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ICJS' Interactive Discussion

David P. Goldman's Response

Prof. Levenson's argument depends heavily upon sources (3 Maccabees, Jubilee, etc.) which were deliberately excluded from the Hebrew canon, although he is quite right to point out that the Aqedah was chosen as the Torah reading for Rosh ha-Shanah. This and important (though infrequent) references to the Aqedah in the Yom Kippur liturgy support his thesis that Abraham's merit stems from his willingness to immolate his son.

How does this square, however, with the choice of Isaiah 58 as Haftorah for Yom Kippur? Isaiah seems to disparage the importance of the sacrificial cult in favor of two forms of approaching God, namely, justice and observing Shabbat. Abraham Joshua Heschel considers Isaiah all the more remarkable for attacking the sacrificial cult (and it is not surprising that Levenson is strongly critical of Heschel).

Is it possible that Levenson overemphasizes the importance of the residue of the concept of sacrifice in Judaism? In our Shabbat liturgy, we speak of our "offering of rest." This is in some ways an anti-sacrifice. What we "offer" God is what we DO NOT do (certainly not lighting fires under sacrifices) by way of acknowledging God's dominion. Surely it is no coincidence that Isaiah, in the cited Haftorah, emphasizes Shabbat observance quite as vividly as he criticizes hypocritical fasting. Is it not possible that the Jewish notion of sacrifice was transmuted in the prophetic period into an "offering of rest," a non-sacrifice? Is it not possible, furthermore, that the late Second Temple sources on which Levenson founds his case represent a throwback to older ideas, and that Rabbinical Judaism offered a compromise, e.g., the Aqedah on Rosh ha-Shanah, but Isaiah 58 on Yom Kippur?

This way of looking at matters squares quite nicely with Rosenzweig's presentation (in Stern der Erlösung) of the differences between Judaism and Christianity. To the extent Levenson has represented correctly the Jewish sources of Christianity, is it possible that he has inadvertently made a case for wider differences between the two religions?

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