Textual Sources for the Study of Judaism (review)

140 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 movements. His plays, for example, have roots in Przybyszewski and Wyspianski's dramaturgy. Peretz was a kulturtrager bringing European modern trends into the Jewish world and domesticating them. Peretz mattered to his age as, say, a Voltaire in his own time. He embodied in his person and performance a role model for the modernizing Jew. His moral stance and communal service still elicit admiration. Unfortunately Peretz's oeuvre, like Voltaire's, has mostly faded, as have most of his socio-political ~pirations. Like Voltaire, Peretz represents the best of his age, but his art and vision do not transcend it. This is why, the monograph only hints, Peretz is less compelling today. Seth 1. Wolitz Gale Professor ofJewish Studies University of Texas at Austin Textual Sources for the Study of Judaism, edited and translated by Philip S. Alexander. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. 198 pp. $13.00. This volume is part of a series entitled "Textual Sources for the Study of Religion," edited by John R. Hinnells. The purpose of the series is to provide for students of religion reliable translations of the major texts of various religious traditions. Towards this end, the volume before us provides texts for the study of Judaism arranged into ten groupings: Scripture and Tradition, Liturgy, Tales of Saints and Scholars, Religious Law, Ethical Literature, Philosophy and Theology, Mystical Literature, Modern Movements and Thinkers, Religion and Politics, and Society and the Jews. These excerpts are preceded by a series of essays, each of which introduces one of the categories of literature. By and large the excerpts chosen for inclusion make sense and offer a good example of types ofJewish writing. I do have a few quibbles: The' section on Scripture and Tradition, for example, is really devoted entirely to midrash. Here only four works are included: the first chapter and a half of Pirqe Avot (naturally enough), an excerpt from Targum PseudoJonathan , a piece from the Mekhilta, and the Thirteen Middot of Rabbi Ishmael. It seems to me that in this short a section, the iniddot of Rabbi Ishmael is not all that central, while an example drawn from a homiletic midrash would be quite nice. Or again, under "religious law" the only example drawn from Mishnah is Berachot Chapter 8, which lists the differences between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel. While Book Reviews 141 this summary is important, I would have liked to see something that would show the reader more directly what Mishnah is really all about and how it goes about doing its job. Yet in most areas I thought the choices were very apt: as his examples of three modern thinkers, Alexander has chosen Moses Mendelssohn, Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Solomon Schechter. These three triangulate wonderfully the perspectives that have given birth to the modern religious movements in Judaism. The section on "Religion and Politics"-which is devoted to Zionism-plays offtwo writers: Theodor Herzl and Asher Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'am). Among the other materials here are the Law of Return and the "Brother Daniel" court case. I have more problems with the introductory essays. My problems with them can be separated into two themes: the level of writing, and the picture ofJudaism they present. Let me take each in turn. It is not clear to me for whom these essays are written. At times they become involved in technical discussions that are beside the point, and much too complex, for the uninitiated reader (who, I assume, is the target audience for the series) while at other times they are too general and simplistic for the initiated. For example, in his introduction to "Ilturgy," Alexander spends a good deal of time discussing the various theories of what benediction was added to the Shemoneh Esra and whether it might have been Birkat Ha-Minim. At the same time, there is no overall orientation given to the logic, content, or organization of the liturgy. That is, the reader is assumed to know something of the liturgy already, enough to be plunged almost immediately into a secondary discussion of the liturgy's history. At the other extreme, I might choose his...