Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature [Hardcover]

David Kraemer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195089006 | ISBN-13: 978-0195089004 | Publication Date: September 29, 1994

The existence of suffering poses an obvious problem for the monotheistic religions. Why does an all-powerful, benevolent God allow humans to suffer? And given that God does, what is the appropriate human response? In modern times Jewish theologians in particular, faced with the enormity of the Holocaust, have struggled to come to grips with these issues. In Responses to Suffering, David Kraemer offers the first comprehensive history of teachings related to suffering in classical rabbinic literature. Beginning with the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), Kraemer examines traditions on suffering, divine justice, national catastrophe, and the like, in all major rabbinic works of late antiquity. Bringing to bear recent methods in the history of religions, literary criticism, canonical criticism, and the sociology of religion, Kraemer offers a rich analysis of the development of attitudes that are central to and remain contemporary concerns of any religious society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An important and helpful contribution to rabbinic theology in general and, more directly, a sustaining message to those who suffered and will suffer."--Choice

"The first comprehensive history of teachings related to suffering in rabbinic literature of the ancient world."--Shabbat Shalom

"One of the very best encapsulations of the way Judaism has wrestled with the challenge of suffering that I have ever read, and it deserves to be commended to the widest possible audience....It is extremely approachable and is undoubtedly a source book that will lend itself to a wide variety of usages."--The Expository Times

"...an intriguing and very readable survey of rabbinic responses to suffering which is recommendable to the student of ancient Judaism, the rabbi and pastoral counsellor, as well as the interested lay-person."--Hebrew Studies

"...Kraemer has produced a commendable work of thorough assembling, judicious translating, and careful explicating of rabbinic texts bearing on a perennial and central issue in the history of Judaism and religions."--Critical Review

About the Author

David Kraemer, Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, Jewish Theological Seminary.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195089006
• ISBN-13: 978-0195089004
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,501,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History of Thought, But What Does It Mean?, November 5, 2002

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"krchicago" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature (Hardcover)

David Kraemer takes a historical approach to classical rabbinic responses to the problem of suffering (i.e., if God is omniscient, omnipotent and just, why do the good suffer?), reviewing their development through time, and comparing pre-rabbinic thinking in the Bible and in other sources. He approaches the classical rabbinic works as historical literary documents bound up in the social contexts of their times. Among other things, this means that he attempts to understand statements in a 5th Century document (for example) within the 5th Century historical setting, even though particular statements in that document may be attributed to rabbis of other centuries.

Kraemer provides a clear and careful reading of the texts he has chosen to review, from the Bible through the Mishnah, the Halakhic and Aggadic Midrashim and the two Talmuds. Somewhat oddly, to my mind, he does not discuss Lamentations in his review of Biblical literature on suffering, even though responses to the destruction of the Temple are a significant source of the rabbinic literature on suffering that he discusses. (For an excellent discussion of Lamentations and subsequent literature on it, see Tod Linafelt's "Surviving Lamentations.") Kraemer covers a lot of ground, however, and succeeds in tracing a broadening out of the allowable responses to suffering recognized in rabbinic literature. Where I felt the book fell short was in drawing any conclusions beyond this very general historical trend. For example, Kraemer demonstrates that the Bavli allows for a rejection of suffering and a questioning of God's judgment, but says nothing about what this might mean for the rabbis' theology or for their own legislative and judicial projects.

If you are simply looking for a review of the classical rabbinic literature on the subject of suffering, this is a superb book, readily accessible to non-scholars and highly recommended.