262 Marc Zvi Brettler
Judaism. As I have shown, this vision is infl uenced by his upbringing
and his mentors. But there is one more inspiration: Greenberg identifi es
strongly with the prophet Ezekiel, who had a “loft y conception of a proph-
et’s responsibility in an age of ruin.”58
Notes- Th is essay was written while Professor Moshe Greenberg, who died on May
15, 2010, was still alive. He taught me much over the past three decades, through
his writings, his classes, and many conversations. I studied with him in 1978 – 79,
when I was a graduate student at Hebrew University. Over the past few years, we
have studied together and talked on a wide variety of subjects, including this essay.
I would like to thank him for his comments on a draft of this essay and for sharing
with me his correspondence with Yehezkel Kaufmann. I would also like to thank
the Shalom Hartman Institute, and especially its codirectors David and Donniel
Hartman, for providing a convivial atmosphere for writing this essay. Th e follow-
ing individuals off ered helpful comments: Adele Berlin, Sidney Brettler, Mordechai
Cogan, Tova Hartman, Alick Isaacs, Israel Knohl, Jacob Milgrom, Dena Ordan,
Lenin Prado,Tina Sherman, Benjamin Sommer, Jeff rey Tigay, and Noam Zohar.
Th e collections of Greenberg’s essays are On the Bible and Judaism, ed. Avrahm
Shapira (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1984; in Hebrew); Ha-Segulah veha-Koach (Tel Aviv:
Kibbutz Hameuhad, 1986; in Hebrew) (a literal translation of this title is “Particu-
larity and Power”; in a conversation on May 16, 2009, Greenberg suggested render-
ing it “Th e Pearl and the Power”); Studies in the Bible and Jewish Th ought (Phila-
delphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995). For a bibliography, complete through
1997, see Mordechai Cogan, Barry L. Eichler, and Jeff rey H. Tigay, eds., Tehillah
le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg (Winona Lake,
IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), xxiii – xxxviii. All translations from modern Hebrew in this
essay are my own. - On Speiser, see Moshe Greenberg, “Speiser, Ephraim Avigdor,” in Diction-
ary of Biblical Interpretation, 2 vols., ed. John H. Hayes (Nashville, TN: Abingdon,
1999), 2:496 – 97, with additional bibliography there; and Abraham Winitzer, “To-
ward Assessing Twentieth-Century Ancient Near Eastern Scholarship: Th e Case
of E. A. Speiser,” in Gazing on the Deep: Ancient Near Eastern and Other Studies in
Honor of Tzvi Abusch, ed. Jeff rey Stackert, Barbara N. Porter, and David P. Wright,
379 – 410 (Bethesda, MD: CDL, 2010). - E. A. Speiser, Th e Anchor Bible: Genesis (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964),
esp. xlix – l. Note, also, for example, his insistence on page 46 that the biblical fl ood
story is superior to its Mesopotamian antecedents since only in the Bible was the
fl ood “morally motivated.” - Greenberg, “Speiser, Ephraim Avigdor,” 497.