Concepts of Scripture in Yehezkel Kaufmann 241behind the ultimate nexus of reality and, as such, cannot — indeed need not
— seek to address such a metaphysical notion as divine existence or revela-
tion.39 For some readers, this critique of empirical reason, which de facto
leaves room for postulating such a metaphysical notion, might strike them
as resembling the monotheistic critique of human intellect described ear-
lier. Note, however, that Kaufmann’s critique stems not from a dogmatic
but from an analytical premise: to overlook this epistemic limitation is to
risk invalidating the value of the empirical research itself. And for the same
reason, contends Kaufmann, the empirical analysis of biblical monotheism
must stay clear both of excessive positivism, such as Wellhausen’s, and of
supernaturalism, such as Urbach’s. For the former blurs the scope and lim-
its of scientifi c investigation and thus presents speculative considerations as
empirical, whereas the latter seeks to explain cultural phenomena through
religious categories and thus mixes two diff erent disciplinary horizons —
empirical and theological — producing essentially idiosyncratic analyses.
Paradoxically, it is through Kaufmann’s intellectual integrity — and not, for
example, a theological dogmatism — that we fi nd his stance strikingly ap-
proximating the traditional position.40
Concluding Remarks
Th e foregoing observations should not form the impression that Kauf-
mann’s project had no Zionist convictions. Th e very fact that he wrote his
works in modern Hebrew — and not, for example, in German — indicates
otherwise. It may be fair to say that, as a Zionist, Kaufmann sought to pres-
ent his study of the Bible and Jewish history as an empirical ground in light
of which his people would consider and determine their collective fate. In
this respect, his Toledot may even be seen as a project of cultural recovery,
perceiving the Bible, as did other cultural Zionists of his period, as a for-
mative text of modern Jewish culture. Th e Bible was a starting point for
shaping the identity of modern Jewry and, more specifi cally, was a pos-
sible identitarian bedrock for his people who were then returning to their
homeland from all parts of the world aft er two millennia. If so, his lifework
as a Zionist project was to contribute to this revival and to the making of
modern Israel through his empirical investigation of the Bible and Jew-
ish history.
Kaufmann’s lifework, at the same time, was a project of cultural integra-
tion. It sought to internalize an empirical study of the Bible into Jewish