The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism

by Eliyahu Stern

Elijah ben Solomon, the "Genius of Vilna,” was perhaps the best-known and most understudied figure in modern Jewish history. This book offers a new narrative of Jewish modernity based on Elijah's life and influence. While the experience of Jews in modernity has often been described as a process of Western European secularization—with Jews becoming citizens of Western nation-states, congregants of reformed synagogues, and assimilated members of society—Stern uses Elijah’s story to highlight a different theory of modernization for European life. Religious movements such as Hasidism and anti-secular institutions such as the yeshiva emerged from the same democratization of knowledge and privatization of religion that gave rise to secular and universal movements and institutions. Claimed by traditionalists, enlighteners, Zionists, and the Orthodox, Elijah’s genius and its afterlife capture an all-embracing interpretation of the modern Jewish experience. Through the story of the “Vilna Gaon,” Stern presents a new model for understanding modern Jewish history and more generally the place of traditionalism and religious radicalism in modern Western life and thought.

Genres: Biography, Judaism, History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Eliyahu Stern is associate professor of modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history at Yale University. He is the author of The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism and has served as a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations and a consultant to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel iffy about giving this three stars. Maybe I'll feel differently later. But I think Stern bit off more than he could chew.

Or, more accurately, his argument didn't match what he actually wrote. His revisionist claim is that Elijah of Vilna, a famous eighteenth century rabbi, was more responsible for Jewish modern expression than were the forces of Enlightenment. But even Stern admits that said rabbi, known as the Vilna Goan, or Vilna genius, didn't set out to do any of this, and that the Zionists, religious and etc who claim him are taking the proactive step. Therefore, to make the argument that the Vilna Goan was instrumental to modern Judaism, shouldn't the book have focused on those communities? Instead, Stern mostly focuses on the scholar's life and works.

I also feel like the book was too short to get a good feel of anything, but then again a) I gravitated towards the book because of it's brevity (so behind on reading!) and b) I'm far from an expert in the field. I'm jumping a little high with this topic. I did come away feeling like I learned a fair bit about the ins and outs of Eastern European Jewish society from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries. Apparently a lot of medieval scholars tried to simplify or ignore parts of the Talmud by writing easier, authoritarian codes. The Vilna Goan worked against that, wanting people to cleave more closely to the divinely-inspired Talmud. And he took Maimonides to task for ignoring the magical aspects of Jewish holy books! (In that vein, I should say that he adhered to the "pardes" form of interpretation, meaning that there's layers of meaning from literal to metaphorical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardes_... )

He also stressed study over everything else in Judaism, which was part of the reason he wrote against that upstart group, the Hasidm. (Speaking of the modern day, I believe that most Haredi Jews are now parts of Hasidic sects, so.) The Vilna Goan saw them as extremist in their views of embracing frenetic celebration and direct contact with Gd. There's also an air of personality cults around Hasidic rebbes, he attested, and I can certainly see after reading a long book about Reb Nachman. :P The Vilna Goan also saw the Hasidm in the light of Sabbatai Zevi's followers. He was an enigmatic Jewish leader some claimed was the messiah before he was forcibly converted to Islam. Stern calls this incident one of the most damaging events that almost tore Jewish life apart; that level of alarm makes me raise my eyebrows a bit. Elsewhere, he calls a character a "thug," which seems both oddly anachronistic and personal.

One of the most direct ways that Stern sorta touches on his thesis is by comparing the Vilna Goan to his contemporary, Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn lived in Berlin, and very much was in conversation with Protestants to get Jews a seat at the Enlightenment table. But the Vilna Goan wasn't all that fussed with non-Jewish opinions about Jews, and if anything he aimed his criticism at co-religionists concerning their religious practice. In the conclusion, Stern talks about modern Jews who don't feel the need to cater to the opinions of gentiles, so yeah, I get that comparison.

As a parting note, the Vilna Goan personally came off as a bit of a jerk. He was a hermit so devoted to study that he ignored his family most of the time, save to bark orders at them (so his letters would make it seem.) He *was* interested in some secular ideas like math and philosophy, but mostly to translate them into his religious interpretations (he seemed to be highly analytical and to the point.) I do like how his emphasis on study helped to revive yeshiva culture. I wasn't a big fan of the kehilla societies, particularly when they ruled over predominately Jewish areas. There was something very narrow-minded and cruel about the power they wielded...or at least it seemed that way when Stern put down examples of people getting flogged for holding minority opinions. :/ Kind of reminds me of the Israeli Rabbinate, *cough cough* To do as the Vilna Goan does and take some inspiration from classic, gentile sources: "absolute power corrupts, absolutely."

[Sherry Leffert · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of the life and times of The Gaon of Vilna. I found it hard to wrap my head around Stern's thesis that Elijah of Vilna was a forerunner of modern Judaism. Stern's definition of modernity is hard to understand and even harder to accept. Yet, the foray into the Jewish community of Vilna and it's time is very interesting. Most interesting was the contrast of between the way the towns people made the image of The Vilna Gaon and his actual life.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and well-researched and interesting. The main thesis, however, remains pretty unconvincing throughout. It's as though it exists to be a provocative thesis that justifies a book, not because the author or the reader is actually meant to think it's the correct interpretation of the era.

[Harry Freedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written and highly informative study of perhaps the most influential- and certainly one of the most intriguing- figures in the rabbinic world.