Yehezkel Kaufmann
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Biography
Yehezkel Kaufmann was born in
Primary works
Kaufmann was the author of dozens of publications, almost exclusively in
Exile and Estrangement
His first major work was Exile and Estrangement: A Socio-Historical Study on the Issue of the Fate of the Nation of Israel from Ancient Times until the Present (1930), in which he suggests that what preserved Israel's uniqueness through the ages was solely its religion. Among the basic themes of this work is that it is the tension between "universalism" and "nationalism" that comprises the foundational problem of Judaism. This tension reaches back to the earliest eras of Judaism in which a universalistic conception of God was juxtaposed with the local socio-political issues of a small tribal people, even after that people had been exiled from its homeland. YHVH is the ruler of the entire universe, but he reveals Himself and His commandments only to Israel. It is this same tension which Kaufmann traces to the more modern phenomenon of exile and ghettoization. Among Kaufmann's contentious positions were his belief that Zionism could not provide the ultimate solution to the Jewish problem.[citation needed]
The Religion of Israel
Kaufmann's best-known work is תולדות האמונה הישראלית, (Toledot HaEmunah HaYisraelit) The Religion of Israel, from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile (1960), encompassing the history of religion and Biblical literature. The work is important both because of its profound scope, and because it offered a critical approach to Biblical study which was nevertheless in opposition to the documentary hypothesis of Julius Wellhausen, which dominated Biblical study at that time (Hyatt 1961). Among Kaufmann's opinions expressed in this work are that neither a symbiotic nor syncretistic relationship obtained between the ancient Canaanites and Israelites.[clarification needed] External influences on the Israelite religion occurred solely prior to the time of Moses. However, Monotheism[clarification needed] – which on Kaufmann's view began at the time of Moses – was not the result of influences from any surrounding cultures, but was solely an Israelite phenomenon. After the adoption of Monotheism, Israelite belief is found to be free from mythological foundations, to the extent that the Scriptures do not even understand paganism (which, on Kauffman's view, is any religion other than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam (Hyatt 1961)). Kaufmann summed up his position in these words: "Israelite religion was an original creation of the people of Israel. It was absolutely different from anything the pagan world knew; its monotheistic world view has no antecedents in paganism."
Kaufmann posits that the occasional worship of
The apostle-prophet
Kaufmann sees the classical "apostle-prophet" or "messenger-prophet" of the Prophetic literature (
Biblical authorship
Kaufmann regards the non-prophetic parts of scripture as reflecting an earlier stage of the Israelite religion. While he accepts the existence of the three
Translations
Kaufmann's Toldot Ha'Emunah Ha'Yisraelit is a 4-volume work written in
Biblical commentaries
Kaufmann wrote commentaries on the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges.
Other works
- Jesekiel Kaufmann (German name variant), Eine Abhandlung über den zureichenden Grund: Erster Teil: Der logische Grund (lit. 'A Treatise on the Sufficient Reason: Part One: The Logical Reason'), Berlin: Ebering, 1920, in German (PhD thesis, see Biography section).
Awards and recognition
In 1933, Kaufmann was awarded the first Bialik Prize for Jewish thought. He was awarded the prize again in 1956.[2]
In 1958, he was awarded the Israel Prize, in Jewish studies.[3]
See also
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- List of Bialik Prize recipients
- Umberto Cassuto scholar of Hebrew bible and Ugaritic literature
- Cyrus Gordonscholar of Near Eastern history and ancient languages, Hebrew bible
- Abraham Yahuda scholar of Ancient Egyptology and Hebrew bible
References
- ^ Yehezkel Kaufmann, Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ "List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website" (PDF).
- ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1958 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.
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Further reading
- Hyatt, J. Philip (1961). "Yehezkel Kaufmann's view of the religion of Israel". Journal of Bible and Religion. 29: 52–57.
- Kaufmann, Yehezkel (1960). The Religion of Israel, from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Kaufman (sic), Yehezkel (1970) [First published 1934]. "The Ruin of the Soul". In Selzer, Michael (ed.). Zionism Reconsidered: The Rejection of Jewish Normalcy. London: Macmillan. pp. 117–130.
- Pines, Shlomo (1963). Moses Maimonides: The Guide of the Perplexed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Zeligman, Y. A. (1960). "Professor Yehezkel Kaufmann". Yehezkel Kaufmann Jubilee Volume. Jerusalem: Magnes Press (Hebrew language). pp. IX–XII.
- Sommer, Benjamin, Job Y. Jindo, and Thomas Staubli (2017). Yehezkel Kaufmann and the Reinvention of Jewish Biblical Scholarship. Fribourg: Academic Press and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 145).
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Pines, Shlomo (1963). Moses Maimonides: The Guide of the Perplexed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- {de} Kaufmann, Yehezkel (Jecheskel): Die nationale Bewegung in dieser Stunde. Ed. Comité für ein Ungeteiltes Erez Israel, Jerusalem 1938, 28 pp
- Jacques Berlinerblau, Official Religion and Popular Religion in Pre-Exilic Ancient Israel, an academic paper discussing Kaufmann's hypothesis.