Евреи и капризная политика иудаизма

Milton Viorst

What Shall I Do with This People?

Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judaism

New York 2002

Stron 287, format: 16x24 cm

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"What shall I do with this people?" was Moses' exasperated question to God in Sinai, and it is posed once more in Milton Viorst's searching account of the crisis in Judaism today. Not since the destruction of the Second Temple, argues Viorst, have Jews dis­played such intolerance toward one another or battled so fiercely over ideology. And these battles are not just intellectual exercises; they exact a fearsome price in today's Middle East.

Framed by the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Orthodox extremist—an unprece­dented outburst of violence among Jews—the book examines how religious leaders through the centuries have shaped Judaism to serve their own political ends, often with disastrous consequences. Viorst vigorously critiques Orthodox Judaism's doctrines concerning territory in the Holy Land as well as on marriage, divorce, conversion, and women's rights, contending that religious law often departs from the teachings of the Torah and has, in fact, changed over time to per­petuate rabbinic power. In recent decades, he believes, the Orthodox rabbinate has grown so intransigently political that its ideas have sundered the Jewish people, challenging their identity and, perhaps, threatening their very existence.

What Shall I Do With This People? is both a meticulously researched history and a bracing commentary. Disturbed by the impact of intoler­ance on Jewish politics and society, Milton Viorst calls for an end to violence in the name of Judaism and offers a stirring plea for mutual understanding among what the Old Testament God called "a stiff-necked people." Amid the heat and noise of the Middle East conflict, his is a lucid, compelling, and necessary voice.

Contents

Introduction: My Synagogue, Your Synagogue 1

PART I: BUILDING A NATION, LOSING A STATE

one Moses versus God 21

two Making and Losing a State 41

three Deposing the Priests 65

PART II: ADJUSTING TO EXILE

four The Halacha Contract 87

five Messianic Illusions 115

six The Revolution of Reform 137

PART III: THE TURBULENCE OF RETURN

seven Seeking Divine Refuge 161

eight Chosen People, Chosen Territory 187

nine God, Witness to Madness 213

Notes 255

Bibliography 265

Acknowledgments 2 73

Index 275