Judaism in the History of Religions

Abstract

Learning constitutes a central religious category in Judaism. From the earliest days of Pharisaism almost to the present time, of predominated, in various forms, in shaping the values of the Jews. The present-day academies in which Torah is studied claim descent from schools first founded in Palestine well before the third century B.C., and in Babylonia in the second century A.D. The books written in those schools and the conventions and canons of inquiry first laid down there continue to occupy students in traditional schools. Among the intellectual traditions which took shape in the Middle East in late antiquity, the Jewish one thrives much in the old way, as well as in new ones, and represents one of the oldest unbroken chains of learning among men, along with Confucianism and the study of philosophy. The advent of the study of Judaism in American universities must be seen from this perspective. Judaism is no parvenue in the world of the academy. A scholar whose task is the study of Judaism may represent a relatively new phenomenon within the American university, for until the late 1950's, only a few faculties included appointments in the subject of post-biblical Jewish learning; but there is nothing at all new about scholarly study of, or within, Judaism. If a scholar has achieved sufficient training in the classical tradition, its sources and methods, then he has become a new representative of a very old discipline. I do not stress this matter because antiquity by itself bears any great prestige in my mind, but rather because Jews themselves today celebrate their acceptance by the universities of America, as if they contributed nothing and conferred nothing. Given both their reverence for learning and veritable awe of the learned man, and also the persistence of these religious traits in cultural and secular forms, they bring to the university a rich appreciation of its central tasks, and their tradition makes its contribution as well. But the university as we know it is only the most recent, and at present not by any means the most important, setting for the enterprise of the Jewish intellect. My purpose here is not to argue the thesis that Jewish studies belong within the university curriculum, but rather, first to analyze briefly what these studies comprehend and, second, to adumbrate the place I believe appropriate for