montefiore and Loewe's A Rabbinic Anthology and is laced with some rich Hasidic tales collected first by Martin Buber. In fact this second, revised edition of Silverman's work could be a modest, well-condensed primer for Montefiore and Loewe's important book. Yet it falls far short of pedagogic importance as a useful tool for rabbinic studies or of distinction as a midrashic collection. It is an entertaining, at best inspirational book, deriving its value more from the old and precious pearls strung anew than from any artful or ingenious weaving of fine goods.

The original title of the book's first edition was Rabbinic Stories for Christian Ministers and Teachers. The goal is both self-explanatory and commendable. That Silverman's project founders is due more to this original goal and the author's unwillingness to deal with the knotty problem of translating the rabbinic mind-set for the Christian reader than to any lack of sensitivity to rabbinic wisdom and Jewish values.

Dr. Silverman, in an obvious search for a key to brotherhood, has organized his material in quasi-systematic categories, as though this method might commend this gentle, startling, pre-rational rabbinic literature to the stern canons of dogmatic theology. He forgets, or has not heard of what havoc allegorization and systematic theology have wreacked upon the rabbinic parables of Jesus or even upon the responsa of Paul. The author's commentary, which is often indistinguishable from his sources and which he uses to link midrash to tale, is a hesitant, sometimes defensive (Jews rightly sense the risk of offering sweets to the ever-loving Christian lion) search for the common denominator. The effect of this simplifying commentary is to reduce the great sea of haggadah to a shallow puddle of pious proverbs and platitudes. If the Christian reader will not be seduced from his longstanding penchant for judging these rabbinic stories as charming antiquities, how much less will the world comprehend Rabbinic Wisdom and Jewish Values. And no serious reader of any persuasion will be aided by the notable and annoying absence of source identification, bibliography, or an insightful personal translation beyond the Soncino's.

If Dr. Silverman would risk stepping out beyond brotherhood towards a redefinition of Christianity for Jews and Judaism for Christians, let him recount the midrashim with the passion of a Slonimsky, the mind-set of a Kadushin, and the strictly non-theological categories of a Solomon Schechter.

Hebreiw Union College - Jew'ish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati D. PETER BURROWS

438 438

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.228 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:05:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions