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The Woman Who Laughed at God: The Untold History of the Jewish People
In the Woman Who Laughed at God, bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch us on a lively and at times controversial journey through Jewish history that offers answers to the complex and difficult question "Who is a Jew?" Today, Jewish peoples are divided by differences of faith, practice, and political antagonism. For every accepted tradition in Jewish faith there are countertra...more
Hardcover, 317 pages
Published
October 15th 2001
by Viking Adult
(first published 2001)
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I really don't know how to categorize this book or how to respond to it. It was not at ALL what I was thinking it would be. The author purports to be giving a history of Judaism but he seems to think that Josiah made up the entire Old Testament himself for personal reasons. He also seems to think that "real" Judaism should have nothing whatever to do with the commandments--he continually speaks disparagingly of Jews who actually expected people to believe in God and keep commandments, and instea...more
Aug 18, 2010
Rebecca Huston
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
judaism,
non-fiction
A very bad, rather twisted look at Judaism and trying to reconcile it with paganish goddess worship and laying on the guilt as to why we Jews just keep saying NO to certain practices. Doesn't ease up on the guilt either. Lots of misinformation. Others may be of different opinion, but to me, this was a pretty bad book on Judaism.
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_75396...
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_75396...
I eventually got bored with this one and dropped it somewhere between "In the Ruined Citadel" and "Abominable Heresies." Kirsch revels in the sensational. His narrative is liberally peppered with his own scantily supported suppositions, even as he tries to observe the forms of a well-researched, fairly scholarly work. Still, I enjoyed reading some of his clever theses, especially in the chapter "A Goddess of Israel," in which he advances the idea that women may have written some of the oldest pa...more
Just starting this book today!
This book is wonderful. Again, Jonathan Kirsch is a great writer/researcher. I had to slow down at the end, because in my privileged U.S. life, I have a hard time understanding our endless conflict and violence.
This book made me want to read about religion. That is a HUGE statement. I have read it over and over, always interesting.
May 12, 2013
Rachel
added it
Feb 24, 2013
Andrea
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
shondell-recommendation
Sep 05, 2012
Brendan Howard
marked it as to-read
Jun 24, 2012
Dee
added it
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