Jewish Concepts of Scripture

(Grace) #1

244 Job Y. Jindo


diss., New York University 1968), 14. Th e letter is preserved in the Joseph Klausner
archive in the National Library of Israel (ARC. 4 ̊ 1086/444). I thank Rachel Mis-
rati of the Department of Archives for providing me with a copy of this letter.



  1. For Kaufmann’s biography, see, e.g., Green, “Universalism and Nationalism,”
    ch. 1; Th omas Krapf, Yehezkel Kaufmann: Ein Lebens- und Erkenntnisweg zur Th eol-
    ogie der Hebräischen Bibel (Berlin: Institute Kirche und Judentum, 1990); Avinoam
    Barshai, introduction to Selected Writings on Jewish Nationality and Zionism, by
    Yehezkel Kaufmann, ed. Avinoam Barshai (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: World Zionist
    Organization, 1995), 13 – 117.

  2. Th ese institutions attracted distinguished instructors and aspiring students
    of the Jewish intelligentsia in Russia. Th e instructors in Tchernowitz’s yeshivah in-
    cluded Hayyim Nahman Bialik (1873 – 1934) and Joseph Klausner (1874 – 1958); the
    instructors in Günzburg’s academy included Shimon Dubnow (1860 – 1941) and
    Judah Katzenelson (pseudonym: Buki ben Yogli; 1846 – 1917). Students at Tcherno-
    witz’s institution included Joshua Gutmann (1890 – 1963; scholar of Jewish Helle-
    nism), Zvi Woyslawski (1889 – 1957; Hebrew writer and literary critic), and Jacob
    Hellmann (1880 – 1950; labor Zionist leader and editor); at Günzburg’s academy,
    students included Zalman Shazar (1889 – 1974; the third president of Israel), Solo-
    mon Zeitlin (1892 – 1976; Jewish historian), and Joseph Trumpeldor (1880 – 1920;
    an iconic fi gure of the founding spirit of modern Israel). On these institutions,
    see Green, “Universalism and Nationalism,” 1 – 5, 17 – 26; Barshai, introduction to
    Selected Writings, 60 – 96; Zalman Shazar, “Baron David Günzberg [sic] and His
    Academy,” Th e Seventy-Fift h Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review,
    ed. Abraham Neuman and Solomon Zeitlin (Philadelphia: Jewish Quarterly Re-
    view, 1967), 1 – 17.

  3. Shazar, “Yehezkel Kaufmann of Blessed Memory,” 59, 61.

  4. Kaufmann’s following statement in Golah aptly captures his uncompromis-
    ing sense of intellectual responsibility: “I know that there are in what I write words
    which will be most diffi cult for our contemporaries to accept, but what shall I do?
    Other than what I have stated, I cannot say” (Golah, xiii; translated by Efroymson
    in Kaufmann, Christianity and Judaism, x).

  5. Kaufmann, Religion of Israel, 208.

  6. Ibid., 209; italics added. Th e phrase “Archimedean point” is from Moshe
    Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1 – 11 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 16.

  7. Kaufmann, Toledot, 4:409; idem, History of the Religion of Israel, vol. 4,
    485 – 94.

  8. Kaufmann, History of the Religion of Israel, vol. 4, 404 – 6.

  9. Kaufmann, e.g., lists a series of prophecies in Jeremiah that never came
    true; see Kaufmann, Religion of Israel, 413 – 14.

  10. Ibid., 210.

  11. Ibid., 413 – 14. Th e comment specifi cally refers to the book of Jeremiah;

Free download pdf