The Genius of Judaism

Title: The Genius of Judaism

Author: Bernard-Henri Levy

Translated by: Steven B Kennedy

Publisher: Random House, 2017 (First)

ISBN: 9780812982510

Pages: 240

Judaism and its believers have been subjected to discrimination and reprisals right from its origin around 2600 years ago. Apart from a brief stint of glory before Christ, their land, places of worship and right to self-rule have been hopelessly appropriated by others. It was Judaism that introduced the concept of monotheism to humanity. But what is it that evokes so much opposition from other faiths? A satisfactory answer is not yet received for this question and that’s why I had taken this book in the hope that it’d provide some clues to its exclusivity. The passion against Jews has hardened with the growth of Islamic extremism. The state of Israel is in the grip of a mortal conflict with Palestinian Arabs over a stretch of parched land saturated with history and belief. Though the Palestinian claim to sovereignty is uncontested, their struggle to gain it smacks of religious fanaticism. However, the growing violence in the region makes it a hotspot of international ramifications. As a result of all this, Jews in Europe are said to be facing a hostile crowd again after the Nazi holocaust. Bernard-Henri Levy is a French philosopher and one of the most esteemed and best-selling writers in Europe. He is the author of more than thirty books, mostly in French, including this one. Levy has undertaken several diplomatic missions for the French government. In this book, he takes stock of the position of Jews in France and expresses alarm at the steadily growing trend of anti-Semitism. He also proposes a way for Jews to engage with the rest of the world which takes its inspiration from the example of Prophet Jonah detailed in the Jewish scriptures. At the end of it all, my question unfortunately remains unanswered.

Levy expresses deep concern about anti-Semitism that is returning to haunt European Jews again. On a serious consideration of the coming predomination of an ideology of hatred, anti-Semitism poisons the body politic of Europe causing more damage to it than perhaps the physical attacks it may inflict on its victims. The author makes a historical analysis of the origins of it and identifies four distinct phases in its evolution. Jews were accused of deicide because they were supposed to have crucified Jesus Christ. Medieval Jews were persecuted on this count. However as the era of Enlightenment dawned, theological certainties gave way to rational thought. But surprisingly, Jews continued to be on the receiving end. The Enlightenment era thinkers accused them not for killing Jesus but rather for inventing him. A century later, with the advent of Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism, the socialist camp vented their ire on Jews for supposedly manipulating the levers of control that guided the capitalist system. Many of the captains of finance and industry happened to be Jews, but the public equated these icons which formed only a micro-minority of the Jewish population taken as a whole, to the ordinary individuals. But the strange fact unobserved by the author is that many of the socialist gurus like Marx also happened to be Jews. With the onset of modern science, racial and genetic aspects came in handy for the anti-Semites.

This book identifies anti-Semitism of the twenty-first century being run by the three engines of anti-Zionism, Holocaust denial, and reaction against crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians. Modern Islamic societies are pitted against Israel on this issue, but the appeal of jihadism on ordinary Muslims remain as strong as ever. Levy concludes that an internal battle is being raged between two Islams – the Islam of the throat-slitters and enlightened Islam. There is no doubt that the legitimate concerns of Palestine are to be accommodated within the two-state system. Anti-Semitism sometimes erupts in anger against continued American support to Israel. Levy proposes several arguments on why this is the most natural thing for Americans to do. The first and foremost is that Israel is the only true democracy in the region and the only island of stability. Ignoring this may be self-defeating for the Western civilization which amounts to betraying its roots and allowing them to dry up. The author finds it so tiresome having to defend Israel quite often, so distressing to have to present the same evidence over and over. For the record, Israel is a successful multi-ethnic democracy in which Arabs are given equal rights except that of obligatory military service. They are represented in Israeli parliament in proportions unheard of in any Western democracy. Arabic is the official second language of the country and Arabs have one out of the four judges in Israel’s Supreme Court. In contrast to this, Palestinian towns are overflowing with hate and fury where people dance in the streets when an Israeli soldier is lynched.

Holocaust deniers are painfully unmindful of the lessons that pogrom offered to humanity so as not to repeat it. Mass murders are commoner than people think, but Nazi genocide of Jews, represented by Auschwitz is unique for three reasons. It is the only massacre designed to be final, to annihilate even the tracesof the exterminated – their culture, language, places of worship, books. Then, it was extermination without any right to appeal. All of the prospective empire was to be judenfrei. This stirred up anti-Semitic persecutions in conquered territory as well, such as Ukraine. All these events set in motion a fierce wind of transformation in European revolutionaries of the 1970s who were Jews. They turned away from Mao to Moses.

A large part of the book is dedicated to examine Jewish injunctions on its adherents and how it reconciles the modern man in performing his duty to the civil society in which he lives. Levy argues that Jews subject the verses of the Talmud to the work of soul-searching, stimulation and suspension of accepted meaning that the Jews have practiced till then. The book treats the experiences of Prophet Jonah as a model to be emulated in the present world. As the Bible says, Jonah was commanded by God to proceed to the enemy capital of Nineveh, and to ask the people there to mend their bad ways or else face imminent divine wrath. Though reluctant at first, Jonah does this after he himself faces the displeasure of God by having to stay in the belly of a whale for many days. This redemption of Nineveh, whose people were antagonistic to the Jewish nation, serves as a metaphor today where Levy extends it to his work in Libya and Ukraine, both of which expressed a strong anti-Semitic sentiment.

Many parts of the book are written in an abstruse style, mixing religious philosophy with humanistic thought. Readers might wonder what exactly the genius of Judaism mentioned in the title is. Levy saves them the trouble by clearly defining what he means by it. The genius of Judaism resides in the effort of going to Nineveh (in the abstract sense); in the relationship with other religions and with the outside world that is the meaning of the lives of so many Jews. It also resides in the ability to produce a little of the intelligence that will offer people, all people, a little of the teaching that they need to be different from the others, to stand out from the crowd to which they are never fated to belong. Levy’s definition of Judaism is also startling. Approaching God only through belief is the point of departure from Judaism and the birth-certificate of Christianity. No Jew is required to ‘believe’ in God. Instead, they are encouraged to know Him through the study of holy writ and its commentaries. Now, would you ‘believe’ that!!?

The book is recommended only to philosophically oriented readers.

Rating: 2 Star