Sacred Books and Sacral Criticism

Abstract

T _HERE IS just a hint of paradox in the fact that while it has become fashionable in academic circles strenuously to query, or at least to reconsider, the traditional superiority of written to spoken language, popular speech continues to assert it. Yiddish offers a good example. If you try to tell a mildly recalcitrant Yiddish-speaking friend that he has to do something, he may well reply, Vu shtet es geshriben? (Where is that written down?). To take things a step farther, though, if-emboldened by this seemingly clear acknowledgment of the greater authority of a written instruction-you then triumphantly produce a copy of the handbook, letter, or computer card that clearly sets forth this obligation, he is likely to come back with a derisive, Azoi? Vos iz dos-a haylige shrift? (Is that so? What's that-Holy Scripture?). The point of this facetious example is to suggest that whether we speak Yiddish or not, we have a received sense that a written or printed text deserves greater respect than a verbal remark, and that such special status ultimately derives from a holy text. On the other hand, a familiar Hasidic tale takes a different view. The great Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, whenever he foresaw misfortune for the Jews, went to a certain part of the forest, where he lit a fire and said a prayer for divine intercession-which was then granted. His disciple Dov Baer, the Maggid (or Preacher) of Mezritch, inherited this ritual only imperfectly: not knowing how to light the fire, he nonetheless prayed to in the same place and his wish was satisfied. In the next generation, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov no longer knew the words of the prayer, but he went to the place in the forest and beseeched the Lord successfully. Finally, Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn, not even knowing the place in the forest, had no recourse but to recite the story-yet heard him. Eli Wiesel, who quotes this tale at the beginning of his novel The Gates of the Forest, adds, God made man because he loves stories, and no doubt the story seeks to justify the Hasidic penchant for storytelling. It also implicitly validates the utterance of the lips, especially in view of another tale about how a book in which a disciple