Fackenheim: German Philosophy and Jewish Thought (review)

94 SHOFAR Fall 1993 Vot 12, No. 1 in Halakhah, etc.); and "Posttalmudic Ethics" (Medieval]ewish Philosophy, Jewish Pietism and Mysticism, Jewish Enlightenment and Ethics). By lumping together into blocks such diverse materials, Falk is forced to give us impressionistic overviews rather than nuanced characterizations ofwhat the sources actually are saying. Take for example Falk's conclusion to his chapter on choice and intention in Biblical ethics. He states (p. 62), ". .. biblical this-worldliness and rejection of quietism explain the appreciation of the physical aspects and effects, sometimes even at the expense of intentionality." By labelling this "biblical" rather than "Israelite," Falk is correctly signalling that this is the view of the texts rather than of all Biblical Israelites. But it will still hardly do to say that this is the view of all of the Bible's texts. Rather, Falk has universalized in extremely broad strokes one theme that is adduceable from some of the Biblical materials. In short, his discussion of Biblical ethies turns out not to be about Biblical Israel, or even about the Biblical texts, but about how the Bible can be read from a certain modern traditionalist perspective. This same critique applies to Falk's analyses in the rest of the book, none of which ought to be seen as scientific analyses of historical Judaic views on ethics. Philo, for example, is accorded 21 lines; Josephus, 17; Avot barely a page; and entire social movements such as Chassidey Ashkenaz not quite three pages. In the end, then, the book must be read as something different entirely. What we have is a portrait by a sensitive and widely read thinker of how the vast literature of the Jewish past can be read so as to give shape to a socially engaged modern halakhah. This book is an eloquent call for a humane and morally sensitive halakhah that both maintains its integrity and yet is unafraid to be part of the modern world and its search for ethical norms. Peter J. Haas Department of Religious Studies Vanderbilt University Fackenheim: German Philosophy andJewish Thought, edited by Louis Greenspan and Graeme Nicholson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. 300 pp. $50.00. Fackenheim: German Philosophy andJewish Thought comprises ten richly diverse, often provocative, always interesting essays, followed by Fackenheim's searchingly careful response to each contributor in the form Book Reviews 95 of a self-reflective overview of the developments and directions of his thought over a span of nearly sixty years. The contributors themselves provide Fackenheim with the guideposts as to where to pause, emphasize, clarifY, and correct both his own and his critics' thought. The essays are fittingly divided into two sections, each devoted respectively to the areas where Fackenheim has pioneered, and is still pioneering, needful, innovative routes: 1) German philosophy, with special regard to Kant (and moral categories), Schelling (and revelation), Hegel (in toto, markedly the connection of thought to life), Kierkegaard (and his Christianity), Rosenzweig and Buber (and their philosophies which take seriously the individual, and their move from the particular to the universal), and Heidegger (with whom, as is well known, Fackenheim firmly breaks); and 2) Modern Jewish Thought, where, especially since the war of 1967, Fackenheim's thought, always also philosophical, has developed, through pain and compelling courage, with an increasing accent on theological questions, with a current culmination in a new beginning of exploration for philosophy and religious thought: the 614th Commandment. Space permits only one comment for each contributor, but to be stressed is that the collection as a whole, besides its indisputable scholarly contribution to, and evocation of further focus on, Fackenheim's thought in an informed arena, will be of service as an excellent entree to new students of his thought, to be used, perhaps, as a stimulating companionpiece to The Jewish Thought of Emil Fackenheim: A Reader, edited and introduced by Michael 1. Morgan (Wayne State, 1987). The book serves, through Part J, to demonstrate forcibly the value, depths, and range of Fackenheim's understanding of German philosophers . Fackenheim states his indebtedness to Laurie McRobert for showing him, in her tightly knit essay, "Kant and Radical Evil," how Kant still plays a role in his later writings...