אברהם אבי המאמינים דמותו באי ההגות לדורותיה (The Faith of Abraham in the Light of Interpretation Throughout the Ages) [Hebrew] (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 313 Reviews ity of creating a standing order for all four volumes of what looks to be a clearly conceived, well executed, and highly useful reference work. Joel S. Kaminsky Smith College Northampton, MA 01063 jkaminsk@smith.edu hytwrwdl twghh yarb wtwmd Mynymamh yba Mhrba (The Faith of Abraham in the Light of Interpretation Throughout the Ages) [Hebrew]. Edited by Moshe Hallamish, Hannah Kasher, and Yohanan Silman. Pp. 361. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2002. Cloth. This comprehensive and most intriguing volume is a collection of twentyfour papers presented in a 1997 academic symposium at Bar-Ilan University, dedicated to the faith of Abraham. Seventeen out of the twenty-four contributors are from departments of Jewish Philosophy (and mainly from Bar Ilan University), which is quite understandable , considering the Hebrew subtitle of the volume (which slightly differs from the English one)—“His (i.e., Abraham’s) Image in the Mirror of Jewish Thinking Throughout the Ages (literally: ‘generations’).” The introductory essay by A. Ravitzky (“The Binding of Isaac and the Covenant: Abraham and His Sons in Jewish Thought,” pp. 11–38) is a true mirror of the whole volume, as it illuminates the main controversial issues discussed by most of the contributors. Following this essay, the articles are divided into three chronologically arranged sections, starting with the biblical period and concluding with I. Leibowitz’s Abraham. Section 1, Antiquity (pp. 41–112) includes: U. Simon, “Biblical Abraham—The Blessing of Contrasts”; A. Roitman, “The Book of Judith 5:6–9—A Forgotten Source Regarding Abraham’s Early Life”; M. Mach, “Faith, Practice and Learning—Abraham according to Philo”; N. Zohar, “The Figure of Abraham and the Voice of Sarah in Genesis Rabba”; M. Dubois, “The Figure of Abraham in Christianity”; R. Firestone, “Merit, Mimesis and Martyrdom: Aspects of Shiite Meta-historical Exegesis on Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Light of Jewish, Christian and Sunni Traditions (an English version has been published in JAAR 66 [1998]). Section 2, The Middle Ages (pp. 115–189) includes: E. Schlossberg, “The Binding of Isaac in R. Saadia Gaon’s Polemic against Islam”; Y. Silman, “Abraham in the Kuzari in its Systematic Contexts”; M. Turner, “The Patriarch Abraham in Maimonidean Thought”; R. Ben Meir, “Abraham in Nahmanides’ Thought”; M. Z. Nehorai, “The Binding of Isaac as a Leitmotif Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 314 Reviews in the Religious Consciousness of R. Hasdai Crescas”; S. Regev, “The Level of Abraham’s Prophecy according to Maimonides, Abravanel and R. Eliezer Ashkenazi.” Section 3, The Modern Period (pp. 193–360) includes: R. B. Shuchat, “Abraham’s Faith according to the School of R. Eliyah of Vilna: Intellectual Versus Revelationist Faith”; Y. Amir, “The Father of the Nations and the Faith Versus the Master of the Prophets in the Teaching of R. Nahman Krochmal”; J. Gellman, “The Figure of Abraham in Hasidic Literature”; A. Shear-Yashov, “Abraham’s Religiosity in Samuel Hirsch’s Philosophy of Religion”; R. Hurwitz, “The Models of the Religion of the Noahides and the Religion of Abraham in the Thought of Mendelssohn and S. D. Luzzato”; E. Meir, “Buber’s Dialogical Interpretation of the Binding of Isaac—Between Kierkegaard and Hasidism”; R. Margolin, “Abraham the Seer: Martin Buber’s Interpretation of Abraham’s Tests and its Hasidic Sources”; A. Rosenak, “R. Kook’s as a Halakhic Fundamentalist in the Light of His Attitude towards Abraham and the Patriarchs”; H. Kasher, “‘Look towards Heaven’—On Jewish Thought in the Footsteps of the Midrashim”; W. Z. Harvey, “Leibowitz on the Abrahamic Person, Faith and Nihilism.” The last contribution, rather than being an academic paper, is “A New Kabbalistic Midrash on the Binding of Isaac” by L. Ashkenazi z”l, based on a 1980’s oral presentation. Regretfully in this chain of generations, one significant link is missing. There is neither a specific article nor any indirect discussion on Abraham in the Mishnah (twenty-three references to him) or the Talmud (215 references in the Babli, fifty-one in the Yerushalmi). The title of the volume does not refer specifically to Jewish thinking; hence one would expect more than two articles (Dubois’s on Christianity and Firestone on Islam) discussing non-Jewish views on Abraham...