The Jews: A History

I have started reading this book. After reading through the first 2 chapters, I have found two different statements that an author makes (there are 3 authors) that seem to be misleading:On page 26, an author states, “Those who wrote Genesis and other books in the Jewish biblical canon do not seem preoccupied with how to overcome death or how to get into heaven—the familiar concepts of Heaven and Hell simply do not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Instead, what the Israelites described there seem to aspire to is a long, prosperous life and many children, the latter a kind of virtual immortality that sustained a person’s memory after death.” This statement seems misleading. Let’s look at what the text of the Hebrew Bible has to say about life after death and about Heaven and Hell:“But the LORD...hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness…The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:7, 8, 17)“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7:9, 10)“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)“But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.” (Psalm 49:15)“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:9-11)“...A Psalm of David. The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips….He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.”(Psalm 21:1, 2, 4)“And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:26-27)“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” (Isaiah 26:19)“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (Psalm 73:24)“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven...And Elisha...saw him no more.” (2 Kings 2:11, 12)“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24) For God to take Enoch away from his life hundreds of years earlier than the lifespan of other people living then implies that God was taking him to a better place, as a reward. It would make no sense for God to take someone who was walking with Him out of this life early if there were no other life to take him to.“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)“Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” (Isaiah 41:4) "With the last" implies that these "last" live eternally.In 1 Samuel 28:15-20, Saul gets a woman to hold a séance and bring Samuel back from the dead:“And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.” (1 Samuel 28:15-20)“And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.” 2 Kings 13:20-21“And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him…And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” (1 Kings 17:17, 20-22)"...the righteous hath hope in his death." (Proverbs 14:32)"And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people." (Genesis 49:33)These verses indicate that the ancient Hebrews believed in an afterlife.On page 48, one of the authors states, “what we have in 2 Kings 22-23 is a description of how one of the books of the Five Books of Moses came to be published, which suggests in turn that the biblical canon was already developing even before the exile. This incident happened not long before the Babylonian Exile, however, and from what we can tell, Judahite religion before this was not scripture centered: figures like David consult prophets when they want to discern the will of God and are never depicted in the Bible reading the laws of Moses or trying to make sense of its content.” This statement seems misleading to me. The following verses show that David knew the Law of Moses and tried to follow it: “Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:” (1 Kings 2:1-3) “And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song…For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.” (2 Samuel 22:1, 22, 23) In 2 Samuel chapter 6, after someone was struck dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant when they were carrying it in a cart (which was NOT the proper way to move it according to the Law of Moses), the next time they moved it, there were men who "bare" it which WAS the proper way to move it according to the Law of Moses. This indicates that they had consulted the Law of Moses to see what the proper way to move it was. Moreover, in 1 Chronicles, it is explicitly stated that they changed the way they bore the ark to conform to the law of Moses. "Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever…And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab, And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the LORD." (1 Chronicles 15:2, 11-15) There is also an indication that Samuel knew the Law of Moses. “And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.” (1 Samuel 12:6-7) There is an indication that Law of Moses was familiar to people in the time of Solomon. In the book of First Kings, the writer refers to Deuteronomy 7:3, 4 and paraphrases it: “Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.” (1 Kings 11:2) In the Psalms, there is also a lot of emphasis put on the Word of God. Psalm 19:7, 8 says, "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Psalm 37:31 says, "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Psalm 78:5-7 says, “For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:” Psalm 119, which is 176 verses long, has a reference to the Word of God in nearly every verse. The book of Proverbs also has a number of references to the Law of God, for example: Proverbs 28:4 "They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them." It is difficult to understand how the author equates all these verses with no emphasis being put on scripture.In the first 2 chapters of this book, the author makes many statements which indicate that he does not believe in the inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures. He seems to try hard to convince his readers that they are inconsistent and error filled. But there is evidence that the Hebrew Scriptures are inspired by a Higher Power. The Hebrew Scriptures contain many statements that accurately describe scientific phenomena. The book of Job says, “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7) Thus, it accurately describes the polar ice cap that stretches over the North Pole without a continent being underneath it and the way that the earth hangs in the emptiness of space. “To make the weight for the winds” (Job 28:25) describes the fact that air has weight. “Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof” (Job 38:19) describes the fact that light is always moving at the “speed of light” and therefore dwells in a way rather than a place. If the physicians had paid attention to the Bible, they would never have practiced bloodletting because the Hebrew Bible says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood:” (Leviticus 17:11) This verse accurately describes the fact that oxygen, nutrition and defense from pathogens, all of which are necessary for life, are provided by elements in the blood.There is also the miracle of the nation of Israel. Many of the events which have occurred in Israel over the last 100 years were prophesied thousands of years ago. “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves” (Ezekiel 37:11-13) This describes the return of many Jews from Europe to the land of Israel after the Holocaust. "Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;" (Isaiah 43:5, 6) These verses describe the return of Jews to Israel from places such as western Europe after the holocaust, "the west", Russia, "the north", Ethiopia, "the south", and the Arab lands east of Israel, "the east." There is also the fact that Israel has survived as a nation in spite of the many attacks it has been subject to. If you look at all of this evidence it is rather difficult to discount the hand of Providence as the author seems inclined to do.On page 192, in reference to Rashi, the author states, "His scholarship and that of his sons and disciples had a tremendous impact on the study of both the Bible and the Talmud throughout the Jewish world." Rashi actually never had any sons. He had daughters who married prominent Talmud scholars. I think the author is actually thinking about Rashi's sons-in-law and grandsons when he says "sons."I will be adding to this review as I continue reading the book.

An outstanding up-do-date one volume text on Jewish history is urgently needed. I hoped this book would meet the need. It does so, but only partly. In particular, three types of problems are disturbing. To start with minor issues, the text itincludes errors of facts. Thus, in provides a misleading title of Herzl’s foundational book, namely “The Jewish State”, instead of the correct version “The State of the Jews” (the German original title is “Der Judenstaat”). This is very misleading, as increasingly recognized in recent publications. Another grave factual error is presentation of the Jewish Agency as a “government office”. And so on, such as the radical error of regarding expanding social media as necessarily “greater democratization of the news”. Even more serious are major ommissions. Thus, the High-Tech Start-Up Israeli advanced economy is not even mentioned; and the fateful conflict with Iran and the dangers of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East are ignored. This omission is all the more glaring in view of the overlong and detailed discussion of antisemitism in the USA and, in particular, at universities. What is more dangerous to the future of Jews, Iranian nuclear weapons or antisemitism in the USA? Clearly the authors have not asked themselves such questios when planning the book and its space allocation. Most damaging of all is lack of historic depth. Thus, main problems of Israel are a result of lack of Jewish experience with having a state. Therefore, for instance, collective memory of Biblical short-life Israeli triba-Royal states fill the vacuum with misleading atavistic consequences. And the most interesting issue of long-term creative existence of the Jewish peope does not receive philosophy of history and theory of macro-history attention.This omission pushes parts of the book towards surface discourse, impairing its ability to lead students and other readers to deep understanding – as is imperative for a text book. But, reading the book as a whole, as I did, does provide some sense of the “elan vital” of the Jewish people (to borrow as term from Henri Bergson, however rejected as “unscientific” when applied to the different context of biological evolution). This justifies four stars despite serious problems.Professor Yehezkel DrorThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Heavy, but needed this for my university course.