Siblings: Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity at Their Beginnings (review)

Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991·. ~ .,_. .,' 139 and contrasts the resultant richness with the results of a thoroughly secular reading of the Song in an age empty of faith. Adela Yarbro Collins shows through comparison with the ancient Vedic hymns of India that Jewish and Christian allegorical reading of the Song is not unique in the history of religions . Historical criticism still predominates here despite occasional questioning . Other types of criticism are mentioned begrudgingly: feminist criticism by a brief reference to Trible and a footnote to Bernadette Brooten, structuralism and deconstructionism by one reference-in a bracket. 1. Edward Crowley Professor Emeritus University of Windsor Siblings: Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity at Their Beginnings, by Hayim Goren Perelmuter. New York: Paulist Press, 1989. 217 pp. $11.95. A major difficulty for many in understanding rabbinic Judaism is the strange narratives and discussions in the "Sea of the Talmud," those waters that seem so foreign and unchartered. Yet these are immensely fertile waters when a guide such as Hayim Perelmuter is available. Perelmuter draws on his many years of teaching rabbinic Judaism to offer here a guide for the serious neophyte who wants to understand rabbinic Judaism for itself and also in order to better understand the Christianity that is closely related to it. What Perelmuter provides here is a sensitive charting through the Talmud , focusing on eight central figures in the creating and shaping of rabbinic Judaism: Simeon ben Shetah, Hillel, Johanan ben Zakkai, Eliezer, Joshua, Akiba, Meir, and Elisha ben Abuya. In an extensive supplement he provides translations of selected texts relating to these figures. A very useful glossary of rabbinic terms and an index complete the volume. Perelmuter's guiding thesis is that, after the trauma of the destruction of the first Jewish state, there was a crucial mutation in Judaism, a revolutionary technique that made the survival of Judaism possible into the post-biblical period. In this mutation, demonstrated in the process that created the Midrash, every single Jew was made the bearer of the whole tradition. In this process, it was imperative that the Torah needed at once to be preserved and to be changed-thus arose the notion of the dual Torah, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. Perelmuter relies on stories from the Talmud to illustrate his thesis about continuity and change-the tale of Moses and Akiba, for example, or the dialogue between Joshua ben Hananiah and Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Perelmuter shows how the Talmud is full of such fascinating sto- 140 SHOFAR ries-the serious and the humorous, together with the tongue in cheek-and he himself has a keen sense for the meaning of these stories. All these stories together point the direction taken by Judaism. Perelmuter is careful to show the great diversity among the creators of rabbinic Judaism. There certainly was not a single party line, but rather sharp differences in education, life style, and perspective on life among the early rabbis. Perelmuter even brings in Elisha, teacher of Meir. Elisha apostasized in agony over the pain of God's absence, but in spite of that he and Meir remained friends, for those who continued in faith also felt the pain of the unanswered Jobean questions. Yet all of these rabbis, diverse though they were, helped to shape the process of survival through creative change and indestructible faith. An important theory put forth by Perelmuter is the notion of Judaism and Christianity as siblings (thus the title of the book). It is an incorrect view, he points out, to hold that Judaism is the parent and Christianity the child. Rather, early rabbinic Judaism was a mutation designed for survival after the destruction of the Jewish state, developing from the fourth century B.C.E. until 70 c.E. This is the common background for both rabbinic Judaism as it was reorganized around Yavneh, on the one hand, and the appearance of the early Christian gospels, on the other; these are parallel responses to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state. In this sense rabbinic Judaism and Christianity are siblings-with Judaism as long-range messianism and Christianity as short-range messianism. Perelmuter's work is a...