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The Woman Who Laughed at God: The Untold History of the Jewish People
Arguing that Judaism has always been a fractured religion, the author searches the long history of the Jewish people to find evidence to support her thesis. 20,000 first printing.
317 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 29, 2021
Words Are Not Divine
Judaism is not a faith. That it is often referred to as such even by Jews is simply a testament to the power of Christianity in its historical attempt to redefine religion as adherence to some form of doctrinal statement. Although Judaism is a ‘religion of the book,’ it has never, unlike Christianity, become a religion in which the meaning of the words of that book have become fixed by authority.
The woman of Kirsch’s title is Sarah, the wife of Abraham, the first person to accept the cult of YHWH. All Jews are descended from this Sarah, who is told by God in person that she will conceive a child at the age of 90. Then, as Kirsch says, “Sarah is so unafraid of the Almighty that she laughs at his words and then lies to his face,” claiming that she did no such thing.
This little story is not just another biblical anecdote; it is an account of the precise moment at which what would become Judaism was established. It is a description of a new relationship created between the human and the divine (look no further for the inspiration of the story of the Annunciation in the Christian Bible).
And yet at the core of this story is a message about the unreliability of words. Sarah dismisses the words she hears as ‘just talk’ and uses more words to hide her embarrassment when she is caught out. Even the Almighty let’s her fib slide as something merely verbal and therefore incidental. In this case, the word is not ‘made flesh’; it is entirely ignored - by both parties.
The story of Sarah is, in the best Jewish tradition, self-referential. The Torah, God’s word, is sacred. Yet the words of the Torah are not God. They were written, edited, consolidated, and re-written many times before they became ‘official.’ And then they were interpreted in many more ways, often contradictory, in the Talmud. A virtual endless stream of commentaries, Midrashim, have followed ever since. The words are there to inspire a response. Sometimes this response is laughter; sometimes it is a falsehood or self-delusion.
Not that some in the history of Judaism haven’t attempted to fix the interpretation of these words. But they haven’t succeeded in making Judaism doctrinal, just possibly because of the inspiration provided by Sarah. Kirsch claims that “diversity rather than orthodoxy is the real core value of Judaism.” For him “the diversity that has always characterized Judaism begins in the Torah itself.” Many Jews might argue even about that. Exactly. Words are what keeps us together, Jewish or not. But they are not divine.
Judaism is not a faith. That it is often referred to as such even by Jews is simply a testament to the power of Christianity in its historical attempt to redefine religion as adherence to some form of doctrinal statement. Although Judaism is a ‘religion of the book,’ it has never, unlike Christianity, become a religion in which the meaning of the words of that book have become fixed by authority.
The woman of Kirsch’s title is Sarah, the wife of Abraham, the first person to accept the cult of YHWH. All Jews are descended from this Sarah, who is told by God in person that she will conceive a child at the age of 90. Then, as Kirsch says, “Sarah is so unafraid of the Almighty that she laughs at his words and then lies to his face,” claiming that she did no such thing.
This little story is not just another biblical anecdote; it is an account of the precise moment at which what would become Judaism was established. It is a description of a new relationship created between the human and the divine (look no further for the inspiration of the story of the Annunciation in the Christian Bible).
And yet at the core of this story is a message about the unreliability of words. Sarah dismisses the words she hears as ‘just talk’ and uses more words to hide her embarrassment when she is caught out. Even the Almighty let’s her fib slide as something merely verbal and therefore incidental. In this case, the word is not ‘made flesh’; it is entirely ignored - by both parties.
The story of Sarah is, in the best Jewish tradition, self-referential. The Torah, God’s word, is sacred. Yet the words of the Torah are not God. They were written, edited, consolidated, and re-written many times before they became ‘official.’ And then they were interpreted in many more ways, often contradictory, in the Talmud. A virtual endless stream of commentaries, Midrashim, have followed ever since. The words are there to inspire a response. Sometimes this response is laughter; sometimes it is a falsehood or self-delusion.
Not that some in the history of Judaism haven’t attempted to fix the interpretation of these words. But they haven’t succeeded in making Judaism doctrinal, just possibly because of the inspiration provided by Sarah. Kirsch claims that “diversity rather than orthodoxy is the real core value of Judaism.” For him “the diversity that has always characterized Judaism begins in the Torah itself.” Many Jews might argue even about that. Exactly. Words are what keeps us together, Jewish or not. But they are not divine.
December 19, 2017
The premise of Jonathan Kirsch’s book is that there is and never has been just one all inclusive group of Jewish people, no one group being “the” Jewish people. Even from the beginning, which is shrouded for the most part, as painted in the Hebrew Bible, there were different groups of Jews. His sources range from primary and secondary, biblical and non-biblical, historic and nonhistoric, and anything else that helps him tell the story of the Jewish people. Of course, being a moderate length book not all things are covered, and not all things covered are covered in detail.
Here are a few comments I made on some specific pieces of text. Pages are indicated by brackets [] from the Penguin Compass paperback edition of 2001.
[2] “. . . they [a few zealous Jews] have condemned as an apostate any Jew who dares to step outside the circle of orthodoxy as they define it.” This is no different than some Christians (a lot more actually) and groups of Muslims.
[5] In the footnote on this page he seems to go against his premise of not privileging anyone group by capitalizing “Orthodox” and not “ultraorthodox,” whatever the convention on formatting these words.
[28] “Even the Orthodox movement in modern Judaism is willing to concede that ‘those seven ‘days’ of creation may in fact have been periods of extremely long duration,’ as Rabbi Hayim Donin puts it, ‘that correspond to ‘stages’ rather than days similar to our own twenty-four hour day’”The science of Genesis is just plain wrong no matter how long you make the days. And, to use day other than in its usual twenty-four hour duration is just playing around. There is nothing in the Hebrew Bible that I know of that allows for Donin’s interpretation. Days are actually getting shorter, but it is so minuscule to make a joke of an “extremely long duration” back then. There is the thousand year to a day equivalent in 2 Peter 3:8 in the New Testament, but a Jew could hardly claim this, and a thousand year duration would be just too small of a duration for it to work, even if the science were correct.
[28] “Indeed, the Bible itself suggests that the biblical authors regarded the story of creation as not much more than a curtain-raiser.” Indeed, the way I understand it religions are not much concerned with creation, but in ensuring the blessings of their gods and to be comforted from their pains.
Kirsch is a good, and this is not the only book of his that I have enjoyed. I appreciated his more or less minimalist approach to the Bible. By minimalist I mean that there is a minimum amount of historical information in the Bible, but nor does he focus on this. Most of the stuff in the book I have read about in other books, so it did not cover any new ground that I remember. Still, he did a good job supporting his major premise.
I could recommend this book to anyone interested in the wide range of Jewish life throughout the centuries. Even someone like me who already knew much, it is presented in an interesting way, so even if you are familiar with Jewish history you just might still like it.
Here are a few comments I made on some specific pieces of text. Pages are indicated by brackets [] from the Penguin Compass paperback edition of 2001.
[2] “. . . they [a few zealous Jews] have condemned as an apostate any Jew who dares to step outside the circle of orthodoxy as they define it.” This is no different than some Christians (a lot more actually) and groups of Muslims.
[5] In the footnote on this page he seems to go against his premise of not privileging anyone group by capitalizing “Orthodox” and not “ultraorthodox,” whatever the convention on formatting these words.
[28] “Even the Orthodox movement in modern Judaism is willing to concede that ‘those seven ‘days’ of creation may in fact have been periods of extremely long duration,’ as Rabbi Hayim Donin puts it, ‘that correspond to ‘stages’ rather than days similar to our own twenty-four hour day’”The science of Genesis is just plain wrong no matter how long you make the days. And, to use day other than in its usual twenty-four hour duration is just playing around. There is nothing in the Hebrew Bible that I know of that allows for Donin’s interpretation. Days are actually getting shorter, but it is so minuscule to make a joke of an “extremely long duration” back then. There is the thousand year to a day equivalent in 2 Peter 3:8 in the New Testament, but a Jew could hardly claim this, and a thousand year duration would be just too small of a duration for it to work, even if the science were correct.
[28] “Indeed, the Bible itself suggests that the biblical authors regarded the story of creation as not much more than a curtain-raiser.” Indeed, the way I understand it religions are not much concerned with creation, but in ensuring the blessings of their gods and to be comforted from their pains.
Kirsch is a good, and this is not the only book of his that I have enjoyed. I appreciated his more or less minimalist approach to the Bible. By minimalist I mean that there is a minimum amount of historical information in the Bible, but nor does he focus on this. Most of the stuff in the book I have read about in other books, so it did not cover any new ground that I remember. Still, he did a good job supporting his major premise.
I could recommend this book to anyone interested in the wide range of Jewish life throughout the centuries. Even someone like me who already knew much, it is presented in an interesting way, so even if you are familiar with Jewish history you just might still like it.
July 8, 2008
This book made me want to read about religion. That is a HUGE statement. I have read it over and over, always interesting.
November 14, 2011
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 instead extolled feminists, revisionists, atheists and terrorists as the "real" traditions of Judaism. Don't think I learned much positive from this one.
August 19, 2010
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...
June 21, 2008
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.
April 22, 2016
How can you cram over 5000 years of history in such a small book? It's a noble try but really there is so much more to say about how to define "who is a Jew"!
February 1, 2025
Lots of compelling points, and very effectively makes throughlines over several thousand years. Also an interesting read from a personal standpoint - not that many years ago, 95%+ of this would have been new to me, whereas now I was at least somewhat familiar with most of the events.
January 4, 2012
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 parts of the Bible.
December 28, 2025
Very informative, very interesting, and very thought provoking. I learned a lot and it left me with much to consider.
There were parts that covered a lot of material very quickly in brief sections, I would have preferred a bit more depth over breadth, but still very worth reading.
There were parts that covered a lot of material very quickly in brief sections, I would have preferred a bit more depth over breadth, but still very worth reading.
August 31, 2011
Just starting this book today!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews