Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Geopolitical Journey, Part 6: Ukraine | STRATFOR

Geopolitical Journey, Part 6: Ukraine | STRATFOR

I will post later some  minimum, not maximum cards from Ukraine, from a partner/friend (he affixed whatever stamps he wanted onto his postcards).
I was told that it's illegal for a postal worker in Ukraine to postmark a stamp on the picture side.
Somehow, I'm not convinced. My investigation is ongoing. :)
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UPDATE



Monday, November 29, 2010

Should grammatically challenged writers make digs at grammatically challenged writers? An ironic sentence in an 1882 review of a "Chareidi" journal.

Henry Gersoni, an American Reform rabbi from Vilna[1], wrote many articles about all sorts of topics of Jewish interest in American periodicals, including William Rainey Harper's excellent Hebrew Student. In 1882 he wrote a short review of all the Hebrew periodicals of his time of which he was aware.

When it came to the Hungarian organ of the Ultra-Orthodox, the מחזיקי הדת, (which you can read here) he writes that it "amuses its readers with Kabbalistic hyperbole and ungrammatical Hebrew." Ironically, he adds that "the journal has existed since four years."



You can read more about the Machzikei Hadas newspaper here.

Interestingly, Gersoni is one of the first to write in English about the legendary Count Valentin Potocki in his sketch called The Converted Nobleman; a Historical Narrative. Not only that, he apparently is the one to supply a first name, as in no earlier account - whether in Polish or in English or in Hebrew - is Potocki's first name mentioned. His account will be analyzed, with some further information about the legendary Graf Walentyn Potocki, or Avraham ben Avraham Ger Zedek, martyr of Ilya or Vilna, in a future post soon.

Here is his entire article on "Periodicals in the Hebrew Tongue:"






[1] Gersoni's biography is rather interesting, and it's checkered moments will be discussed in the aforementioned upcoming post.

An American and British rabbi discuss* the Spanish origins of the Zoharic term Esnoga in 1857.

*In the broadest sense.

Here's a letter to the Jewish Chronicle dated August 14, 1857 discussing the Hebrew Zoharic term אש נוגה ("bright fire"). Apparently pioneering American Orthodox rabbi Bernard Illowy had written a letter to Isaac Mayer Wise's Reform newspaper the Israelite which "endeavored to who that esnoga" - Spanish-Portuguese for "synagogue" - "was derived from the Hebrew אש נוגה, applied in the Zohar to a synagogue."

The respondent in the JC asked one of London's most distinguished Spanish-Portuguese scholars, the Rev. David Aaron de Sola about it, and he replied that he doesn't think Illowy is correct. Instead of Esnoga being derived from אש נוגה ,אש נוגה was derived from Esnoga. de Sola explained how Esnoga comes from Synagoga, and has a Spanish prefix. He explains that "the E is constantly added by Spaniards to words of foreign origin, especially if they commence without a consonant." He is quite correct, although evidently he didn't understand the reason why, which is that Spanish doesn't allow initial consonant clusters, so out of necessity a vowel prefix was added.

De Sola does not profess to be familiar with the Zohar, requesting that Illoway should show which places in the Zohar he means. However, he says that it is "well known that in the Zohar there are many modern additions" and that this could be one of them.

Not knowing the Zohar and not knowing the literature about its authenticity, de Sola was nonetheless able to detect one of Rabbi Jacob Emden's proofs that the Zohar contains late additions, much the same way any of us would if the word "shul" was used in the Zohar in a Hebrew play on words of some kind, and if someone had then suggested that our word was derived from that Hebrew expression. (Oh yeah? You have a better example? ;-)

See third chapter in Yaavetz's מטפחת ספרים here.



Unfortunately only isolated pages of the Israelite are online, so I wasn't able to find Dr. Illowy's original piece. However, the natural place to look is in his son Dr. Henry Illoway's compilation of his letters and responsa, the מלחמות אלהים (Berlin 1914), which includes polemics written to the Israelite. Not included. Since it must have been part of a polemic, I can't help wonder if it wasn't included because the son knew that his father's suggestion was in error.

As for whether Illowy himself had seen or was even aware of מטפחת ספרים - which was probably rare in 1857 having been only printed once 90 years earlier - or not, I can't say. It's possible he was aware of it and in his opinion deriving Esnoga from אש נוגה was the solution to the anachronism. It is interesting that he was a student at the Rabbinical Seminary of Padua for a short while, and presumably Shadal taught his theory of the Zohar's origin there. Below is from his Vikuach the published version of his arguments in 1852:

"God bless you!" from Mother Teresa - maximum cards that I created with American stamps and Macedonian postcards, about this Albanian-Macedonian nun who felt (also) Indian in her soul






Thank you, Ana from Macedonia, for these 2 postcards! 
If I had more postcards, with various designs, I could have created more maxicards, but hey! :) .

"Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu[1] (pronounced [aɡˈnɛs ˈɡɔndʒa bɔjaˈdʒiu]), was a Catholic nun of Albanian[2][3] ethnicity and Indian citizenship,[4] who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.[5][6]

By the 1970s, she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary and book Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools."
CRISIS OF FAITH:
"Analyzing her deeds and achievements, John Paul II asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart."[81] Privately, Mother Teresa experienced doubts and struggles over her religious beliefs which lasted nearly fifty years until the end of her life, during which "she felt no presence of God whatsoever", "neither in her heart or in the eucharist" as put by her postulator Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk.[82] Mother Teresa expressed grave doubts about God's existence and pain over her lack of faith:
Where is my faith? Even deep down ... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness ... If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul ... How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."
"With reference to the above words, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, her postulator (the official responsible for gathering the evidence for her sanctification) indicated there was a risk that some might misinterpret her meaning, but her faith that God was working through her remained undiminished, and that while she pined for the lost sentiment of closeness with God, she did not question his existence.[85] Many other saints had similar experiences of spiritual dryness, or what Catholics believe to be spiritual tests ("passive purifications"), such as Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, who called it a "night of nothingness."[85] Contrary to the mistaken belief by some that the doubts she expressed would be an impediment to canonization, just the opposite is true; it is very consistent with the experience of canonized mystics.[85]
Mother Teresa described, after ten years of doubt, a short period of renewed faith. At the time of the death of Pope Pius XII in the fall of 1958, praying for him at a requiem mass, she said she had been relieved of "the long darkness: that strange suffering." However, five weeks later, she described returning to her difficulties in believing.[86"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa]

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Friday, November 26, 2010

WWF maxicards about Kampuchea/ Cambodia: The Banteng (Bos javanicus), The Water Buffalo or Domestic Asian Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), The Kouprey (Bos sauveli), The Gaur (Bos gaurus)


Stay away (or at least stay alert) from the crowds...including celebratory crowds, pilgrims, rioters, etc.
Not only bulls can create a deadly stampede.

Best wishes to the people of Cambodia! 
A country whose history is written in deep blood, especially because of their own countrymen, The Khmer Rouge members.

Read about the genocide: it's mind-boggling how the local power-players (and several countries!) have shifted alliances among them. Foe-turned-friend-turned-foe-turned....
What a tragedy...The Killing Fields...

On a more peaceful note (but remember the Latin adage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum ):
UL(upper left image): The Banteng (Bos javanicus), also known as Tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng, which are called Bali cattle. These animals are used as working animals, and for their meat.[2] Bali cattle have also been introduced to Northern Australia, where they have established stable feral populations.[3] *

UR: The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, north Africa, and elsewhere. * 

LL: Kouprey (Bos sauveli, from khmer [kuː prej] 'wild ox', also known as Kouproh or Grey ox) is a wild forest-dwelling ox found mainly in northern Cambodia but also believed to exist in southern Laos, western Vietnam, and eastern Thailand. It was discovered in 1937. *

LR: The gaur (pronounced /ˈɡaʊər/) (Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large, dark-coated forest animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The largest populations are found today in India. The gaur belongs to the Bovinae subfamily, which also includes bison, domestic cattle, yak and water buffalo. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the African buffalo, the extinct aurochs (the ancestor of domestic cattle), wild water buffalo or bison. It is also called seladang or, in the context of safari tourism, Indian bison. The domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal or mithun.

Thanks, Wikipedia.org - my most favorite website!

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

A unique manuscript shows how 13th century Jewish children begin studying Torah in Ashkenaz.

This is Seder Ha-limmud BSB Cod.hebr. 153(11) (link), a beautiful 13th century document which - I surmise - was used in a child's first Torah session. Presumably the father or rabbi would recite the letters and verses and the child would repeat.

The words on the left side are the verses תורה צוה לנו, Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob (link), and ויקרא אל משה, And the LORD called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tent of meeting, saying . . . (link). In between are two Kabbalistic versions of the אלפא ביתא. The first, Tashrak Tzaphas is the Aleph Bet backward grouped into "words," Ayak Bechar, which involves arranging all 27 letters (including the five finals) in a table three by nine. Then read horizontally, you get איק בכר, etc. Finally, there is an excerpt from a larger medieval teaching mnemonic like "The Quick Brown Fox," הקץ עצל דיך מנום גרש כזב פן תוסף חטא.



And with this a boy would begin to learn Torah (but no haircut).

Unfortunately I could find out nothing about this manuscript, except that I think it belonged to Johann Reuchlin's collection. It's in the Munich Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, the same library with the famous and unique Talmud manuscript (link).

Speaking of Reuchlin, while it's well known that he learned Hebrew grammar from Rabbi Ya'akov ben Yechiel Loans (Jacobus Jehiel Loans Hebræus as he refers to him) and Rabbi Ovadya Sforno (link), less well known is that he was initially taught the Aleph Bet and how to read Hebrew from a melammed named Kalman (Calman Judæus, Elementarius præceptor) and, no, I did not just make this up.

(A Hat-tip will be given if I get permission.) A Hat-tip to Amit Gvaryahu who linked to this ms. on his Facebook account. Nice find, Amit!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) - a dorincard/maximum card/maxicard/MC that I created using an Avery label to absorb the postmark ink. The postcard is very glossy - the postmark might have been ruined by that glossiness.


The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) species from USA is NOT the ancestor of the domestic turkeys that we butcher and devour every Thanksgiving Day.
"The domestic turkey [...] was domesticated from the South Mexican subspecies of the Wild Turkey."
So we have our domestic turkey from the other United States: The United Mexican StatesSpanishAbout this sound Estados Unidos Mexicanos ).

"Turkeys are popularly believed to be unintelligent, with claims made that during a rain storm turkeys will look up until they drown. Despite this image, the turkey is no more or less intelligent than a comparable animal,[6] and while the birds will look at the sky for up to a minute during a rain storm, this is due to a genetic nervous disorder known as tetanic torticollar spasms.[6] Other jests include that it is clumsy and too stupid to realize it can't fly, but both traits are due to modern breeding that makes turkeys much heavier than their wild relatives.[6]"

This frog likes some trees, but not the forest: The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) - WWF maxicard from Liechtenstein


Frogs, in general, are very sensible to pollution - birth defects will soon appear, with extra legs and various other deformities. They are a "barometer" of their environment. We should pay more attention at how we are destroying our planet, day after day.
We all should make more efforts to stop that destruction.
Or else.

"The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) is a small frog that can grow to a maximum length of 4.5 cm.

They are the only members of the widespread tree frog family (Hylidae)indigenous to Mainland Europe. Characteristic are the discs on the frog's toes which it uses to climb trees and hedges. There are three or four species and many subspecies:
  • Hyla arborea (Linnaeus, 1758) (common or European tree frog)
  • Hyla meridionalis Boettger, 1874 (Mediterranean tree frog or stripeless tree frog)
  • Hyla intermedia Boulenger, 1882 (Italian tree frog) (not always considered a species)
  • Hyla sarda (De Betta, 1853) (Sardinian tree frog)
The European tree frogs actually don't live in forests, but rather prefer sunny forest edges, bushy heaths, wet dune pans, wet scrubland and extensively used meadows and parks with ponds rich in submerged vegetation without fish nearby. These habitats are increasingly influenced by human activity. Hyla arborea, the common tree frog, is endangered in western Europe (nearly extinct in Belgium) while the more common Mediterranean tree frog lives in wet gardens, treegarths, vineyards, campings, and near pine trees."


A formidable predator: The American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), often simply known as the Bullfrog, in Canada and the United States

I like this image above because it shows the full body (extended legs can be seen in other images), not just the head, or just the eyes, as in my other MCs, that you can see down below in this blogpost.

I printed a mailable postcard (not simply a photo print) with it, at winkflash.com.


I attached a bullfrog stamp, because I will definitely create a maximum card with it - I just wait for a concordant (pictorial) postmark opportunity from anywhere in USA .


Tell me about the postmark in the maxicard below, an MC created by a good friend of mine - not quite visible, huh?
Also, the bullfrog looks like an ordinary little frog, judging by the little you can see out of the water.




"The American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)[1][2][3]), often simply known as the Bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is an aquatic frog, a member of the family Ranidae, or “true frogs”, native to much of North America.[4] "
"Stomach content studies going back to 1913 suggest the bullfrog preys on any animal it can overpower and stuff down its throat. Bullfrog stomachs have been found to contain rodents, small turtles, snakes, frogs—including bullfrogs, birds, even a bat, as well as the many invertebrates which are the usual food of ranid frogs."
"Prey motion elicits feeding behavior. First, if necessary, the frog performs a single orienting bodily rotation ending with the frog aimed towards the prey. This is followed by approaching leaps, if necessary. Once within striking distance, the bullfrog emits its feeding strike, which consists of a ballistic (eyes closed as during all leaps) lunge that ends with the mouth opening, extension of the fleshy and mucous-coated tongue upon the prey, often engulfing it, while the jaws continue their forward travel to close (bite) in close proximity to the prey's original location just as the tongue is retracted back into the mouth, prey attached. Large prey that do not travel entirely into the mouth are literally stuffed in with the forearms. In laboratory observations, bullfrogs taking mice usually dove underwater with prey in mouth, apparently with the advantageous result of altering the mouse's defense from counterattack to struggling for air."



Mobil Mahal Bukan Berarti selalu Elegan


In general, expensive car modifications oriented in one word. elegant, but not with this one. Amazingly, even though it looks like the car changed much, the German tuner creations are not exactly ugly.

Titan - Evo German tuner creations speedArt, taken from the base of the second generation Porsche Cayenne automotive exhibition to be presented at Essen Motor Show 2010. Not only is the outside view is working on, they even offer a package of engine power enhancer quite complete.

Upgrades are offered in the form of additional manpower 50hp/70Nm for diesel Cayenne, Cayenne S 70hp/50Nm for Hybrid and 100hp/150Nm to variants of the Cayenne Turbo. To boast about their creations as well give another name for the variant of the Cayenne are working on.

speedHYBRID 450, thus the new name of Hybrid Cayenne S, has the power to 450hp, so its ability to be able to match the Cayenne S. Acceleration 0-100 km / h, can now be achieved within the first 5.9 seconds 6.5 seconds. Maximum speed increased to 252 km / h from the previous which only 242 km / hour.

Especially for the Porsche Cayenne Turbo-based, consumers get a choice of power-enhancing package that could boost power by default to 550, 570 or 600hp.

TITAN-EVO name itself comes from the kit-Evo Titan aerodynamic body kit, consisting of front skirt, rear skirt, wide fender flares and the widening of the side-skirts.

In addition, speedArt also offers a sport exhaust system with sound adjustment feature for gasoline engines, and sport exhaust system with no sound arrangement for diesel engine versions.

Special Cayenne models with air suspension, speedArt also has an electronic module to reduce the height of the vehicle to look more flat, while for the conventional suspension, there is a spiral spring sport is shorter.

To be harmonious with the appearance of new, speedArt offer velek 23 inches from the CTS-Forged 11-inch width is mated with dimensions 315/25 ZR23 tires.
Wow very cool...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Frog species from Africa (Part 4): is this The Big-eyed Tree Frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus), or one of the other similar 48 species from genus Leptopelis? - dorincard/maxicard from Venda






Can YOU identify this species?

"Leptopelis genus of frogs found throughout Africa. They are medium sized, semi-arboreal frogs, with distinctively large eyes. They vary greatly in color and patterning, but as juveniles tend to be bright green in color, and as they age they turn to a brown. There are 49 species currently recognized, but most are not well understood and their taxonomic status can vary greatly by source. They have a number of common names, including forest tree frogsleaf frogs and big-eyed frogs."



Frog species from Africa (Part 3): The Grey Foam-nest Treefrog or Southern Foam-nest Treefrog (Chiromantis xerampelina) - maxi card from Venda



The Grey Foam-nest Treefrog or Southern Foam-nest Treefrog (Chiromantis xerampelina).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiromantis_xerampelina

Frog species from Africa (Part 2): The Angola River Frog or Common River Frog (Afrana angolensis) - maxicard from Venda



I found it in wikipedia.org not as Rana angolensis, as on the postcard, but as The Angola River Frog or Common River Frog (Afrana angolensis).


Frog species from Africa (Part 1): Anchieta's Ridged Frog or Plain Grass Frog (Ptychadena anchietae) - maximum card from Venda



Anchieta's Ridged Frog or Plain Grass Frog (Ptychadena anchietae).

Check this out: 
"Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grasslandrivers, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marches, hot desertsarable land, rural gardens, urban areas, and ponds."




The masses with a historical sense have needs too - a reflection on YouTubegate.

A YouTube video called Yeshiva guy says over a vort has been making the rounds. Incredibly for our little circles it has 30000+ views in one week. By the J-blogosphere standards, that's like Miley-Cyrus-getting-caught-wth-cocaine-at-a-traffic-stop viral. Clearly it struck a chord of some sort.

For some reason this was deemed worthy of a public response (here) "after consultation with Gedolei HaPoskim."

The author of the response, Rabbi Yair Hoffman, does not focus at all on the target of the video "Yeshiva guy says over a vort" since he realizes that the reason why "Yeshiva guy says over a vort" is because this is what he is taught. Therefore he intuits that the video is aiming for higher hanging fruit, and responds accordingly.

He summarizes three positions on how to interpret the Gemara Yoma 28b that states that the Avos (patriarchs) kept the Torah. Not surpisingly, there are three positions, which he terms maximalist, minimalist and middle-position.

Writing about the minimalist view, he says "The minimalist position believes that this Gemorah should be understood in a somewhat allegorical sense – in other words we should and must look and view the Avos and their children in the sense that they actually did perform all of the Mitzvos. Why so? There might be a tendency among the masses to view the patriarchs of Klal Yisroel in a somewhat lesser light because they did not have the sophisticated and more developed aspects of Avodas Hashem that we might have. “For Avrohom Avinu – a Bris Milah was a nisayon – for me – it is a spiritual experience that I look forward to..” – might be an example of such thinking."

After summarizing these positions he concludes "The overwhelming majority of Torah authorities, however, clearly and completely hold of the maximalist position, and this is the general position that should be taught in our Torah institutions. When one is involved in Kiruv or deals with people that have been raised in secular environments, it is the opinion of this author that all three positions should be presented. None of the positions, however, should ever be mocked or derided. This is not the Torah way."

This is extremely interesting to me. The part I bolded speaks of catering to the needs of the masses. What I believe happened here is that Hoffman doesn't realize, or care, that this is a contradiction to his conclusion. It is not only "people raised in a secular environment" in a "kiruv" setting who cannot stomach the maximalist position - and that's why the video was created.

Putting aside the contradiction or disparity - the "mainstream" default should be to teach only one position - the maximalist - while for assimilated people all three should be taught rather than only one - the minimalist or the middle position - Hoffman sees no need for catering to the masses who can't take the maximalist position, the type who made the video viral by 1) identifying with its message and 2) passing it on. He only sees the scoffers (secretly ensconced within the Orthodox community) but not the people, who are also the masses, who also need their religion and their teachers to make sense to them.

Interestingly, there is a parallel to my position in the work of Nachman Krochmal ("Renak"). In his posthumously published Moreh Nevuchei Ha-zeman he teaches some things which are still considered controversial at best within Orthodoxy to this day; the Deutero-Isaiah hypothesis, the idea that not only weren't the Psalms written by David, but many of them were written as late as the Hasmonean period, etc. His thesis was as follows: first of all, these things are the truth and can be demonstrated through careful analysis of the books themselves. Secondly, these facts were known to Chazal and other exegetes as well, and this too can be demonstrated through careful analysis of the sources. However, they concealed these views from the masses and did not teach the historical truth about the authors of these books. Rather, they taught an edifying literary history which would inspire the masses and spoke to their spiritual needs of the time.

He conjectures, for example, that belief in the Davidic authorship of Psalm 137 (Al naharot Bavel/ By the rivers of Babylon) at one time enhanced one's appreciation of prophecy. However in our own time (Krochmal died in 1840) all this was to the contrary. Given the rise of the critical spirit the contention that David wrote that Psalm is no longer plausible, thus teaching it as historical fact is not inspiring and does not enhance one's appreciation for prophecy - it has the opposite effect on the reader. Therefore the time had come to investigate and teach the actual literary history of the Bible and this would be appropriate and inspiring for the times - and true.

This does sound wacky, but I think it is fair to understand the internal logic behind positions, whether they seem wacky or not. At the time the Jews did not yet possess their own modern scholarly literature. So if you were looking for a scholarly, "critical" discussion of Judaism written with modern research methods and principles you essentially had to read the productions of German Protestants, or Jews who basically copied them or translated their works into Hebrew. If you read these, you'd learn that rabbinic Judaism was borne in the wake of an anemic, arid and declining biblical religion corrupted by petty legalism and unspiritual priests. At that time there was a renewal of pristine religion - Christianity - waiting in the wings. Thus the Second Temple period was viewed as a period of Jewish decline, lacking in creativity and vitality.

But what if some of the best works of the Bible were produced in this period? Everyone agreed the Psalms were awesome. What if they were produced for singing in the Temple during this period? What if the productions of the early rabbis were not the remaining embers of a dying creed, but a glorious bonfire of renewed creativity?

Thus Krochmal - who firmly believed that the modern critical approach was correctly discovering the true literary history of these books - was fully able to offer a counter-approach to modern anti-Jewish scholarship. Judaism was vital after all. The 2nd Temple period was not the end of Judaism - it was the beginning of Judaism! By contrast, in earlier times the idea that all of Judaism was of the greatest antiquity was inspiring, and for that reason alone the rabbis taught it. I suspect Krokhmal would have been shocked to learn that in 2010 there would still be plenty of Jews who found the old approach inspiring, but facts are facts. People may couch questions of authorship in terms of heresy, but it's hard to make a convincing case that there's a dogma about who wrote Psalms. Who cares if some Psalms were Hasmonean? Answer: the people who care. I think that it's really a question of which religion people prefer - one substantially developed and similar to what it's like today in the very earliest times, or one in which development also occurs later.

Unfortunately it gets murky, because its no longer 1840 and Krochmal had the luxury of believing fully that the Torah was revealed to and written by Moshe even while adopting the critical approach, while at the same time today the scholarly position does not pass judgment on how vital or spiritual Judaism was in relation to Christianity.

Here is Krochmal's introduction: