Aspects of Rabbinic Theology: With a New Introduction by Neil Gillman, Including the Original Preface of 1909 & the Introduction by Louis Finkelstein

by Solomon Schechter

The classic statement of the ideas which form the religious consciousness of the Jewish people at large, by one of the great minds of Jewish scholarship of our century. His creative scholarship, compelling English style, and warm personality have given this book lasting influence on Jew and non-Jew alike. Includes the original preface of 1909 and the introduction by Louis Finkelstein.

Genres: Judaism, Theology, Judaica

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Mike Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to the whole Talmud and midrash thinking of conservative Judaism. It took a couple chapters and a few Wikipedia searches to get my footing, but it was worthwhile. The entire Jewish literature of Talmud, targums and various other sources is still confusing to me. Also, Jewish hermeneutic rules for interpreting scriptures are still puzzling. However, the text doesn't attempt to systematize anything, it explicitly wants to give you a flavor for Jewish thought.

I am a long time Christian so appreciate the overlap in Scripture and ideas with Judaism. However, I was surprised at the extent of the overlap. I don't want to minimize the differences, but I thought my Christian Bible background gave me a lot of insight. At the same time, conservative Judaism is a foreign world to me in many ways, so the text was very instructive.

The text picks 18 different topics and gives the reader a flavor for how the rabbis historically interpreted these ideas. It doesn't gloss over the seeming contradictions, discrepancies or mysteries, in fact it embraces them in many cases. Life is complex and Jewish thought is complex. I agreed with most interpretations, disagreed with some and was challenged by many. My bent is toward systematic theology, and the lack thereof was challenging (in a positive way) in and of itself. The book is well footnoted, but I am a stranger to that literature in general, so that was less helpful than it could have been for me.

Rabbi Schecter writes well and accomplishes his stated purpose (giving a flavor). Theology texts can sometimes drag, but this one moved along fairly well. It inspired me to delve more into this literature, which I think means he did his job.

[Laura Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a useful book.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent attempt at the nearly impossible: a coherent statement of main themes in rabbinic theology. The issue is that theology is not what the rabbis did. The major rabbinic sources - midrash collections, sifre, the two talmuds, mishnah - were not concerned with the statement of a coherent theology according to the standards of western philosophy - what we moderns would call theology. Schechter combs through the vast corpus of rabbinic writings to assemble a coherent statement of rabbinic theology.

[Dr. Paul T. Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple amazing revelations, but as with many books it didn't need to be 400 pages long ... or 250 for that matter.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference book on some basic thoughts found in Rabbinic Theology.