“The Learning of the Jews”: What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience

by Trevan G. Hatch (Editor), Leonard Greenspoon (Editor)

This volume is about Latter-day Saints learning from Jews and the Jewish experience. This book is unique. It is not a traditional interfaith dialogue where the goal is to learn from each other. Rather, Latter-day Saints seek to give Jews the microphone, so to speak, and let them talk about themselves on their own terms. Only then do Latter-day Saint respond, and not with the goal of establishing areas of agreement or disagreement but as an opportunity to learn from Jews. This book turns to the wisdom of Jews and Judaism to inform, inspire, and enhance the lived religious experience of Latter-day Saints.

“The Learning of the Jews” brings together fifteen scholars, seven Jewish and eight Latter-day Saint, with a combined academic experience of over four hundred years. The volume is structured around seven major topics, two chapters on each topic. A Jewish scholar first discusses the topic broadly vis-à-vis Judaism, followed by a response from a Latter-day Saint scholar. The seven topics include scripture, authority, prayer, women and modernity, remembrance, particularity, and humor. The intention is that the reader will not only learn a great deal about Judaism and the Jewish experience while reading this volume but also use what they learn to enhance their own cultural and religious experience.

298 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2021

Reviews

[Daniel Evensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a good book. Trevan Hatch and Leonard Greenspoon collected 14 essays, 7 from Jewish scholars and 7 from Latter-day Saint scholars, on a variety of issues that impact both religions. The issues themselves vary from scriptural interpretation to collective memory, from the role of women to the role of humor, with all sorts of interesting points and side notes in-between.

The 7 Jewish essays are excellent. Gary Rendsburg's essay on Jewish approaches to the scriptural tradition was fascinating, as was Peter Haas' musings on the establishment of authorized traditions and customs in historical Judaism. Leonard Greenspoon's essay on Jewish humor was naturally going to be interesting, but surprised me in terms of its depth and historical substance.

Most of the Latter-day Saint essays are also quite good. Camille Olson's essay on women in the patriarchal church was one of the finest treatments of the subject that I've ever seen. I would say that her essay alone is worth the price of this book. Andrew Reed's short essay on the Latter-day Saint approach to building sacred communities was dense and insightful, so packed with commentary that he might as well write a book on the subject.

Some of the Latter-day Saint essays were a bit weaker. The essay by Loren Marks and David Dollahite on prayer was easily the weakest in the book, and consisted of long quotes from the Peter Knobel essay that precedes it. Shawn Tucker, meanwhile, gave himself a handicap in writing about LDS humor by choosing a humorous modern poem that was neither insightful nor particularly funny. Fortunately, Tucker came back to redeem himself by the end of his piece.

I was perturbed by Ben Spackman's essay on improving the Latter-day Saint approach to scripture, which was self-serving at best. Leave it to an academic to chastise an entire religion for not paying enough attention to the endless commentaries of academia!

Trevan Hatch's essay on determining the LDS Church's official position on a host of trivial matters was even more frustrating. In his years of studying the issue, Hatch has apparently never heard of personal revelation - the act of praying sincerely for an answer to one's heart-felt issue. Hatch alludes to the importance of personal revelation by noting that other scholars have mentioned it as an important step in determining what is actually "official" Church doctrine - and yet he manages to completely ignore the topic in his essay on the subject.

Fortunately, the book is more than just the weak offerings by Spackman and Hatch. If you stick with it through the weak spots in the opening few chapters, you'll find yourself richly rewarded.

[Joseph Cosgriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a pleasure to read the collection as a whole. Although the process of giving the Jewish authors the first essay and the LDS authors the second, definitely privileged the Jewish perspective in the spirit of shared commitment to the subject of Judaism. I think it was nevertheless, an appropriate editorial decision. Even if several of the LDS authors undoubtedly over-emphasized cultural comparisons and occasionally contrasts by direct reference, which made for less originality in their essays, overall, I was very satisfied with the readings and responses. As a non-scholar with an interest in the subjects, I felt that the authors were accessible, exhibiting but not over-emphasizing their erudition. I enjoyed the essays for their concise and memorable style as well as the interesting content. I would not describe the treatment of the subjects as comprehensive, but each author provided quite a wealth of expertise in demonstrating by means of various methods of inquiry across unusually broad and deep resources, how two distinct and disparate groups perceive themselves, their scriptures, their religion, their history, their place in the world of beliefs and their cultural connections; minus the kumbaya.

[Ron Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I select books to read, I am hoping for something that will 1) teach me something, 2) uplift me and/or 3) expand my way of thinking. I felt this book accomplished all three.

I had only surface understanding of Judaism and this book gave many interesting insights into how they have worshiped over the generations. It was humbling to realize how deep this very old religion has impacted their way of life compared to the relative new faith of the restoration. I was grateful for the imbedded dictionary with the kindle to look up a multitude of words that were new to me.

I was greatly uplifted by the insights relative to prayer and worship. The teaching of saying 100 blessings (prayers) a day and comparing it to praying always has already lifted me closer to aligning my thoughts to God.

If a simple reading of a book changes the way I am living my daily life, then it is certainly a book I can recommend. I did find it a bit overly academic in much of the content, but the value far outweighs the effort to understand the material.

[Josiah Ensing · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Jewish authors share aspects of religious experience with context, and latter-day saint authors describe how that experience might enhance latter-day saint religious experience. This is my kind of book! The result is beautiful, with the insights into Judaism translating quite well to latter-day saint experience.

I understand myself and our church better after reading this book. Highlights, for me, are discussion regarding the difficulty in determining “official church teachings” on particular topics, and discussion on competing authorities within the church, such as priesthood, revelation, and scripture.

The writing style is a bit academic (varies from chapter to chapter), as the authors are academics, which makes reading feel like it takes more thought or effort, but the content is well worth it.

[Sergio Barrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been an enriching experience, the respect and scholarship about the Jewish religious culture, their devotional, scholarship and their methods of worship has been very edifying and together with the works of Bradley Kramer, it does an excellent job of expanding the links between Latter-day Saints and the Jewish community. Special mention to the essays by Gary A. Rendsburg and Ben Spackman, which were among those that stood out the most about the ways or manner in which the study of the Scriptures can be influenced by Jewish customs and how we (Latter-day Saints) can study them, meditate on them and have a deeper focus. Finally, mention that this book will be a constant source of guidance and analysis for the worship of God in a devotional, personal, community and analytical way.