Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
October 2000
In the September 2000 column I
talked about knowledge and a definition of learning. This month I want to share
some personal thoughts on heroes of Jewish learning.
Heroes of Learning
Rabbis of the Talmud -- Collectively the rabbis and the
teachers recorded in the Talmud bridged the gap between the written Torah and
everyday life. They mastered both the physical sciences and the social sciences
of their day. They understood that law was more than a written commandment.
Understanding the law involved an understanding of the physical world and the
social, political and economic conditions of the people. The Talmud contains
more than one opinion on many topics. Sometimes we choose one opinion as
better; sometimes both or all three answers are right. Because of the scope of
Talmudic knowledge, we learn that no one has a monopoly on truth, justice, or
understanding of the neshama (soul).
Saadia ben Yosef Gaon (882-942) was born in Egypt and served
as the leader of the Babylonian Jewish community. In His time Babylonia was the
most important Jewish community in the world. In 921 Saadia disputed Aaron
Ben-Meir was to the starting day for Pesah. Ben-Meir, head of the Jerusalem
academy, said Pesah would start on Tuesday that year. Saadia and his followers
said, Thursday, and his dismissed the halakhic arguments of Ben-Meir. Saadia
eventually won as he established both
his interpretation of the calendar and the importance of the Babylonian
academies. Saadia translated the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) into Arabic, both for the Arabic
speaking Jews and the Arabs. He used Arabic characters for the Bible though
most of his Arabic works and the works of other scholars of his time were in
Arabic with Hebrew characters. His polemics against the Karaites further
enhanced Rabbinic Jewry. No fewer than 49 works were written by Karaites
against Saadia. In his Emunot ve-De'ot Saadia writes the first
comprehensive work on the fundamental problems in Jewish philosophy. This work
deeply influenced all later Jewish philosophers.
The editing of the Siddur
is his most important influence on our lives because it affects us every single
time we pray. His Siddur was not the first and he did not author the prayers.
He codified the customs of his time, used his judgment in selecting between
various texts and explained what he did. He comments on and explains both the
prayers and the selection process. His Siddur had only one preserved manuscript
and was published in 1941. In the preparation of the Siddur for publication the
editor consulted fragments found in the Cairo Genizah. In my study of prayer, I
have frequently consulted this work.(1) Saadia's
work and influence are of monumental importance in establishing the Jewish
people as "People of the book"
Solomon Schechter (probably in December 1850-1915) was born in Focsani, Romania. He received his early education from his father, a Habad Hasid from Russia, who was a shohet. Schechter was named in Hebrew Shneur Zalman after the Lubavitcher rebbe. The unusually
gifted boy learned to read Hebrew by age three and by five mastered Humash. He went to a yeshiva in Piatra at age ten and at age thirteen studied with one the greatest Talmudic authorities, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lemberg. He acquired his life-long devotion to the scientific study of Judaism and its sources while learning at the University of Berlin and the Hochschuler für des Wissenschaft des Judenthums. In 1879 he went to England and eventually became professor of Hebrew at University College, London. In 1887 he published an edition of Abot de-Rabbi Nathan, an important Talmudic book, included in most Talmud editions, but its text had suffered from non-learned copyists. Schechter read through many manuscripts and compared the texts with Greek translations and quotations found in other books. This volume put Schechter in the front ranks of Jewish scholars.
His fame was established when
he made possible the scholarly study of the manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah.
This discovery started a series of events in Jewish learning that continue
until this day. Among them is the rediscovery of the Hebrew texts of books
previously known only in translation. For example, the Hebrew original of Ben
Sira was published in 1899. His Saadyana changed our understanding of
Saadia ben Joseph and his period of history.
Dr. Schechter's contributions
to positive-historical Judaism led directly to the study of Judaism at the
university level. The founding of Yeshiva University more than ten years after
Dr. Schechter's death and the departments of Judaica on college campuses are
directly related to Schechter's learning, belief in the universality of the
message of Judaism (an early Lubavitch missionary?), leadership and personal
charisma.(2)
Alexander Dushkin (1890-1976) was born in Suwalki, Poland and came to the United States in 1901. In 1910 he was part of a program of the New York Kehillah to provide planning and
direction to the great chaos to the growing mass of New York Jewry. He started a training program at Teacher's College in New York City that led to his earning the first American Ph.D. on a Jewish education theme. This thesis was published as, Jewish education in New York City, New York, Bureau of Jewish Education, 1918. One idea he advocated was for bright children to be sent to Jewish day schools and trained for Jewish leadership.
Dushkin's most important idea
was the Jewish summer camp. This was a new venture in Jewish education. He was
associated with Camp Modin from 1921 to 1942. Albert Schoolman had already
started Cejwin Camps as community summer camps for children of the Jewish
"masses." Upper-middle class Jewish parents were sending their
children to private summer camps as a "proper" vacation for their
children. The first summer, 1922, had 45 boys. The second year had 110 boys and
ten girls. Some of the early campers went on to start camps of their own. All
the current Zionist and Jewish educational camps can find their roots in the
work that Dushkin did at Camp Modin.
Space limits what I can say
about his time serving the Board of Jewish Education of Chicago, the Jewish
Education Committee of New York and the Hebrew University. He was important as
a leader and philosopher. One of his major goals was to make sure that Jewish
education is a communal responsibility. He believed in pluralism and stressed
the need to find common goals and values. While I was a student in Jerusalem, I
heard him speak once in 1970 and he immediately became one of my heroes of
learning.(3)
Footnotes:
1. For more
on Saadia ben Joseph see: Essays in Jewish Biography, by Alexander Marx.
Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1947; Encyclopedia Judaica
"Saadia Gaon" vol. 14, col. 543-555; and Saadia Gaon, his life and
works / by Henry Malter. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1921.
2. For more
information see: Giants of faith: great American rabbis / by Alex J.
Goldman. New York, Citadel Press, 1964; Essays in Jewish Biography, by
Alexander Marx. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1947; Solomon
Schechter / by Norman Bentwich. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1938.
3. For more
information see: Living bridges: memoirs of an educator, by Alexander
Dushkin, Jerusalem, Keter Publishing House, 1975.
©2004 by Daniel
D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised April 8, 2021 CRC35
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