124 - Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew

Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew

By Neil Gilman

Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1990. 289 Pp. $19.95.

The best single introduction to Jewish religious thought in print, Gilman's book covers all the bases, from God to Holocaust, from prayer to Torah. He neatly sails the narrow channel between orthodox literalism and liberal narcissism. His exposition is literate without being academic, accessible without being condescending. Gillman, who teaches philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, offers a concise exposition and synthesis of the religious existentialism of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig with the mysticism of Abraham Joshua Heschel.

According to ancient rabbinic legend, the shards of the first set of tablets Moses shattered were also reverently carried in the ark, along with the unbroken second set. As Gillman suggests, since we cannot live without sacred myth, the choice is only which mythic structure we will choose. American Judaism is an ark filled with sacred fragments.

Rabbi Lawrence Square Kushner, Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley, Sudbury, Mass.