The Charm of Wise Hesitancy

“In his book, David Jacobson offers a wide range of Israeli contemporary commentaries to Talmudic legends. With love, knowledge, and profound commitment, Jacobson explores one of the most fascinating revolutions in Jewish culture in recent decades: the rediscovery of rabbinic literature by Israeli culture.” -- Ruhama Weiss, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem
“The Zionist revolution and mainstream Israeli culture tried to vault from the world of the Bible to a revolutionary present, leaving the rabbis and their texts behind. Yet the break was never that clean, and dogmatic secularism has come on hard times. Recent years have seen the recovery and creative reinterpretation of classic rabbinic texts by secular and religious readers, making for one of the most fascinating currents in contemporary Israeli culture. This pioneering study not only judiciously gathers and synthesizes these new voices for scholarly readers while carefully attending to the differences among them, but also places them in the context of important but insufficiently-understood currents of cultural and intellectual history. David Jacobson has, with his customary learning, discernment, and deft literary taste, done a great service to students of Israel, Talmud, literature, education, and religion.” -- Yehudah Mirsky, Brandeis University