Confronting Creation: How Judaism Reads Genesis: An Anthology of Genesis Rabbah (review)

Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 169 Reviews volume is exacerbated by the work's physical layout. The list is definitely not "user friendly." In addition to the constant irritant of having to look in another volume to check an abbreviation, it is very easy to miss additional entries under the same root because the separate entries are not set off adequately . The abbreviations, diacritics, choice of typefaces, and lack of spacing between sub-entries, presumably out of an admirable desire to conserve space, makes the list very hard on one's eyes. 1.1. M. Roberts Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton, NJ 08542 CONFRONTING CREATION: HOW JUDAISM READS GENESIS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GENESIS RABBAH. By Jacob Neusner. pp. xii + 385. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, 1991. Cloth, $24.95. Jacob Neusner has selected from Genesis Rabbah passages which he believes are "especially striking and compelling for Jews today" in order to "enrich the weekly study of Torah lection." The selections are grouped according to the weekly lectionary portions and generally arranged in textual order. In addition, Neusner has introduced each passage with "a brief statement of the point to which I believe the passage is relevant" and concluded it with "a remark on what I think is important in the citation" (p. xii). The book is introduced by a preface which points out that, contrary to many modem interpreters, Judaism is defined by the rabbinic writings, not by the Bible alone; a twelve-page introduction which summarizes Neusner's understanding of Genesis Rabbah as a response to the institutionalization of Christianity in the fourth century; and a prologue which explains the mode of interpretation found in Genesis Rabbah. The book concludes with indices of sages and their teachings and of biblical and rabbinic sources. The translation of each selection and the bulk of the comments following each selection are drawn from Neusner's complete translation, Genesis Rabbah (3 vols. Brown Judaic Studies. Atlanta: Scholars, 1985). The translation is easy to read, sometimes interpretatively periphrastic and supplemented by explanatory phrases in brackets when necessary. Slips are Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 170 Reviews occasional, for example, in I:V.l.A the Psalm verse has been mixed up (p. 28) and in I:V.l.L "who" is required for grammatical sense (p. 29). The first Torah portion, Bereshit, receives the greatest attention (100 pp.) here as in Genesis Rabbah itself. Neusner subdivides Bereshit under the topics "Creation," "Man and Woman," "The Sabbath," "The Garden of Eden," and "From Adam to Noah." The other eleven parashot receive fifteen to thirty pages each, with comments on them becoming more brief toward the end of the book. For example, a long, detailed exposition of Joseph's meeting with his brothers (pp. 323-330) is introduced as an elaboration of details of the narrative and briefly summarized with an allusion to resurrection at the end. Since Neusner is drawing from the contents of Genesis Rabbah seriatim, he is limited in the coherence he can give to his choices for each Torah portion. In Hayye Sarah (Gen 23:1-25:18) he chose six passages concerning prayer, refuting one's enemies, Abraham's virtues and lovingkindness, the emergence of a new generation of leaders. etc. The recurrence of many of these themes throughout the book provides a loose consistency and unity. This anthology carries out part of Neusner's program to reinterpret rabbinic literature historically and literarily for Judaism. Thus he does not stress philological details and comparisons of literary units found in several rabbinic sources, but the whole document's overall strategies, modes of expression, world view, and thematic unity. A consistent logic, set of rhetorical expressions, and religious interests characterize Genesis Rabbah and set it off against other midrashim and rabbinic documents with which it shares much common material. Most often a base verse from Genesis is interpreted in itself or an intersecting verse from another book is used to illuminate the Genesis verse (a form of the proem). In other cases a series of verses is used to support a thesis put forth by the authorship of Genesis Rabbah. (See Neusner's Comparative Midrash: The Plan and Program of Genesis and Leviticus Rabbah [Atlanta...