Kaufmann, YeḤezkel
KAUFMANN, YEḤEZKEL (1889–1963), was an Israeli Bible scholar and philosopher of Jewish history. Born in the Ukraine, Kaufmann was educated in Bible, Talmud, and Jewish history and received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bern in 1918. From 1914 to 1928 he lived in Germany, writing on Jewish nationalism. Immigrating to Israel (then Palestine) in 1928, he published a four-volume historical-sociological interpretation of Jewish history, Golah ve-nekhar (Exile and alienage; 1928–1932). His eight-volume Toldot ha-emunah ha-Yisreʾelit (A history of the religion of Israel; 1937–1956) is the most comprehensive study of biblical religion by a modern Jewish scholar. From 1949 until 1957 he was professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Kaufmann's major writings, historical and ideological, are distinguished by philosophical sophistication, methodological reflectiveness, and detailed textual analysis. In Toldot, a comprehensive, detailed analysis of the Bible and biblical religion, he argues (1) that the idea of one God ruling over nature was the unique creation of the nation of Israel, (2) that monotheism arose during the early stages of the nation's history, and (3) that, far from being influenced by genuine paganism, Israel was virtually ignorant of it. This work, which criticized prevalent ideas of modern biblical scholarship regarding the dating of the Torah texts, Israelite monotheism, and the impact of paganism on Israelite religion, had a decisive influence on an entire generation of Jewish Bible scholars.
In Golah ve-nekhar, Kaufmann employs historical-sociological arguments to demonstrate (1) that Israel's commitment to the monotheistic idea was the decisive factor ensuring the nation's survival in exile and (2) that in the modern era of secularization and nationalism, only a Jewish homeland could ensure the people Israel's survival. Like his biblical studies, this work is distinguished from other works on Jewish history both by its scope and by its mode of argumentation.
Bibliography
Works by Kaufmann
Kaufmann's major works remain untranslated. An abridged translation of Toldot ha-emunah ha-Yisreʾelit, containing Kaufmann's major arguments, is The Religion of Israel from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile, translated and abridged by Moshe Greenberg (Chicago, 1960). An English essay, "The Biblical Age," in Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People, edited by Leo W. Schwarz (New York, 1956), covers the development of Israelite religion to the end of the Second Temple. A preliminary presentation of his Hebrew studies of Joshua and Judges is The Biblical Account of the Conquest of Palestine, translated by M. Dagut (Jerusalem, 1953).
Works About Kaufmann
A critical discussion of Kaufmann's basic arguments regarding biblical Israel is Moshe Greenberg's "Kaufmann on the Bible: An Appreciation," Judaism 13 (Winter 1964): 77–89. For Kaufmann's interpretation of Jewish history, see my own "Religion, Ethnicity and Jewish History: The Contribution of Yehezkel Kaufmann," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 42 (September 1974): 516–531. Kaufmann's historical-sociological method is discussed critically in my "Historical Sociology and Ideology: A Prolegomenon to Yehezkel Kaufmann's Golah vʾNekhar," in Essays in Modern Jewish History: A Tribute to Ben Halpern, edited by Frances Malino and Phyllis Cohen Albert (East Brunswick, N.J., 1982), pp. 173–195.
New Sources
Luz, Ehud. "Jewish Nationalism in the Thought of Yehezkel Kaufmann." Binah 2 (1989): 177–190.
This is the complete article, containing 514 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
