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May 30, 2003/Iyar 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 40
Scholar espouses spirit of Jewish rational thought
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Is Judaism truly monotheistic? Do Jews deny scientific views of creation? Was the exodus a failure?
Professor Kenneth Seeskin will provide answers to these questions when he visits the Valley June 5-7, in celebration of Shavuot. He was invited by Temple Beth Sholom and Temple Emanuel of Tempe, where he will lecture.
Seeskin says he taps into his 30 years of experience at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and teaches in a "no compromise way."
"I like to be controversial. I like a kind of 'in your face' teaching style," he says. "I'm going to throw you something you're not used to seeing or hearing, and it's going to knock you off your perch."
People's gut reactions to the lecture of whether Judaism is monotheistic are "of course it is," he says.
"But monotheism is more than a claim about arithmetic," he notes.
If Jews believe they are monotheistic simply because they recite the Shema - Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one - then they do not understand what monotheism is all about, he explains.
"(Monotheism) is much more about the kind of God. ... That's where I would suggest that there's an awful lot in Jewish tradition that is in fact not monotheistic, or at least not obviously so."
Seeskin's academic specialty is the 12th-century scholar, Moses Maimonides, and the "rationalistic spirit of Jewish thought" that he represents.
Judaism must make rational sense, Seeskin says. For this reason, he downplays miracles and mythology in Jewish tradition, as well as ecstatic teachings and even ethnicity.
"My Judaism is a world view that can be rationally defended," he explains.
Mainstream Jewish thought is moving in the opposite direction from rationalists like Maimonides; there is too much emphasis on mysticism, feelings of belonging and personal spirituality, he says.
Seeskin says this phenomenon is unappealing.
"Intellectually, it is just thin," he says. "I want to see more to chew into, more content."
Seeskin was born in Columbus, Ohio, but his family moved to Detroit when he was an infant. Two years later, they moved to Chicago.
Seeskin attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate and Yale University for graduate school. He accepted an offer to teach at Northwestern in 1973, where he has remained ever since.
Seeskin has written a number of books, including "Autonomy in Jewish Philosophy" (Cambridge University Press, $60 hardcover), and "Maimonides: a Guide for Today's Perplexed" (Behrman House, $14.95 paperback).
He also won the Koret Jewish Book Award in 2001 for "Searching for a Distant God: the Legacy of Maimonides" (Oxford University Press, $52 hardcover). In 1998, the Koret Foundation, in association with the Foundation for Jewish Culture, established the awards "to height-en the visibility of the best new Jewish books and their authors," according to the Web page, www.koretfoundation.org.
Whether mainstream Jewish thought will soon swing like a pendulum back to rationalistic thought is unclear, says See-skin.
"If the majority of people ... believe what I believe, I would sit down and immediately rethink it," he says. "Unlike a lot of people, I am quite comfortable with being in the minority."
Seeskin says he sees himself as a religious gadfly.
"There's a part of me that really thinks that is part of what it is to be a Jew."
Details
- What: "Is Judaism really monotheistic?"
- When: 8 p.m. Thursday, June 5
- Where: Temple Beth Sholom, 3400 N. Dobson Road, Chandler
- Call: 480-897-3636
- What: "Do we deny scientific views of creation?"
- When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 6, during Shabbat services
- Where: Temple Emanuel of Tempe, 5801 S. Rural Road.
- Call: 480-838-1414
- What: "The exodus was a failure"
- When: 9 a.m. Saturday, June 7, during Shabbat services
- Where: Temple Beth Sholom
- Call: 480-897-3636
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