Between Kant and Kabbalah: An Introduction to Isaac Breuer's Philosophy of Judaism (SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion) [Hardcover]

Alan L. Mittleman (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791402398
• ISBN-13: 978-0791402399
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,455,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Mittleman is director of the the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought, as well as professor of Jewish Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. As director of the Tikvah Institute, he develops programs and courses that promote constructive Jewish philosophy.

Dr. Mittleman is the author of five books: Between Kant and Kabbalah (SUNY Press, 1990), The Politics of Torah (SUNY Press, 1996), The Scepter Shall Not Depart From Judah (Lexington Books, 2000) Hope in a Democratic Age (Oxford University Press, 2009) and a Short History of Jewish Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell). He is also the editor of Uneasy Allies: Evangelical and Jewish Relations (Lexington Books, 2007), Jewish Polity and American Civil Society (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), Jews and the American Public Square (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), and Religion as a Public Good (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). His many articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in such journals as Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, the Jewish Political Studies Review, the Journal of Religion, and First Things. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Dr. Mittleman's current project is a book on human nature in Jewish thought.

From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Mittleman served as director of the major research project "Jews and the American Public Square," which was initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Under his direction, the project produced two national surveys of Jewish attitudes on public affairs, four volumes comprising forty scholarly essays, and fifteen conferences around the United States. He is the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship and served as guest research professor at the University of Cologne (1994 and 1996). He has lectured widely in Germany in the course of more than fifty trips to that country. Dr. Mittleman also received a Harry Starr Fellowship in Modern Jewish History from Harvard University's Center for Jewish Studies (1997).

Dr. Mittleman has been an active participant in interfaith dialogue throughout his career and has been interviewed by Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, and USA Today, among other periodicals, and has appeared on Fox News. He was also part of a leadership delegation that met with Pope John Paul II and has lectured at the Gregorian University in Rome. During the bicentennial of the US Constitution, Dr. Mittleman spoke on the meaning of religious liberty for American Jews in the chambers of the US Senate. He served on the Advisory Board of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In 2007, he was visiting professor of Religion at Princeton University.

Dr. Mittleman is an enthusiastic fly fisherman. He lives near a trout stream where he tries to fish 52 weeks of the year.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to rate--Jewish Orthodoxy vs. Science, reason, etc., January 5, 2005

By 

Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Kant and Kabbalah: An Introduction to Isaac Breuer's Philosophy of Judaism (SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion) (Hardcover)

This is a difficult book for the layman to read. It's written in an academic style and its' contents are philosophy and Orthodox Judaism including difficult concepts and arguments. I think the author did a very creditable job analyzing Breuer (as far as I can tell). He analyzes the influences and effects of Kant, Schopenhauer, Kabbalah, and others on Breuer and his works as well as to compare/contrast Breuer's works themselves as a development over time of his point of view and philosophy. In the last chapter, the author provides his own view of Breuer--both the plusses and minuses. I must agree with Oskar Wolfsberg's criticism (cited on page 84) that "Breuer evaded a genuine confrontation between science and Torah, that Breuer's system is thoroughly deductive, descending from dogmatic presuppositions and avoiding a scientific, presumably inductive method; tha Breuer's conclusuions sound too much like his premises, and that Breuer proceeds 'with the arrogance of the dogmatician' who knows everhtin in advance without a shred of evidence." But, I would extend this criticism to the entire book (sans the last chapter). I cannot say whether Mittleman's analysis of Kant is correct, but as a scientist, I certainly take issue with Breuer's view of science. I would go farther, since Breuer's philosophy addresses the "I," to say that he ignores psychology. Kind of astounding, really, especially when Jung and Freud were practically contemporaries of his. I agree with Mittleman that Breuer's usage of Kabbalah was only at the edges--he used it only for his own means--bending it to his will as he did Kant. Not that there's anything wrong with such syncretism in developing one's own philosophy. However, I strongly object to Breuer's turning the word "freedom" on its head. Essentially he transposes "freedom" for "slavery" (to the past) and "slavery" to "freedom" in the present (e.g. modern Democratic and Republican forms of government). Mittleman points out Breuer's rejection of personal freedom, but doesn't go far enough IMHO. I also object to the author's continued use of German (and other languages) vs. translating them into English (except for Breuer's neologisms). This may be academically wonderful, but for me it seem like affectation. We don't live in Jung's era anymore. This is somewhat analogous to Breuer who was caught between two worlds--modernity and the Orthodoxy with which he was brought up. Unfortunately, he did not reconcile the cognitive dissonance so readily apparent to his readers, failing to individuate and, indeed, heavily criticizing the process of individuation. His seems to me to be an act of desperation, an attempt against the impossible to reconcile the irreconcilable. His genius was that he accomplished what he did and serves as a remarkable example of a genius unwilling to step off the diving board into an unforeseen future--despite the fact that he was a major force in Orthodoxy attempting to establish their involvement in contemporary politics (e.g. the creation of Israel). So, I compromised and gave this book 3 stars. I can see someone shaking his contemporary head and giving it 1 star; I can see someone nodding his academic head and giving it 5 stars. Different strokes for different folks.