In his blog,
Alan Brill has posted Arthur Green’s response to Daniel Landes’ unflattering
review
of his book: RADICAL JUDAISM: RETHINKING GOD AND TRADITION
In the discussion which ensued, I offered
the following comment:
_____________
Daniel Landes' critique took the words
from my mouth when first reading Green's "Seek My Face" (Hebrew translation).
Even more superb is his "uncovering" of the "hidden
master".
Green's response doesn't make thing better
and he unintentionally acknowledges Landes’ case:
1. There is indeed an
"evolution" of God in Judaism. However this God was always consistent
with his moral demands of Humanity and Israel Israel Second Commonwealth
The pantheistic religion a-la Green is a
response to every new age trend in the market, and a justification of every
almost every liberal fashion. If "everything is God" and therefore
holy, there can be no true sense of right or wrong and a real moral stand
cannot be sought-after[ii].
The conscious attempt to revolutionize a completely new theology is
Reconstructionism by definition.
2. Evolution presents a problem only for
the Haredim, who are just straw-men for Green's arguments. For R. Kook
the theory's "trueness" was irrelevant; he just saw it as a means to
explain some Kabalistic ideas. Green, it seems, adopts evolution because
it's the current scientific paradigm, just as Kaplan adopted trans-naturalism[iii].
3. While Biblical criticism is a challenge
for the Orthodox dogma, I personally don't think it undermines Torah mi-Shamayim. It may be
claimed that the author(s) are divinely inspired [iv].Green's
dismissal of this possibility is a definitive mark of Kaplan's teachings.
4. The Holocaust was not the first tragedy
to befall the Jewish people, although it's by far the worst tragedy. In every
generation Jews lost faith in God due to the difficulties of the exile.
For the faithful, the answers were either theodicy, or God hiding his face.
Both of these are found in the Tanakh. I wonder if Green is aware that
"God is dead" is inherently Christian; if God is not present then he
doesn't exist[v].
5. What's striking is that Green's
response stops short with the Holocaust without mentioning the State of Israel
which, according to the disciples of his beloved R. Kook, is God's return to
the arena - no less!
For me, as a religious Zionist, one of his
most disturbing ideas is the dismissal of Israel
[i]
This is one of Professor Leibowitz’s most
important observations, that staying in the fold of Judaism is not a matter of
adhering to some dogma, but adhering to Halacha. For example the rationalist
Maimonides and the mystic Alter Rebbe of Chabad, has different ideas of God,
but nonetheless both were great poskim.
[ii]
Furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits has shown that pantheism cannot have a
commanding god because then there is no difference between the Commandant and the
commanded.
[iii]
I believe he should be warned against the attempt of joining religion
and science. Scientific theories have a tendency to change or to be dismissed
altogether, rendering their "spiritual" counterpart as pseudoscience.
[iv]
See for example Halivni's "REVELATION RESTORED: DIVINE WRIT AND
CRITICAL RESPONSES”.
[v]
see Eliezer Berkovits: Faith after the Holocaust
