2008 Woodie Awards
Mobilizing the Tanakh Revolution
Dr. Rabbi Mordechai Z. Cohen's "Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor"
Menachem Wecker
Issue date: 5/16/05 Section: Arts & Culture
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Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor:
From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi
Mordechai Z. Cohen
ISBN 90 04 12971 5, Hardcover, 2003
Hardback (xviii, 378 pp.), US$ 160
Brill Academic Publishing
http://www.brill.nl
Eager anticipation and anxiety filled the air, as the Bnai Israel assembled about the mountain. It was the promised day upon which they were to receive the Ten Commandments; they did not quite know what to expect from a godhead who had just unleashed the Devil upon the Egyptian's firstborns. Down came Moses with the tablets, and then if we freeze the camera for a second, let us consider the people's two options. They could have looked at what Moses carried and said (with Egyptian accents, to be sure), "Look at that wonderful example of Jewish sculpture! Let us all go create our own work to glorify God," or, as history chose for them, they decided to ignore the materiality of the tablets, and instead responded to the tablets as simply legalistic texts. An opportunity for Jewish Art-few and far between-was lost.
Sitting in Mordechai Z. Cohen's "Introduction to Bible" course a couple of years ago, I could not help but think that there was finally an attorney for biblical literature. Cohen's "Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor: From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi" aims to provide "a cultural perspective that enables [readers] to appreciate the mefarshim as real people who encountered the sacred text with respect for the tradition but also with a desire to add their own perspective," Cohen told The Commentator.
In the introduction, Cohen acknowledges "a profound debt to my teacher (and now my colleague at Yeshiva University) Professor Will Lee, who introduced me to the magic of metaphor in English literature and inspired me to explore its workings in Scripture." Having attended several of Professor Lee's courses as well, I definitely see a similarity in both professors' methods which manage to speak two languages simultaneously: one scholarly, which involves closely reading texts, and the other a more personal approach to exploring specific thinkers.
From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi
Mordechai Z. Cohen
ISBN 90 04 12971 5, Hardcover, 2003
Hardback (xviii, 378 pp.), US$ 160
Brill Academic Publishing
http://www.brill.nl
Eager anticipation and anxiety filled the air, as the Bnai Israel assembled about the mountain. It was the promised day upon which they were to receive the Ten Commandments; they did not quite know what to expect from a godhead who had just unleashed the Devil upon the Egyptian's firstborns. Down came Moses with the tablets, and then if we freeze the camera for a second, let us consider the people's two options. They could have looked at what Moses carried and said (with Egyptian accents, to be sure), "Look at that wonderful example of Jewish sculpture! Let us all go create our own work to glorify God," or, as history chose for them, they decided to ignore the materiality of the tablets, and instead responded to the tablets as simply legalistic texts. An opportunity for Jewish Art-few and far between-was lost.
Sitting in Mordechai Z. Cohen's "Introduction to Bible" course a couple of years ago, I could not help but think that there was finally an attorney for biblical literature. Cohen's "Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor: From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi" aims to provide "a cultural perspective that enables [readers] to appreciate the mefarshim as real people who encountered the sacred text with respect for the tradition but also with a desire to add their own perspective," Cohen told The Commentator.
In the introduction, Cohen acknowledges "a profound debt to my teacher (and now my colleague at Yeshiva University) Professor Will Lee, who introduced me to the magic of metaphor in English literature and inspired me to explore its workings in Scripture." Having attended several of Professor Lee's courses as well, I definitely see a similarity in both professors' methods which manage to speak two languages simultaneously: one scholarly, which involves closely reading texts, and the other a more personal approach to exploring specific thinkers.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
gershon
posted 12/25/07 @ 4:17 PM EST
dear sirs
in my limited understanding, as a non-phloshopher and a poshute yid, i was taught that no - one who learns tnach without gemara, shulchan aruch , mishna or pokim can be called a talmid chacham. (Continued…)
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