The Denver Jewish news., 1923-09-06


that DIR: Kohler exaggerates the in
fiucnce of the Essences in general, but
his critics perhaps as surely under
rate their influence. 1t is well, there
fore. that so sturdy an advocate of
Essenian influences should present his
case as consistent whole. DIR. Koh-
Ter does this without polemics. Read
ers would have enjoyed set-tO be-
tween Drs. Kohler and Buchler. If so,
they will be disappointed.
There is one remark of DIR. Kohler's
concerning Enoch-''the Jewish proto-
type Of Dunte"-which deserves par
ticuIar note. The Enoch cycle is IL
large literature, extending over more
than II hundred years. from the time
of the Maccabean War to the middle
of the first Christian century. but the
Hebrew original, and almost the whole
Greek translation. has been lost" This
loss of the Greek version is very
strange. We hear much from Jewish
,lepreciators of Judeo-Greek literature
that its loss proves its insignificaice.
But no one will assert insigniiicnnce OF
Enoch to Christianity. Obviously.
therefore. the lcs's of Greek books
cannot he explained on the current
theory of insignificancc. Significance
was won by infiltration as well as by
actual perusai. And this 1 hold true
Of Philo. Very many Of his ideas pene-
truted Midrash, the authors of which
possibly could not read Hnc of Greek.
Even more to the point Is the
Apocalypse of Abraham, of which DIR.
Kahler says: This npocalyptic book.
discovered only in recent times in its
Slovonic garb, was originally written
in Hebrew and translated into Greek,
and its, contents are reflected in the
rabbinical literature as well as in the
Bnruch Apocalypse and Fourth Ezra
Another interesting quality in Dr.
Kohler's presentation is his eulogy Of
the Tnlmud 1t is erroneous to imagine
that liberal Jews nre lacking in admira-
zion for the Babbinic literature. Pow
or house of the medieval intellect and
store-house of multifariOus wisdom
this is DIR .KOhler's description of Tai
mudic and Rabbinic lore. 1T was III
deed. the armory which furnished the
Jews with ammunition for the defense
of their truth and, at the same time,
the battle-ground for their mental ath-
letics in the decision of Law; now Il
granary replete with the precious prod
ucts of many soils, and then a garden
fragrant with the perfume of exotic
plants. and again Il deep sea waiting
the skilled diver to bring forth rare
pearls of wisdom and ethical maxims."
DR.. Kohler proceeds to trace the eschn
tological identities between these jew
ish sources an dthe developed systems
of Christianity and Islam. No one, rend-
ing this seventh chapter of DIR. Kohler's
work. can doubt that case may be
made out for the belief that the apo
calyptic Essenism of the Enoch writ
ings'' survived even into the period of
medieval Jewish sch6asticism. 1 am. in
this review, saying little of the actunl
ideas on Heaven and He'll. because it
wns the Jewish scholasticism that made
them obsolete for us. 1t was Maimoii-
des' great service to Judaism that he
so minimized the Significance of the
Older pictures OF Eden and Gehinnom.
These pictures live on, but not in the
memory of modern Judaism, which does
| better without them.
In two brilliant chapters Dr. Kohler
completes his delightful book. Thcse
! final chapters are studies in medieval
ism, rounded off by Il fine forward look
| into the future. The war has given
new point to apocalypse. The crisis
today is our Purgatory. I'VE must be
reborn to new faith in God and man"
| Let the reader turn to thc peroration
and be moved as the reviewer has been
moved DIR. Kohler, the scholar, be-