Learned, but predictable.
The Chief Rabbi of Great Britain summarizes Jewish social ethics.
Judaism, Sacks reminds us, enjoins people to be co-creators with God, partners with the deity in bringing about the work of creation. The heart of the book is Sacks’s six-chapter sketch of the central tenets of Jewish ethics: justice, charity, love, sanctifying God’s name (i.e., “bring[ing] God’s presence into the world by making others aware that God’s word sanctifies life”), repairing and perfecting the broken parts of creation and pursuing peace. In a salutary critique of contemporary individualism, Sacks underscores the communal nature of Jewish ethics. We must look out for our neighbors and our communities, not just ourselves, he avers. Parts of this book are rewardingly erudite, wending from Rabbi Akiva to Iris Murdoch, bringing together Maimonides and Dylan Thomas in the same paragraph. Other sections, such as one in which Sacks suggests that even the most seemingly insignificant good deed can have terrific consequences, are hokey and unoriginal. The last third of the text, supposedly devoted to the difference that Jewish social ethics make in the way we live, is disappointingly abstract. Despite the author’s insistence that we have never needed Judaism’s ethics of responsibility more than now (an unnecessary bit of bravado that rings false), he makes little attempt to spell out in practical terms the ways it can be brought to bear on the current world scene. Somehow, the currency and winsomeness of the author’s columns in The Times of London are missing here.
Learned, but predictable.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2005
ISBN: 0-8052-4241-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Schocken
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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