Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Introduction
- PART I THE FIRST MIRROR
- 1 Waking the Dead-Greece as an Ideal and an Exemplar
- 2 Hellenism and Hebraism: The Two Poles of the World
- 3 Israel and Greece: Reviving a Legendary Past
- 4 ‘Greek Wisdom’ as Secular Knowledge and Science
- 5 Japheth in the Tents of Shem: The Reception of the Classical Heritage in Modern Hebrew Culture
- 6 The Moral Dimension: Commonality and Particularity
- 7 Worlds without Compromise: Reconstructing the Disparities
- 8 Have Jews Imagination? Jews and the Creative Arts
- PART II THE SECOND MIRROR
- PART III ATHENS IN JERUSALEM
- Conclusion: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Worlds without Compromise: Reconstructing the Disparities
from PART I - THE FIRST MIRROR
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Introduction
- PART I THE FIRST MIRROR
- 1 Waking the Dead-Greece as an Ideal and an Exemplar
- 2 Hellenism and Hebraism: The Two Poles of the World
- 3 Israel and Greece: Reviving a Legendary Past
- 4 ‘Greek Wisdom’ as Secular Knowledge and Science
- 5 Japheth in the Tents of Shem: The Reception of the Classical Heritage in Modern Hebrew Culture
- 6 The Moral Dimension: Commonality and Particularity
- 7 Worlds without Compromise: Reconstructing the Disparities
- 8 Have Jews Imagination? Jews and the Creative Arts
- PART II THE SECOND MIRROR
- PART III ATHENS IN JERUSALEM
- Conclusion: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The purpose of the Romans was to give great honour to physical strength, which could at any moment be returned to dust; the purpose of the Greeks was crafts to enhance the glory of the body, which is an act of futility. But the purpose of the Hebrews was exalted above the dust and the beauty of Nature, a purpose which will reach to the heavens and which could be proclaimed in few words: intellect and a knowledge of God. To inform other nations of His glory would be their joyful path. Not in the name of a wisdom that is above Nature, but in the name of God and in the spirit of our faith …
PERETZ SMOLENSKIN, ‘Am olam’ (,Eternal People’)THE JEWISH TRADITION OF POLARITY
THERE was nothing new in the notion that Judaism and Greekness represent two different absolute moods of human nature. Therefore it is no wonder that some Jewish writers responded to the binary model in kind: by formulating a new absolute and abstract Jewish binary model.
In the Jewish tradition an uncompromising opposition by Jews and Judaism to ‘the nations of the world’, ‘the foreigners’, or the ‘Gentiles’ (goyim) was deep-rooted. The Jewish traditional view from the biblical era onwards intensified and brought into sharp focus the disparity between the Jews and the Gentile world, describing it as a world suffused with horrifying immoralities:
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. (Lev. 18: 1–3)
Josephus was very well acquainted with the claims made in anti-Jewish propaganda, in particular those criticizing Jews for an insularity resulting from their feelings of superiority. He also was familiar with the complaints about the contempt they showed for pagan cults. Hence, in this matter as well, he wrote in a spirit of apology: the Jews are not by nature devoid of humane feelings and do not hate those who belong to another race.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Athens in JerusalemClassical Antiquity and Hellenism in the Making of the Modern Secular Jew, pp. 188 - 219Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1997