About Schneur’s review. People tell stories, the verbal reenactments is the root of evil. I was reading Prof. Hurtado paper Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? (pdf) Take a look, it’s instructive. I mean if there was one particular disease that the Jews passed on to the Christians, it’s the delusion that a reality could be fully reconstructed from the indirect memories and quotations, even a law. I mean who cares what St. Paul wrote, he never seen or kissed Jesus, period.
And this brings me to Samuel Heilman, does he have any idea how it feels to be in the pit under the bimah on Rosh Hashona in 770? How it feels to catch the Rebbes eye by the tuv taam v’daas lomdeini? Did he ever throw up on the Kingston Avenue at 4:30 am? Did he even interview someone who did? People today write books about Google without ever seeing anyone who works there, the heck you can write a book about Google just by googling Google. I mean Boteach is not too smart and he no longer thinks of himself as a Lubavitcher but he is smart enough to recognize that there is a difference between reading a prewar telephone book and being with a special person, just ask Shmuley about MJ.
And Menachem Butler and Dan Rabinowitz, they can’t get enough of that crap, after all the thrice removed from a human experience quotation ping-pong is their bitter bread and the stale butter.
And Rabbi Chaim Rapoport, should he open his opus with a sponsor? Even better, perhaps he can post the invoice so we all can resolve once and for all the burning question on who is signing the checks over there today. But not to worry, I am sure Chaim Rapoport can redeem his integrity by picking a random Kohos book and subjecting it to the same rigorous analysis. In fact I know what a special hell awaits Chaim Rapoport in the future, he is destined to scan the Kohos books for the historical errors till the cows come home. Free of charge that is.
consider free RSS subscription
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
“does he have any idea how it feels to be in the pit under the bimah on Rosh Hashona in 770? How it feels to catch the Rebbes eye by the tuv taam v’daas lomdeini? Did he ever throw up on the Kingston Avenue at 4:30 am?”
Catch 22 you see. Had he experienced any of the above, he could not write the book.
gil, leave my blog alone, you have noting intelligent to offer
figured on the response……
Rapoport indeed destroys them in that great review.