The Star of Redemption by Franz Rosenzweig, Kachav HaG’ulah (“The Star of Redemption”) by Franz Rosenzweig (review)

728 BOOK REVIEWS One may wonder if Rotenstreich concludes with A. D. Gordon to end with an emphasis of Judaism identified with the concept of history. Gordon stresses the harmony between man and the world, and this ideal, in turn, requires action directed toward the world. Another aspect of Gordon's work that has great appeal to the contemporary Jew, especially the Israeli Jew, relates the essence of religion to the creative genius of the people from whom it stems and to the unity between man and the world. These two basic elements of religion are, of course, contained within Jewish monotheism. Rotenstreich ends his presentation by posing two questions for the contemporary Jew. The first question may be expressed as follows: Now that Judaism has re-entered the stream of history, does the present generation have any need for a revealed, pre-ordained Judaism? The second question asks: What meaning historical continuity can have for the Jewish people if it is devoid of Jewish content? The ancient challenge of the universal within the context of the particular is an ever-recurring theme. Will the experience of the Jewish people in Israel present new opportunities for the development of authentic Jewish thought with universal relevance? Will it be able to validate itself out of its unique and particular insights and experiences? Through his interesting, challenging, and thought provoking presentation we, together with Rotenstreich, have an opportunity to engage in study about past philosophic formulationswhich indicate a continuing concern on the part of Jewish theologians and philosophers to relate Jewish religious thought to contemporary life and thought. This exploration of the past, through this valuable and interesting presentation, will enable us to walk with Rotenstreich toward the future in the spirit of bold adventure. St. John's University Jamaica, N. Y. RABBI LEONARD w. STERN The Star of Redemption. By FRANZ RosENZWEIG, tr. WILLIAM W. RALLO. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, N. Y. 1970. Pp. 463. $10.00. Kachav HaG'ulah ("The Star of Redemption"). By FRANZ RosENZWEIG, (Hebrew), tr. JosuuA Al\nR, intro. Moshe Schwartz, Mossad Bialik a d L?o Baed: Irstitute, Jerusalem 1970. Pp. 437. W. Hallo's Emclish translation and J. Amir's Hebrew translation of Franz Rosenzweig's Stern der Erloesung make accessible to the readers of these languages one of the most important and influential works in twentieth- BOOK REVIEWS 7~9 century Jewish philosophical theology-and an extremely important work at any time and for many purposes. Previously there had been good reason to believe that this book could never be successfully translated: it tackles a large number of extremely difficult and complex tasks (among them a very high-level metaphysics, an ambitious universal historiography, an involved philosophical theology, elaborate theologies of Judaism and Christianity largely in terms of their liturgies, etc.) -it does all this within the ambiance of classical German culture in general and largely as an extrapolation of the philosophical configuration of Hegel and Schelling in particular -and it does it with an extraordinary amount of reliance on the meaningfulnesses of the philology and implications of the German language. Let it be said, then, at the very outset that, in the face of these and other seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Rallo and Amir have brought off the miracle of rendering The Star of Redemption into not only comprehensible but even smooth English and Hebrew respectively. Substantively the book remains, of course, extraordinarily difficult. Even so, if only because from the frequently multiple simultaneous levels of meaning in the German only one could be preserved in translation, the English and Hebrew versions are in some way more easily understandable than the original, albeit at the price of some unavoidable de-complexification. The history of the edition of The Star is itself a significant part of twentieth-century history. Rosenzweig wrote most of the book on postcards which he sent home from his army-stations during World War I. (Cf. N. N. Glatzer, Franz Rosenzweig-The Man and His Thought, N. Y. 1953) The first edition appeared in Frankfurt-on-Main, where he spent the rest of his short life, in 19~1. The Hebrew motto on the title-page is taken from Psalm 45...