The Spirit of Renewal: Finding Faith after the Holocaust

by Edward Feld

Overview

The cataclysm of the Holocaust seems to forbid speech. Yet even in the heart of that darkness, sparks of sacredness were kept alive. From these sparks, Feld suggests, Jews and others can renew a faith and a language that recovers the holy.

The Spirit of Renewal explores four key events that reshaped religious expression: the Babylonian exile; the Bar Kochba revolution; the Holocaust; and the establishment of the State of Israel. It opens the way to a powerful new understanding of the nature of God and the spiritual life.

"Carefully analyzes how the Holocaust differs from previous events in Jewish history....Has forged a new theology of Judaism. Highly recommended." --Library Journal

"A profound meditation on Jewish history [and the Holocaust]....Christians, as well as many others, need to share in this story." -- The Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, Ph.D., Episcopal Bishop of L.A.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683364405
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	11/01/1991
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Edward Feld is currently rabbi-in-residence at The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he mentors a new generation of student rabbis. He has served as a college chaplain at Princeton University, Smith and Amherst Colleges and the University of Illinois. He is author of The Spirit of Renewal: Finding Faith after the Holocaust. He has also served as rabbi to New York's Society for the Advancement of Judaism. He is currently chair of the new High Holiday Prayerbook Commission of the Rabbinical Assembly and a member of the steering committee of Rabbis for Human Rights, North America. Active as a teacher of spirituality to university students, scholars and rabbis, he has also worked with Catholic and Protestant spiritual leaders. He was a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and the organizer of its theology seminar.

Sharing his unique and moving message with people around the world, Rabbi Edward Feld has lectured at many institutions of learning, including: The Jewish Theological Seminary; Mt. Saviour Monastery; The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; the University of California; and the University of Chicago.
Rabbi Edward Feld is available to speak on the following topics:

• Why Words?
• The Making of a Mahzor
• Joy and Despair: Reading Psalms
• A Taste of Talmud: How Do We Talk with Each Other?
• A Taste of Talmud: Is Compromise Just?

What People are Saying About This

Neil Gillman

Meaningful and accessible.

Frederick H. Borsch

...a profound meditation on Jewish history....Christians, as well as many others, need to share in this story...

Lawrence Kushner

Boldly redefines the landscape of Jewish thought after the Holocaust.

Editorial Reviews

By examining the classic as well as contemporary responses to major catastrophes or events, such as the Babylonian exile, the Bar-Kochba revolt, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, the author presents a highly sensitive and even poetic Jewish rejoinder to the Auschwitz phenomenon. A modern approach for today's readers.

Jewish Book World

Throughout its history, Judaism has been engaged in a search for the meaning of the simultaneous existence of God and evil. In this updated reissue of his 1991 classic, Rabbi Feld, Jewish chaplain at Princeton for 19 years, describes that quest. Dwelling on watershed events in Jewish history, especially on the Babylonian exile, the Bar Kochba revolution, the story of Job, the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel, Feld argues that Judaism has always adjusted to reflect changing historical realities and renew itself. In particular, he finds that, after the Holocaust, there was an urgent need for Judaism to redefine itself and, more significantly, that even in the very midst of that unspeakable cataclysm there were glimmers of holiness in ordinary acts of kindness performed toward others by ``the walking dead.'' This beautifully expressed book provides inspiration for all who grapple with the problem of belief in a just God in an unjust world. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Feld, Princeton's Jewish Chaplain, presents a lucid analysis of four key moments in Jewish history. The Babylonian exile, the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans, and the Holocaust brought acute tragedy and a radical reinterpretation of the relationship between the Jewish people and God. The establishment of the State of Israel brought a spirit of renewal together with concerns about the exercise of national power. Feld has studied both the classic sources of Judaism as well as documents of the modern era to delineate changing attitudes. He examines the difference in Jewish thought between the idea of Isaiah as suffering servant of God, and the tragic figure of Job. He carefully analyzes how the Holocaust differs from previous events in Jewish history. In arriving at his conclusions he has forged a new theology of Judaism. Highly recommended.-- Maurice Tuchman, Hebrew Coll. Lib., Brookline, Mass.

Library Journal

Rabbi Feld's meaningful book covers not only the Holocaust during World War II, but three other major events in Jewish history: the Babylonian exile, the Bar Kochba revolution, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 586 B.C.E., forcing the Jews into exile in Babylonia. The failure of the Bar Kochba revolution (132135 C.E.) against the Romans in Judea resulted in an enormous loss of life and the destruction of countless villages. In attempting to trace the theological responses to the problem of evil and the issue of renewal after mass destruction, Feld turns to the Bible, which he says offers the basic language, the initial paradigms, with which all later Jewish theologies must come to grips. Feld discusses some of the ways in which Jews have dealt with suffering, the problem of evil, and the reconstruction of religious life after the trauma of devastation. He presents an introspective study of how earlier generations responded to crises and how they were religiously renewed. He points out that renewing our faith after the Holocaust is even more difficult, but it is both possible and inevitable.

George Cohen