Comments on: A Nation of Commentators http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-nation-of-commentators A New Read on Jewish Life Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:55:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ok Kabzinski http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/#comment-2834239 Ok Kabzinski Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:02:01 +0000 http://www.tabletmag.com/?p=11014#comment-2834239 I discovered your weblog website on google and examine just a few of your early posts. Proceed to keep up the very good operate. I just extra up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking ahead to studying more from you later on!… I discovered your weblog website on google and examine just a few of your early posts. Proceed to keep up the very good operate. I just extra up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking ahead to studying more from you later on!…

]]> By: Dietz Ziechmann http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/#comment-425723 Dietz Ziechmann Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:29:11 +0000 http://www.tabletmag.com/?p=11014#comment-425723 I grew up in a highly "secular" household, but fortunately inherited much implicit Jewish wisdom from my mother, who would not have been able to reference the source of that wisdom. Only sometime after high school and my early college years was I able to access the literary sources of that wisdom when trying to pinpoint some ideological framework for society, beyond the Leninist-Randian dichotomy. I think it has been more or less the same with the cited American Jewish authors (Howe, Trilling, etc.) in that they inbibed their philosophical frameworks from household expressions of the tradition. We might also express some gratitude to the Hellenic practice of academic dialectics, which, of couse, preceded the Talmud, but lacked a central literary repository in an encyclopaedic collection of volumes. I love "A Treasury of Jewish Quotations", edited by (R.)Joseph Baron,as a handy 1-volume collection of quotes from many Jewish viewpoints, religious and secular, on an amazing array of topics. I grew up in a highly “secular” household, but fortunately inherited much implicit Jewish wisdom from my mother, who would not have been able to reference the source of that wisdom. Only sometime after high school and my early college years was I able to access the literary sources of that wisdom when trying to pinpoint some ideological framework for society, beyond the Leninist-Randian dichotomy. I think it has been more or less the same with the cited American Jewish authors (Howe, Trilling, etc.) in that they inbibed their philosophical frameworks from household expressions of the tradition. We might also express some gratitude to the Hellenic practice of academic dialectics, which, of couse, preceded the Talmud, but lacked a central literary repository in an encyclopaedic collection of volumes. I love “A Treasury of Jewish Quotations”, edited by (R.)Joseph Baron,as a handy 1-volume collection of quotes from many Jewish viewpoints, religious and secular, on an amazing array of topics.

]]> By: Sheldon Weinles http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/#comment-383824 Sheldon Weinles Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:01:58 +0000 http://www.tabletmag.com/?p=11014#comment-383824 The two excerpts Mr Kirsch cites are both sourced, like most of Rashi's Torah commentary, in the Midrash. Rashi in his Torah commentary is largely an editor, picking and choosing which Midrashic offerings to bring to bear on a given verse. While there is much to say about the editorial choices he makes, for most readers, he should not be viewed as a commentator but as a digester, offering a glimpse of the Sages' views to readers who would otherwise not have seen them. Rashi's Talmud commentary is another matter entirely and is in my humble opinion, far superior to his biblical one. The two excerpts Mr Kirsch cites are both sourced, like most of Rashi’s Torah commentary, in the Midrash. Rashi in his Torah commentary is largely an editor, picking and choosing which Midrashic offerings to bring to bear on a given verse. While there is much to say about the editorial choices he makes, for most readers, he should not be viewed as a commentator but as a digester, offering a glimpse of the Sages’ views to readers who would otherwise not have seen them.

Rashi’s Talmud commentary is another matter entirely and is in my humble opinion, far superior to his biblical one.

]]> By: Jonathan Gerard http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/#comment-65034 Jonathan Gerard Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:53:32 +0000 http://www.tabletmag.com/?p=11014#comment-65034 I need to add that while Jews may have invented this idea of dialectics, others have added to the discourse and that the influence is now--and has long been--circular. We don't own it and others have grown it. I need to add that while Jews may have invented this idea of dialectics, others have added to the discourse and that the influence is now–and has long been–circular. We don’t own it and others have grown it.

]]> By: Jonathan Gerard http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/11014/a-nation-of-commentators/#comment-65027 Jonathan Gerard Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:45:14 +0000 http://www.tabletmag.com/?p=11014#comment-65027 I think that there is something deeper than an embrace of "commentary" that drives Jewish identity. It is, rather, an embrace of what the commentator says in beginning his commentary: davar acher, "And another thing..." The quintessential Jewish view of the world, emerging from rabbinic literature, is that divine truth can hold opposites--justice and mercy, universalism and particularism, halacha and aggada. Truth is dialectical. You do not have to know Jewish texts to have such a view of the world. You only need to be raised with this attitude toward the world; it applies to the study of all things. As Jews assimilate into western culture, western culture has assimilated this Jewish world view. Hence we have such notions as mental constructions and post-modernism, and the indeterminacy of the text. All creativity is seen as commentary. When Yale University published "Midrash and Literature" some years ago it seemed to me that it formalized this view and acknowledged Judaism's role in bringing it to the modern academy. Could this also apply, say, to the creation of pure music? Sure. When Beethoven composed a piece, he began with the classical tradition he inherited but then "commented" on those formal rules with excursions into what would come to be called "romanticism." The form, if not the content, of a work of art, can also be commentary on the past or present. I think that there is something deeper than an embrace of “commentary” that drives Jewish identity. It is, rather, an embrace of what the commentator says in beginning his commentary: davar acher, “And another thing…” The quintessential Jewish view of the world, emerging from rabbinic literature, is that divine truth can hold opposites–justice and mercy, universalism and particularism, halacha and aggada. Truth is dialectical. You do not have to know Jewish texts to have such a view of the world. You only need to be raised with this attitude toward the world; it applies to the study of all things. As Jews assimilate into western culture, western culture has assimilated this Jewish world view. Hence we have such notions as mental constructions and post-modernism, and the indeterminacy of the text. All creativity is seen as commentary. When Yale University published “Midrash and Literature” some years ago it seemed to me that it formalized this view and acknowledged Judaism’s role in bringing it to the modern academy. Could this also apply, say, to the creation of pure music? Sure. When Beethoven composed a piece, he began with the classical tradition he inherited but then “commented” on those formal rules with excursions into what would come to be called “romanticism.” The form, if not the content, of a work of art, can also be commentary on the past or present.

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