Wellhausen and the Hasidim

Hasidism would seem to be a most unlikely place to find a hook on which to hang a contemporary Jewish theology that takes into account biblical criticism. Yet that is exactly where I am going to go in what follows, to present what I take to be a position that preserves the holiness of the Torah in the face of the historical-critical approach as to its authorship and composition. The use of Hasidism for this purpose has been tried before. I refer especially to Benjamin Sommer’s use of a novel interpretation of the giving of the Decalogue, by Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Horowitz of Ropshitz (d. 1815), in the name of his teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rymanov (d. 1815), as a source for Sommer’s own theology of biblical criticism, a view he calls “Torah as Midrash.”1 I believe, however, that the comment of the “Ropshitzer” on the Sinai revelation does not do the trick. Nonetheless, we do get from the Ropshitzer a trajectory, which if only followed uncompromisingly to the end would hit gold. I find gold—or more precisely a golden hook—in an aspect of the teachings of Reb Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810)

Art · Biblical studies · Criticism · Hebrew Bible · Interpretation (philosophy · Jewish studies · Jewish thought · Judaism · Linguistics · Literature · Midrash · Revelation · Theology · Torah · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity · Philosophy

• The Voices of Moses

  Open Access•Ariel Evan Mayse, Ariel Mayse•Harvard Theological Review•2019

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