(God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought

218 Pages·1998·0.726 MB·English

by  Zachary Braiterman

(GOD) AFTER AUSCHWITZ

(GOD) AFTER AUSCHWITZ
TRADITION AND CHANGE IN
POST-HOLOCAUST JEWISH THOUGHT
Zachary Braiterman
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
COPYRIGHT (cid:1) 1998 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET,
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
BRAITERMAN, ZACHARY, 1963–
(GOD) AFTER AUSCHWITZ : TRADITION AND CHANGE IN POST-HOLOCAUST
JEWISH THOUGHT / BY ZACHARY BRAITERMAN.
P. CM.
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX.
eISBN 1-4008-0090-0
1. HOLOCAUST (JEWISH THEOLOGY). 2. THEODICY.
3. JUDAISM—20TH CENTURY. I. TITLE.
BM645.H6B69 1998 296.3(cid:2)1174—DC21 98-16318
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN GALLIARD
HTTP://PUP.PRINCETON.EDU
T O M Y G R A N D PA R E N T S
William Braiterman (z(cid:3)l), 1900–1993
Matilda Silver (z(cid:3)l), 1900–1995

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSIX
INTRODUCTION
Modernity Surpassed: Jewish Religious Thought
after Auschwitz3
PART I
ONE
Theodicy and Its Others: Forms of Religious Response to
the Problem of Evil19
TWO
Anti/Theodicy: In Bible and Midrash35
THREE
Theodicies: In Modern Jewish Thought60
PART II
FOUR
“Hitler’s Accomplice”?! Revisioning Richard Rubenstein87
FIVE
Do I Belong to the Race of Words? Anti/Theodic Faith and Textual
Revision in the Thought of Eliezer Berkovits112
SIX
Why Is the World Today Not Water? Revelation, Fragmentation, and
Solidarity in the Thought of Emil Fackenheim134
CONCLUSION
Discourse, Sign, Diptych: Remarks on Jewish Thought
after Auschwitz161
NOTES 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY 193
INDEX 201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
P
ARTS OF THIS BOOK were published under separate cover. The
following journals have kindly allowed me to reprint those mate-
rials here. Portions of Chapter 4 appeared as “‘Hitler’s Accom-
plice’?! The Tragic Theology of Richard Rubenstein,” in Modern Judaism
17 (1997); portions of Chapter 5 appeared as “Anti/theodic Faith in the
Thought of Eliezer Berkovits,” in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philoso-
phy 7, no.1 (fall 1997); and portions of Chapter 6 appeared as “Fideism
Redux: Emil Fackenheim and the State of Israel,” in Jewish Social Studies
4, no. 1 (fall 1997).
I would also like to thank the faculty and staff at the University of
Judaism where I spent the academic year 1995–1996 as a Finkelstein
postdoctoral fellow. This generous support allowed me the opportunity
to expand intellectual and social horizons.
Most of all, I am happy to acknowledge enormous intellectual debts
this project has accrued. In particular I want to thank Van Harvey, David
Biale, Edith and Michael Wyschogrod, Steven Zipperstein, Hester Gel-
ber, Einat Ramon, James Hyman, Ken Koltun-Fromm, Aryeh Cohen,
Elliot Dorff, David Ellenson, David Myers, Naomi Seidman, and the
anonymous reviewers at the aforementioned journals. I owe special grati-
tude to Arnold Eisen for closely reading countless drafts as supervisor of
what was then my doctoral dissertation. His line-for-line eye shaped and
sharpened this project (both in terms of content and form) from the very
start. Great thanks also go to Steven Kepnes and the anonymous reader
for their acute attention to this manuscript for Princeton University
Press. These people all forced me to grapple with questions that by my-
self I overlooked or underplayed. Their comments combined rigor and
concern for this project’s coherence. The book’s faults are my own re-
sponsibility. Last, I owe immeasurable gratitude to my brother Jared
Braiterman and to Margaret Karalis for their sense of style, boundless
humor, and critical insight.