Review Essay

JEFFREY B. KOBRIN

The Beginning of All Beginnings1

LEON R. KASS The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. New York: Free Press, 2003, 700pp. $35.00. y the twenty-first century, it might seem that little can be said about Humash that has not already been noted. Still, Tanakh . scholars continually produce new approaches to the text of the Torah. Often, those approaches that attempt to be novel or fresh turn out either to retread familiar territory or to be shallow or kitschy. Nonetheless, we browse Amazon.com, the bookshelves of sefarim stores, and the Judaica sections of our local bookstores in the hope that we will find an original approach to the Torah that will respect its gravity while bringing it into the modern era in a meaningful way. In many ways, Dr. Leon Kass has provided us with such a book. Although popular interest in the study of Genesis seems to have peaked in the nineties with the airing of Bill Moyerss PBS program Genesis: A Living Conversation, this text still seems to interest publishers. Indeed, recently minted titles include not only Aviva Zornbergs Genesis: The Beginnings of Desire, but also Dennis Shulmans The Genius of Genesis and Paul Carlton Borgmans Genesis: The Story We Havent Heard. While other commentators may bring their literary or psychological training to the text, Kass has no such training. He is neither a literary critic nor a his-

JEFFREY B. KOBRIN is the Assistant Dean for Educational Administration at the Ramaz Upper School in New York, where he teaches Tanakh, Halakhah and English literature. Rabbi Kobrin has published numerous reviews in Jewish Book World.

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torian. A physician and philosopher by training, Kass has gained celebrity of late through his role as Chairman of President George W. Bushs Council on Bioethics. That such a personality would present a volume on any part of Tanakh is impressive; that the volume is deeply insightful is even more so. Indeed, The Beginning of Wisdom is a valuable addition to the library of any darshan or student of Tanakh. Kass clearly defines his methodology from the start: his book offers a philosophic reading of Genesis, which Kass notes is done in
the same spirit in which I read Platos Republic or Aristotles Nicomachean Ethicsindeed, any great bookseeking wisdom regarding human life lived well in relation to the whole (1).

He carefully distances himself from readers who study the text piously but do not take on his reflective or philosophic spirit (2). Despite the authors attempt at such distance, though, he has many insights that we, as pious readers, ought to ponder. For, if Kasss sensibility regarding the sanctity of the characters of Genesis does not always match ours, his observations and careful reading may serve either to highlight the advantage that we have in approaching this text, or provide us with a perspective we would otherwise miss. Kass is explicit in presenting his high-minded goals. He not only desires to unpack the stories of Genesis to address issues of human existence, but also intends to demonstrate how an understanding of the text may address us in our current situation of moral and spiritual neediness (13). Kass, who describes himself as raised in a strictly secular home (xi), nonetheless bemoans the state of morality in the modern world, noting that
the cultural victory of a science-based Enlightenment has proved to be but a partial success. . . . We have been increasingly deprived of firm confidence in any moral standard by which we could judge whether change was for the better or for the worse (7).

Thus, a return to the texts of our ancestors is the best medicine for what ails modern society. Although one could argue that such an approach smacks of Puritanism, both Kasss thoroughness and his consistency of method are ultimately engaging, even if they are not totally convincing. Kass is careful and methodical in his exploration of the text of Genesis, and proves a highly sensitive close reader. Although he works largely from translated texts of the Humash, he often offers creative . insights into the Hebrew language. Suggesting, for example, that the

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root of the Hebrew word ir, city, comes from a root meaning both to watch and to wake, Kass notes that Cain founds the first city, Enokh (Hanokh) (Gen. 4:17) in fear of violent death. This stained concep. tion of what a city is continually marks the attitude of the text toward civilization (145). Kass also finds meaning in larger linguistic patterns. He points out that Esaus actions when he meets Jacob after their long separation are described in five quick action verbs: ran, embraced, fell, kissed, and wept (33:4). In a footnote, Kass contrasts this scene and the use of these verbs with the last time the brothers met, over a bowl of soup, when five different quick verbs were used to describe Esaus actions: ate, drank, rose, went, and despised (25:34). For Kass, the key contrast is in the last set of verbs. Esau goes from despising to weeping together with his brother, thus demonstrating his growth (467, n. 16). Perhaps Kass notices such fine points thanks to his classically-trained readers eye; perhaps his relatively young relationship with texts to which many of us have a lifelong connection enables him to notice details that many of us have missed. Either way, his attentive reading is refreshing. In my favorite example of Kasss close reading (and one which proves him to be a pashtan), he notes that the dreams of Joseph are introduced using the cognate accusative construction: that is, the object of the action is cognate with the verb that names it (Va-yahalom Yosef . halom, 37:5). In Kasss view, Joseph made up his dreams out of whole . cloth to further his own goals. Kass argues for this by comparing the story of this dream with that of the clearly heaven-sent dream of the ladder dreamt by Josephs father a generation earlier. In the story of Jacobs dream, Kass notes, the text merely presents the verb va-yahalom with. out the object (28:12). Although earlier commentators have noted this distinction between the dreams of father and son, Kass develops this contrast into a mirror of their respective personalities and goals (515ff.). Such a merciless reading of Joseph is jarring on the reader schooled in the largely sympathetic reading of the Midrash and the classical commentaries. Although such harshness was initially shocking to this reader, it ultimately forced me to revisit my own assumptions and gain a greater appreciation of what they are and from whence they come. Kass closely reads imagery as well. In analyzing the Garden of Eden narrative, he offers a compelling explanation of why God specifically chose a tree as the bearer of the forbidden fruit. While a tree is seemingly independent and strong, in reality it draws all its sustenance from the ground. Its very appearance is deceptive, and may thus be another echo

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of the hubrisand errorof Adam and Eve in this story (63). Such thoroughness is not typical of modern commentators. Indeed, The Beginning of Wisdom is remarkable for its authors unwillingness to leave any textual nook unexplored. While such thoroughness can belabor the point, I know of no other commentator who points out that the only mentioning of friendship in the entire book of Genesis (or in the entire Torah, Kass claims) occurs in the description of Judah and Hirah in the background of the story of Judah and Tamar (532ff; Genesis 38:1 and 12). Kass does not have a gratuitous Torah u-Madda agenda: he does not take Torah characters, imagery, or narrative and needlessly compare them to outside sources. Indeed, Kasss worldly knowledge is formidable and fully integrated into his approach to and understanding of the text. He points out the parallels between the story of the Tower of Babel and the Akkadian Enuma Elish (226, n. 6) and then discusses both comfortably; he similarly compares the morality of capital punishment as derived from the Noahide law with the morality of such punishment as detailed in Aeschyluss Oresteia (182, n. 13). Unlike a novice student of comparative literature, though, when Kass draws such parallelsas he also does when comparing the adventures of Jacob and those of Odysseushe is able to expand the comparison in a way that sheds light on both Jacob and Odysseus as a result (405). Perhaps this subtle difference exists because Kass comes to Jacob by way of Odysseus, rather thanas is often the case with pious readersthe other way around. Certain references are less cerebral than they are entertaining: the reader learns, in a discussion of Leah and Rachel living together as Jacobs wives, that [t]he Chinese ideogram for trouble pictures two women under one roof (427, n. 39). In a discussion of Josephs physical beauty, he cites (again, in a footnote) a stanza from Yeatss A Prayer for My Daughter (542, n. 46). Kass is careful to reserve most of these externally derived allusions and comparisons for his footnotes. Each of these references deepens the appreciation and understanding of the traditionally schooled student of Tanakh and provides food for thought for those who appreciate the secular sources. All of the aforementioned, though, is icing on Kasss cake. His commentary is at its most powerful when he provides sustained analysis of the development of the families of the avot, tracing their social, psychological and political growth as both a family and a nascent nation. The Beginning of Wisdom traces the relationships that characters have with God as individuals, and with each other as individuals and as political figures. Kasss discussion heats up when these various roles overlap

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and/or collide. His Genesis firmly touts the value of the family unit and of the marriage relationship. Analyzing the trials of Abraham, he notes that the majority of them directly or indirectly concern marriage and fatherhood, and especially the matter of the suitable heir, to be born of the proper mother (264, italics Kasss). Abraham must learn to be a husband and father before he can found a nation. The author notes that Sarah remains barren only as long as her husband still refers to her (and treats her) as a sister rather than a beloved wife (291). Beyond analyzing the founding of a new movement, The Beginning of Wisdom also dissects the various trials involved in sustaining ideological momentum. Focusing again on what other readers might dismiss as an inconsequential detail, Kass notes that the birth of twins to Rebecca and Isaac will only mean a greater challenge:
The existence of twins means that this first generation of perpetuation must confront, right from the start, all the problems that bedevil the transmission of any inherited way. . . . As the Bible shows us repeatedly, nature is not a reliable ally in the work of transmission. . . . More than one son guarantees rivalry. The firstborn may not be the right one for the birthright. . . . Furthermore, superior natural prowesssymbolized by coming first in the race to be bornmay not be the superiority needed for handing down the way of the God of Abraham (381).

The characters of the Avot and Immahot exist both as authentic individuals as well as larger-than-life archetypesboth for Kass and for the more traditionally schooled reader. How does a family unit simultaneously grapple with the pressures of continuing a world-altering ideology and the sibling rivalry of twin boys, especially when these two issues are inextricably intertwined? Kass reminds us that while we believe that the characters of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs were in many ways superhuman, we believe with equal vehemence that they actually existedand were therefore real people with real emotions dealing with real situations. How they did so is part of Kasss exploration. He shares our (or perhaps I should say my) rejection of the deification of these characters, the view that they are without flaw, which makes his reading all the more forceful. Kasss literary sensibility also leads him to find patterns in the text. The idea of the literary leitmotif in the Bible is again nothing new. Still, when Kass finds perverse echoes of the awesome story of the binding of Isaac in the tale of Jacobs masquerading as Esau to steal the blessing from Isaac (391), the reader sees the story afresh. Moreover, although others have noted the narrative parallels between the story of the akedah

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and Jacobs sending of Joseph to his brothers in Shekhem, Kass is the first I have seen to point out the parallel language of Abraham seeing the ram on Mount Moriah (Va-yissa Avraham et einav va-yar [22:13]) and that of the brothers spotting the approaching caravan of Ishmaelites (Vayisu eineihem va-yiru [37:25]). Kass learns that although Jacob was prepared to give up his beloved son for the sake of Heaven, the brothers, like their great-grandfather, were able to find a way to avoid such a sacrifice (522, n. 15). Kass clearly enjoys working over the text and has a deep love of its characters and stories. By the same token, he understands that certain aspects of the narrative must be placed in context. In discussing the rape of Dinah, the author urges us to understand the power of the story as its participants felt it. Rape today is regarded primarily as a violation of the [victims] will, not a violation of womanliness. Kass adds that if readers today think about rape only in this understanding, they will likely miss much of the importance of the present story (482). We must understand these stories couched in their original values, Kass pleads. If we plug in our own morals and re-read these narratives in their light, we are not doing justice to the text. This raises the question of whether any darshan is or should be able to approach the Torah text devoid of his or her own set of values. One wonders, though, how such an approach would play out when applied to later, more violent sections of the law, such as the annihilation of Amalek. Would even the most reflective or philosophic reader be able to check his or her own post-biblical values at the proverbial door? Still, Kass might argue, the text at hand is Genesis, and we cannot diverge from its internal value system as readers. How convenient, then, that so many of the original values of the text happen to match Kasss own twenty-first century conservatism. In discussing the Noahide code and its attitude towards murder, Kass notes that a murderer is punished for violating the dignity of another moral being. He points out in a footnote that the term sanctity of human life is based on its dignity or god-like-ness. Kass continues:
Contemporary discussions, such as those surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia, that pit arguments for human dignity against arguments for the sanctity of life are regrettably ignorant of the interdependence of these two notions (186, n. 19).

If we would only recognize the values intrinsic to the text, we would only come to agree with many of the ideas that Kass himselfin other forumshas classified as good and true.

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Kass has famously enraged the left by his outspoken belief in the need for careful monitoring of stem-cell research and for a ban on human cloning, both in the name of the dignity of human procreation.2 He has also cautioned against the use of medical science to prolong human life.3 Kass has even bemoaned the death of traditional male-female courtship and its concomitant family values.4 Knowing what we do about Kasss own predilections, his dismissal of those who attempt to inject their own values into the text may be somewhat incongruous. This criticism, however, is minor: the power of Kasss readings and observations shine through untarnished. Indeed, a further example follows. Still another moral motif trumpeted by the text, in Kasss reading, is the dangers of the metropolis. As mentioned earlier, he is suspicious of a civilization (manifest in Genesis in the cities) devoid of spiritual guidelines: beyond Babel or Enokh, he uses the contrast between the harmonious tent of Abraham and the evils of Sodom to prove the nature of the archetypal city to look with suspicion on the family and the household (329). The culture of the pinnacle of civilizationEgyptis pummeled mercilessly. Kass learns from the imagery of the dreams of the baker, butler, and Pharaoh that Egypt is a nation somewhat obsessed with food, even at the highest level of society (552, n. 4). Egypt also believes in the dominion of man over nature. It seeks to master change and time (626). Israel, on the other hand, understands that there is a force greater than that of man, despite any successes he may have in altering his world. (Kass leaves the reader free to draw any parallels with the values of modern culture and society.) Thus Kass warns us of the dangers of the society formed without the rules and guidance of a spiritual framework. Perhaps because he comes to the text without much of the hashkafic baggage of the traditionally-schooled reader, Kass is somewhat harsh towards some of the characters such readers hold dear. He does admire Jacob for being very much an everyman, one who both experiences periodic illuminations about the presence of a God who cares and provides for him yet falls back into his natural, self-reliant mode of being and doing. At the same time, though, Kass portrays Jacob as a manipulative operator, going so far as to accuse him of fabricating the dream communication from God that he reports to Rachel and Leah in order to convince them to leave the home of their father Laban (434). As critical as Kass is of Jacob, he is even less sympathetic to Joseph. He continually portrays Judah as the true, matured leader of Israel (and gives a wonderfully nuanced analysis of his impassioned speech to

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Joseph [44:18-34]). Kass views Judah in contrast with Joseph, who is seen as a scheming administrator rather than a leader (595604). Kass goes so far as to accuse Joseph of impiety during his revelatory speech to his brothers (45: 3-8). Knowing from the plain text that God has never directly spoken to Joseph, how can Joseph now claim to speak for the Divine plan? Using the open minded translation of Robert Alter as support, Kass goes even further, writing
We cannot be sure whether Joseph means by elo[k]im the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or some other deity, or even something more general like providence or fate (607, see n. 22).

Although at first blush such views seem shocking, they can be rewarding as well. Before discussing such rewards, though, we should note that the traditional reader actually shares many of Kasss concerns. As a physician, Kass is by training and profession a proponent of the sciences. In his introduction, he notes that although science is not necessarily an enemy of Scripture, the morality fostered by a belief in the panaceas of technology and empiricism has eroded a belief in the relevance of the moral message of the Torah (6-7). This erosion leaves an unfilled abyss, as he continues:
More important, the cultural victory of a science-based Enlightenment has proved to be but a partial success. For it has in practice and in principle weakened the moral groundboth philosophical and biblicalupon which progress was to be made. We have been increasingly deprived of firm confidence in any moral standard by which we could judge whether change was for the better or for the worse (7).

Who among us has not worried about the terror of a society whose faith in its technology and accomplishments dictates its morality? Such a concern has been traditionally Jewish since the days of Mosess address to the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy. Kass combines his concerns about such skewed morality with his anxiety about the dangers of too much civilization. Earlier, we noted his derision of the Egyptian values of controlling the natural world and obviating any change. Kass even sees Josephs shaving prior to appearing before the Pharaoh as a concession to the weltanschauung of an unchanging physicality (563ff). He finds similar evil in modern-day echoes of the Tower of Babel. He worries that
God, it seems, forgot about the possibility that a new universal language could emerge, the language of symbolic mathematics, and its offshoot, mathematical physics (242ff).

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While we can argue Kasss politics, many of the moral concerns he raises are very real, very modern, and very Orthodox. What helps make reading The Beginning of Wisdom a worthwhile endeavor is the contrast between the values that traditionally-schooled readers share with Kasss worldview and the sometimes jarring readings that he provides. While Kasss take on biblical characters may initially evoke a negative visceral reaction in the traditional reader, it is ultimately less subversive than stimulating. Traditional readers cannot, however, become cowed in the face of such a purportedly wisdomseeking and wisdom loving reading (1): just because they, for example, read Joseph as Yosef ha-Zaddik instead of as a Machiavellian assimi. lationist does not make their reading of these narratives any less rich, sophisticated, or meaningful. Indeed, a related benefit to reading such a work, which focuses so intently and exclusively on the text as it isthe peshat, in other words is that it allows us an appreciation for that which the text leaves out and the oral tradition provides. In a lengthy discussion of the second creation story in the second chapter, Kass points out that the creation of the animals occurs in response to Adams desire for a counterpart. The desire here aroused, Kass notes with what he describes as a slowlyevolved insight, is almost certainly sexual (100). For all his careful reading of text and context, what Kass does in this passage is merely prepare the traditionally-schooled reader for a better appreciation of the Talmud Bavli (Yevamot 63b) which informs us that Adam tried each of the animals as a sexual partner, yet found satisfaction with none of them.5 When the traditional reader can fuse Kasss fresh insights with his or her own background and training, the effect is all the richer. The Beginning of Wisdom is a labor of love by its author. The product of some twenty years of informal and formal teaching of these texts, it is inspiring in its scope, even when the conclusions drawn are less than compelling or simply incongruent with the sensibilities of the typical traditionally-schooled reader. As a trigger for thought, discussion, and no doubt pulpit darshanut, this book will only contribute positively to both the worlds of traditional learning and the still-popular (and ever expanding) world of secular Bible study. It is a work not to be missed.

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Notes
1. I borrow the phrase from Octavio Paz. See his Andr Breton or the Quest of the Beginning in Alternating Current [New York, 1973]). 2. See www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/kass200404050833.asp. 3. LChaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality? in First Things 113 (May 2001): 17-24. See www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0105/articles/kass.html. 4. The Death of Courtship, The Public Interest 159 (Spring 2005). See www.thepublicinterest.com/notable/article7.html. 5. Cited by Rashi, 2:23 s.v. zot ha-paam.