Historical Consciousness and Religious Tradition in Azariah de'Rossi's Me'or 'Einayim [Hardcover]

Lester A. Segal (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 194 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Pubn Society; 1st edition (November 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827603169
• ISBN-13: 978-0827603165
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,592,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting corner of Jewish philosophical development, April 11, 2009

By 

Andrew D. Oram (Arlington, Mass., USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Historical Consciousness and Religious Tradition in Azariah de'Rossi's Me'or 'Einayim (Hardcover)

Westerners think of skeptical approaches to Biblical texts as fairly recent in our history, but there are hints of critical thinking that go back centuries. That's the message I took from this book, and I found that worthwhile, but it's a rather narrow message in a work that is otherwise devoted to interesting but arcane academic investigations.

4.0 out of 5 stars useful but could have been better, December 12, 2004

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Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Historical Consciousness and Religious Tradition in Azariah de'Rossi's Me'or 'Einayim (Hardcover)

Traditional Jews have always been divided in their attitudes towards aggadah (that is, stories in the Talmuds and Midrashim written in the centuries after the Second Temple's destruction), as opposed to decisions about Jewish law, which Jews continue to follow). Mystical commentators tend to treat these stories as historical truth even if they seem absurd, while rationalist commentators tend to treat them as fables designed to make a point, and still others seek to split the difference in various ways. 16th-century scholar Azariah de Rossi subjected aggadic stories to historical criticism, and was criticized by mystics and pietists as a result.

Segal makes some effort to describe de Rossi's methods and his critics. However, he does not fully describe the substance of de Rossi's work. As a result, I found it difficult to understand some of Segal's discussion. (If Segal presupposes that readers have read de Rossi's work, his technique would be easy to understand. However, his first chapter is a mini-biography of de Rossi- a fact indicating that Segal assumes otherwise.)

But I still learned something from Segal's book- specifically, how far European Judaism had swung towards the anti-rationalist side of the debate, thus making Jews easy prey for delusions such as the Sabbatai Sevi movement of the 17th century. (Sevi was a false messiah who attracted considerable support).