Wrestling with God Jewish Theological Responses during and after the Holocaust

by Katz, Steven T.; Biderman, Shlomo; Greenberg, Gershon

• ISBN13: 9780195300147
• ISBN10: 0195300149
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780199885206
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

This volume presents a wide-ranging selection of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust. It will be the most complete anthology of its sort, bringing together for the first time: (1) a large sample of ultra-orthodox writings, translated from the Hebrew and Yiddish; (2) a substantial selection of essays by Israeli authors, also translated from the Hebrew; (3) a broad sampling of works written in English by American and European authors. These diverse selections represent virtually every significant theological position that has been articulated by a Jewish thinker in response to the Holocaust. Included are rarely studied responses that were written while the Holocaust was happening.

Table of Contents

General Introduction	3	(8)
Steven T. Katz
Part I Ultra-Orthodox Responses during and following the War
Introduction	11	(16)
Gershon Greenberg
Within the Catastrophe	27	(46)
Elhanan Wasserman	29	(10)
Tractate: The Onset of the Messiah	30	(9)
Kalonymous Kalman Shapira	39	(12)
Holy Fire	40	(11)
Shlomoh Zalman Unsdorfer	51	(10)
Vayehi: Eve of the Holy Shabbat of the Torah Portion Vayehi [Genesis 47:28--50:26] [Prepared 2 January for 3 January 1942 Delivery]	52	(4)
Torah Portion Va'era [Exodus 6:1--9:35] [Prepared 8 January for 9 January 1943 Delivery]	56	(2)
[Torah Portion] Re'eh [Deuteronomy 11:26--16:17] [Prepared 27 August for 28 August 1943 Delivery]	58	(3)
Shlomoh Zalman Ehrenreich	61	(12)
What I Preached on Sunday [of the Week of] the Torah Portion Tetsaveh, 26 February 1939	62	(3)
What I Preached on [the Festival of] Simhat Torah, 4 October 1942	65	(3)
What I Preached on the Great Shabbat [Preceding Passover], 17 April 1943	68	(5)
At the Border of Catastrophe	73	(20)
Yissakhar Taykhtahl	75	(8)
Second Preface: A Happy Mother of Children	75	(8)
Aharon Rokeah	83	(10)
Parting Sermon	84	(9)
The Land of Israel	93	(106)
Reuven Katz	95	(15)
Redemption and Rescue of Prisoners, December 1943	96	(3)
``The Jews Ordained, and Took It upon Them'' [Esther 9:27], May--June 1944	99	(2)
Amalek's Transmigration over the Generations, February-March 1945	101	(3)
Torah Portion Behukotai: Israel's Misery and Israel's Redemption [Written Shortly after the War's End]	104	(6)
Yitshak Breuer	110	(10)
Moriah: Foundations of National Torah Education	111	(9)
Mosheh Avigdor Amiel	120	(13)
A Treasured Nation: Nationality and Humanity according to Judaism's World View	121	(3)
To the Perplexed of the Era: A Chapter of Observation about the Essence of Judaism (1943)	124	(9)
Yehezkel Sarna	133	(13)
Toward Penitent Return and Restoration	134	(12)
Ya'akov Mosheh Harlap	146	(11)
Waters Sublime: From the Sources of Salvation	147	(4)
Letter to Braukh Yehiel Duvdevani in Saint Cesarea, Italy, DP Camp, 3 October 1946 [Two Days before Yom Kippur]	151	(1)
Towards the Era of Love [December 1947--January 1948, Sinai]	152	(5)
Hayim Yisrael Tsimerman	157	(14)
``His Work Is Perfect'': The Loftiness of God and His Righteousness	158	(13)
Teshuvah and the Suffering of the Pious
Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn	171	(20)
First Proclamation: 26 May 1941	172	(3)
Second Proclamation: 11 June 1941	175	(4)
Third Proclamation: 8 July 1941	179	(2)
Fourth Proclamation: 11 September 1941	181	(4)
Let Our Master Teach Us: 11 September 1942	185	(2)
Let Our Master Teach Us: 29 October 1943	187	(4)
Simhah Elberg	191	(8)
The Akedah of Treblinka	192	(7)
Bibliography	199	(6)
PART II Israeli Responses during and following the War
Introduction	205	(146)
Shlomo Biderman
Eliezer Schweid	217	(27)
Is the Shoah a Unique Event?	219	(10)
Does the Idea of Jewish Election Have Any Meaning after the Holocaust?	229	(15)
Pinchas Peli	244	(19)
Borderline: Searching for a Religious Language of the Shoah	245	(18)
Yoel Schwartz and Yitzchak Goldstein	263	(11)
The Shoah: From a Torah Perspective	264	(10)
Alexander Donat	274	(13)
Voice from the Ashes: Wanderings in Search of God	275	(12)
Moshe Unna	287	(6)
Who Can Heal You?	288	(5)
Yehuda Bauer	293	(4)
Returning to the Source of Human Morality	294	(3)
Natan Alterman	297	(7)
Two Roads: Remarks from a Notebook	298	(6)
Yehoyada Amir	304	(14)
The Concept of Exile as a Model for Dealing with the Holocaust	305	(13)
Yosef Achituv	318	(8)
Theology and the Holocaust	319	(7)
Warren Zev Harvey	326	(6)
Two Jewish Approaches to Evil in History	327	(5)
Shalom Rosenberg	332	(19)
The Holocaust: Lessons, Explanation, Meaning	333	(18)
Bibliography	351	(4)
PART III European and American Responses during and following the War
Introduction	355	(330)
Steven T. Katz
Martin Buber	371	(5)
Dialogue between Heaven and Earth	372	(2)
A Response to a Letter from Ernsz Szilagyi, June 29, 1950	374	(2)
Abraham Joshua Heschel	376	(5)
The Hiding God	378	(3)
Joseph B. Soloveitchik	381	(13)
Kol Dodi Dofek: The Voice of My Beloved Knocks	382	(12)
Zvi Kolitz	394	(7)
Yossel Rakover Talks to God	395	(6)
Ignaz Maybaum	401	(8)
The Face of God after Auschwitz	402	(7)
Richard Lowell Rubenstein	409	(10)
The Dean and the Chosen People	410	(5)
Symposium on Jewish Belief	415	(1)
The Symbols of Judaism and the Death of God	416	(3)
Emil Fackenheim	419	(31)
The Structure of Jewish Experience	420	(12)
The 614th Commandment	432	(2)
The Commanding Voice of Auschwitz	434	(5)
Israel and the Diaspora: Political Contingencies and Moral Necessities; or, The Shofar of Rabbi Yitzhak Finkler of Piotrkov	439	(7)
Historicity, Rupture, and Tikkun Olam (Mending the World)	446	(4)
Emmanuel Levinas	450	(5)
Useless Suffering	451	(4)
Michael Wyschogrod	455	(7)
Faith and the Holocaust	456	(6)
Eliezer Berkovits	462	(28)
Faith after the Holocaust	463	(22)
Crisis and Faith	485	(5)
Robert Gordis	490	(7)
A Cruel God or None: Is There No Other Choice?	491	(6)
Irving (Yitzchak) Greenberg	497	(59)
Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity after the Holocaust	499	(24)
The Third Great Cycle of Jewish History	523	(20)
Voluntary Covenant	543	(13)
Isaac Hutner	556	(9)
Holocaust	557	(8)
Arthur A. Cohen	565	(16)
The Tremendum	566	(15)
Steven T. Katz	581	(46)
Richard Rubenstein, the God of History, and the Logic of Judaism	582	(12)
The Crucifixion of the Jews: Ignaz Maybaum's Theology of the Holocaust	594	(7)
Eliezer Berkovits's Post-Holocaust Jewish Theodicy	601	(8)
``Voluntary Covenant'': Irving Greenberg on Faith after the Holocaust	609	(4)
``The Tremendum'': Arthur Cohen's Understanding of Faith after the Holocaust	613	(14)
Hans Jonas	627	(10)
The Concept of God after Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice	628	(9)
Amos Funkenstein	637	(11)
Theological Interpretations of the Holocaust	639	(9)
Melissa Raphael	648	(15)
The Female Face of God in Auschwitz	649	(14)
Jonathan Sacks	663	(18)
The Holocaust in Jewish Theology	664	(10)
The Valley of the Shadow	674	(7)
Elie Wiesel	681	(4)
God's Suffering: A Commentary	682	(3)
Bibliography	685