THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
84 Friday, September 21, 1919
ellfaimonides, Aquinas: Modern Appraisal'
MOISHE & MOLLY LEVIN
wish all our
relatives and friends
a healthy, happy,
prosperous New Year
MR, HERMAN LEVINE
AND FAMILY
wish their
friends and family a
happy, healthy New Year
New Year
Best Wishes from
THE PIECZENIK FAMILY
By RABBI MAX WEINE
Most appraisals of
medieval Jewish philos-
ophy are museum pieces.
They are historical or ana-
lytical in their treatment of
the material and they deal
with a past that has little or
no relevance to anything
contemporary.
Now, however, with
"Maimonides and Aquinas:
FRIEDELL & LEONARD WOLSON
AND FAMILY
wish all their
friends and family
a happy and
healthy New Year •
to all our
friends and relatives
SADIE & BONNIE YOLIA
We wish our relatives
and friends a
healthy and prosperous
New Year
wish their
friends and family
a year of
good health and peace
Elizabeth and Joseph Roth
MR. & MRS. JERRY ZEFF
AND FAMILY
AND SIMON BROZGOLD
Plano, Texas
wish their friends and
family a good and
happy
New Year
MR. & MRS. JOSEPH RUTMAN
AND FAMILY
wish their family
and friends a
year of good
health and happiness
Evelyn & Jack Munson
•
extend best wishes to all their
family and friends for a year
filled with peace,
health and happiness
•
(10
0r
E appycAiirjear
1979 • 5740
To Our Relatives
and Friends
MR. & MRS. NATHAN I. GOLDIN
Morrie & Eleanor Schwartz
and the staffof
MORR
E'S
Service Center, Inc.
24848 Southfield Rd., Southfield
557-9751
corner10 mile
557-1T47
Wish All Their
Relatives, Friends
& Customers
-_-. . .4
v
t
........,
- -' i / —
, ------ ,
A Happy, Healthy
NEW YEAR
( :
A Contemporary Apprai-
sal" by Jacob Haberman
(Ktav Publishing) we have
a book that bridges the past
and the present. One feels,
immediately upon reading
it, an attempt to evaluate
the philosophies of these
two giants in • the light of
present day thinking in the
fields of philosophy and
religion.
Haberman, who is an or-
dained rabbi and holds a
doctorate in religion and a
eegree in law and earns his
liN • _g in the business world,
at. oaches his subject with
a riousness that is occa-
sic ally relieved by a fine
sei se of humor.
'i he thesis that the
autlor presents in this
book is that both
MaiL , onides and
Aqui? ,as, the recognized
authorities in theology
for Judaism and Chris-
tianity respectively, tried
to ',lam .onize their tradi-
tional religious beliefs
with the prevailing
philosophies of their
times: Aristotelianism
and Neo-Platonism. They
did this in order to make
their inherited faiths
more acceptable to the
thinking people of their
times. (Aquinas lived
shortly after
Maimonides, knew the
work of the Jewish mas-
ter, and walked in his
footsteps.)
This resulted, however, in
forcibly fitting their reli-
gious traditions into a
strange pattern, with con-
siderable damage both to
their faiths and to their
philosophical backgrounds.
Maimonides, for instance,
uses Aristotle's proofs for
the existence, unity, and
nature of the First Cause,
but rejects Aristotle when it
comes to proving the crea-
tion of the universe ex-
nihilo because Judaism as a
religion requires it. The
First Cause of Aristotle is
hardly a god of religious
faith.
Similarly, the ideal of
human behavior becomes in
Maimonides' philosophy not
the ethical man of Jewish
tradition but the
philosopher trained in the
academic tradition of his
time. And, upon reaching
the lofty levels of
philosophical development
this person becomes eligible
for the gift of prophecy.
These areonly two
examples • of the
rationalistic, scientific
approach of Maimonides
which constantly con-
flicts with the religious
approach, which is based
fundamentally on faith
and revelation. The posi-
tion of a fideist, a be-
liever, is one whose faith
can stand alone and does
not need to be har-
monized with this or that
philosophical theory.
Maimonides, as can be
expected, does not fare very
well at the hands of Haber-
man. He not only shows that
Maimonides was subjected
to criticism throughout the
ages by both his commen-
tators and opponents, but
does not have to agree with
Haberman, but one has a
rewarding, refreshing ex-
perience in reading a well-
written book.
EPIC (Earning Power
Improvement Courses) is an
ORT program designed to
aid people from poverty
stricken backgrounds with
little or no education.
MR. & MRS. ARTHUR KEPES
AND FAMILY
.
N. Miami, Fla
wish their
relatives and friends
a year of
health and happiness
Happy New Year to
my friends
and relatives
FRIEDA KLEIN
Oak Park
MR. AND MRS. GEORGE WEINGARDEN
AND FAMILY
wish all their relatives and friends
a year filled with good health,
happiness and prosperity
RABBI MAX WEINE
his entire rationalistic ap-
proach crumbles beneath
the analysis and criticism of
modern thought in philos-
ophy and theology.
The thinker in Jewish
tradition who is most ac-
ceptable to Haberman is, of
course, Judah Halevi. This
most Jewish of philosophers
stood on solid Jewish tradi-
tional ground. He knew his
Greek philosophy and bene-
fited from this knowledge.
He regarded Greek philos-
ophy, however, with consid-
erable disdain. It has beau-
tiful blossoms, Halevi once
said, but produces no fruit.
What, then is the upshot
of this critical analysis of
Maimonides and Aquinas?
(The former is, as to be ex-
pected, given the major part
of the author's attention.)
One would expect the book
to end, in the epilogue, with
Haberman's presentation of
a contemporary fideist ap-
proach to Judaism. None of
the modern thinkers, in-
cluding Franz Rosenzweig,
Martin Buber, and Mor-
decai M. Kaplan, have fared
very well in this book.
Feeling this need,
Haberman presents as a
contemporary represen-
tative of this point of view
the late Herbert Loewe,
reader in rabbinics at
Cambridge University in
England. This is a let-
down and constitutes, in
the opinion of the re-
viewer, the weakest part
of the book.
This is not said in criti-
cism of Loewe. He was no
doubt a fine scholar, a be-
lieving Jew who was Or-
thodox without being a fun-
damentalist. But Loewe
does not have the stature of
other modern thinkers
whom Haberman nearly
demolishes.
If any contemporary
fideist of consequence were
presented, I would have ex-
pected it to be Rav Joseph B.
Soloveitchik who has all the
qualifications for this role.
He is a man of extensive
learning both in rabbinics
and in philosophy. He is a
man who has written con-
siderably on contemporary
thought and is an outspoken
representative of tradi-
tional Judaism.
If the last chapter is a let-
down from the rest of the
book, the major portion of
Haberman's treatise is,
nevertheless, stimulating,
at times provocative, and
always extremely interest-
ing. It is a book that re-
quires careful reading. One
We wish all our relatives and friends
lzrzin
n:w5
May Hashem inscribe you all for good
MR.
ialiiiEliitigesiVailiNGARDEN
DAVID & CHANA
Wishing all our relatives and friends
a healthy and happy New Year
MR. AND MRS. EUGENE WEISS
N. Miami Beach, Fla,
11Z11zri romut rutt)5
Best Wishes For
A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR
From the officers of
The Pinsker Progressiver Aid Society
SEYMOUR KAPLAN AND FAMILY
HOWARD NISKAR AND FAMILY
DODO KEPES AND FAMILY
And The Staff
Wish Their Friends & Customers
A
Happy, Healthy &
Prosperous New Year
SEYMOUR KAPLAN and CO.
IMPORTER AND CUTTERS OF FINE DIAMONDS
30555 SOUTHFIELD, SUITE 100
645-9200
HOWARD, GAIL,
JOEY & SCOTT
NISKAR
1 10 Wish All Their
Friends &
Relatives
A HAPPY,
!HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS
EW YEAR