Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition

Description

Economic inequity is an issue of worldwide concern in the twenty-first century. Although these issues have not troubled all people at all times, they are nonetheless not new. Thus, it is not surprising that Judaism has developed many perspectives, theoretical and practical, to explain and ameliorate the circumstances that produce serious economic disparity. This volume offers an accessible collection of articles that deal comprehensively with this phenomenon from a variety of approaches and perspectives.

Within this framework, the fourteen authors who contributed to Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition bring a formidable array of experience and insight to uncover interconnected threads of conversation and activities that characterize Jewish thought and action. Among the questions raised, for which there are frequently multiple responses: Is the giving of tzedakah (generally, although imprecisely, translated as charity) a command or an impulse? Does the Jewish tradition give priority to the donor or to the recipient? To what degree is charity a communal responsibility? Is there something inherently ennobling or, conversely, debasing about being poor? How have basic concepts about wealth and poverty evolved from biblical through rabbinic and medieval sources until the modern period? What are some specific historical events that demonstrate either marked success or bitter failure? And finally, are there some relevant concepts and practices that are distinctively, if not uniquely, Jewish?

It is a singular strength of this collection that appropriate attention is given, in a style that is both accessible and authoritative, to the vast and multiform conversations that are recorded in the Talmud and other foundational documents of rabbinic Judaism. Moreover, perceptive analysis is not limited to the past, but also helps us to comprehend circumstances among todays Jews. It is equally valuable that these authors are attuned to the differences between aspirations and the realities in which actual people have lived.

Acknowledgments

Editor’s Introduction

Contributors

Wealth in the World of the Sages: Why Were Korach and Moses Rich People?, by Meir Bar-Ilan

Care for the Poor and the Origins of Charity in Early Rabbinic Judaism, by Gregg E. Gardner

The Violence of Poverty, by Aryeh Cohen

Wealth and Rabbinic Self-Fashioning in Late Antiquity, by Alyssa M. Gray

Justice and Righteousness: Jewish and Christian Approaches to Charity and Poor Law in the High Middle Ages, by Yehuda Seif

1Q/4QInstruction: Training for a Money Changer?, by Curtis Hutt

Peddlers, the Great Jewish Migration, and the Riddle of Economic Success, by Hasia Diner

The Legacy of the Kelm School of Musar on Questions of Work, Wealth, and Poverty, by Geoffrey Claussen

Conspicuous Charity and Jewish Unity: The Jewish Loterie in Nineteenth Century Paris, by Jeffrey Haus

Getting Drunk, Dancing, and Beating Each Other Up: The Images of the Gentile Poor and Narratives of Jewish Difference among the Yiddish Intelligentsia, 1881–1914, by Gil Ribak

Empty Hearts and Full Wallets: Poverty and Wealth in American Jewish Films, 1921–1932, by Lawrence Baron

Crossing Over: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the Baltimore Films of Barry Levinson, by Leonard Helfgott

The Cost of Living Jewishly: A Matter of Money or Values?, by Rela Mintz Geffen

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612494272
• Langue: English

Extrait

Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition
Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 26
Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization and the Harris Center for Judaic Studies
October 27–28, 2013
Other volumes in the Studies in Jewish Civilization Series Distributed by the Purdue University Press
2010 – Rites of Passage: How Today’s Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate
2011 – Jews and Humor
2012 – Jews in the Gym: Judaism, Sports, and Athletics
2013 – Fashioning Jews: Clothing, Culture, and Commerce
2014 – Who Is a Jew? Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture
Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition
Studies in Jewish Civilization Volume 26
Editor: Leonard J. Greenspoon
The Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 2015 by Creighton University
Published by Purdue University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition / edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon.
    pages cm.—(Studies in Jewish Civilization; 26)
“Twenty-Sixth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, October 27 and October 28, 2013, in Omaha, Nebraska.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-722-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-61249-426-5 (epdf)
ISBN 978-1-61249-427-2 (epub)
1. Wealth—Religious aspects—Judaism—Congresses. 2. Poverty—Religious aspects—Judaism—Congresses. 3. Judaism and social problems.
I. Greenspoon, Leonard J. (Leonard Jay), editor.
BM538.W4W43 2015
296.3’68—dc23
2015014477
Cover photo: Tzdaka box, filename Shimon1.jpg, Wikimedia Commons.
No part of Studies in Jewish Civilization (ISSN 1070-8510) volume 26 may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Editor’s Introduction
Contributors
Wealth in the World of the Sages: Why Were Korach and Moses Rich People?
Meir Bar-Ilan
Care for the Poor and the Origins of Charity in Early Rabbinic Judaism
Gregg E. Gardner
The Violence of Poverty
Aryeh Cohen
Wealth and Rabbinic Self-Fashioning in Late Antiquity
Alyssa M. Gray
Justice and Righteousness: Jewish and Christian Approaches to Charity and Poor Law in the High Middle Ages
Yehuda Seif
1Q/4QInstruction: Training for a Money Changer?
Curtis Hutt
Peddlers, the Great Jewish Migration, and the Riddle of Economic Success
Hasia Diner
The Legacy of the Kelm School of Musar on Questions of Work, Wealth, and Poverty
Geoffrey Claussen
Conspicuous Charity and Jewish Unity: The Jewish Loterie in Nineteenth Century Paris
Jeffrey Haus
Getting Drunk, Dancing, and Beating Each Other Up: The Images of the Gentile Poor and Narratives of Jewish Difference among the Yiddish Intelligentsia, 1881–1914
Gil Ribak
Empty Hearts and Full Wallets: Poverty and Wealth in American Jewish Films, 1921–1932
Lawrence Baron
Crossing Over: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the Baltimore Films of Barry Levinson
Leonard Helfgott
The Cost of Living Jewishly: A Matter of Money or Values?
Rela Mintz Geffen
Acknowledgments
The Twenty-Sixth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium took place on October 27 and October 28, 2013, in Omaha, Nebraska. The title of the symposium, from which this volume also takes its title, is “Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition.”
As in past years, the success of this symposium owed much to the patience and wisdom of two of my colleagues, Dr. Ronald Simkins, director of the Kripke Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Creighton University; and Dr. Jean Cahan, director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Colleen Hastings, administrative assistant for the Klutznick Chair and the Kripke Center, proved invaluable at all stages in the planning and implementation of the symposium and in preparing this volume for publication. Equally efficient and dependable was Mary Sue Grossman, who is affiliated with the Center for Jewish Life, part of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.
With this volume, we are completing six years in our ongoing relationship with Purdue University Press. Its staff, under former director Charles Watkinson, has made us feel welcome in every possible way. We look forward to many more years of collaboration with the press and its new director, Peter Froehlich.
In addition to the Harris Center, the Kripke Center, and the Jewish Federation of Omaha, this symposium is supported by the generosity of the following:
The Natan & Hannah Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Creighton University Lectures, Films, and Concerts
The Creighton College of Arts and Sciences
The Ike and Roz Friedman Foundation
The Riekes Family
The Center for Jewish Life
The Henry Monsky Lodge of B’nai B’rith
Gary and Karen Javitch
The Drs. Bernard H. and Bruce S. Bloom Memorial Endowment and others
Leonard J. Greenspoon Omaha, Nebraska March 2015 [e-mail]
Editor’s Introduction
Within the long history of Judaism, from biblical times to today, wealth and poverty have been the subject of much serious consideration. So, for example, in the Hebrew Bible the author of Psalm 37 declared: “I have been young and am now old, but I have never seen a righteous man abandoned, or his children seeking bread.” True charity, the rabbis of the Talmud declared, meant “to run after the poor.” And the nineteenth century Jewish thinker, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, wrote: “Do not suppress compassion or sympathy with the sufferings of your fellow man. See in them the admonition of God that you are to have no joy so long as a brother suffers by your side.”
These examples, chosen from hundreds of possibilities, should serve as a corrective to anyone who thinks that the categories “rich” and “poor” are of modern-day origins or that only recently have people sought to explain the reasons for economic inequality and the means to bridge the chasm that often separates these individuals. This is not to suggest that such topics have been of interest only to religious communities or that long-established groups have spoken with only one voice about these issues.
It is, however, to assert and—through the chapters assembled here—to demonstrate that Jews have faced questions of wealth and poverty for at least as long as any other community and that they have worked out, in theory and in practice, explanations and actions that are worthy of consideration. Consideration of this sort combines close analysis of texts and historical figures with real-world awareness that wealth and poverty, while they may be viewed in the abstract, have been and continue to be linked with life and death determinations for many people as individuals and as members of a community.
The thirteen chapters collected here, all originating as oral presentations at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, divide chronologically into two groups: six deal with the time period from antiquity through the Middle Ages; seven cover topics from the late eighteenth century to the present. For the reader of this volume, it seems most helpful to present these chapters in roughly chronological order.
Most of the chapters in the first group concentrate on classical rabbinic texts. The initial chapter, by Meir Bar-Ilan, is titled “Wealth in the World of the Sages: Why Were Korach and Moses Rich People?” This chapter analyzes the sages’ thoughts concerning wealthy people by drawing attention to two different people that in the Bible had no particular connection with money but in the sages’ haggadah became wealthy people. These two were Korach and Moses, and the question arises: what made the sages say that these two were rich people?
Bar-Ilan demonstrates that the legends concerning the richness of these two are not mere traditions, but rather constitute creative commentary by using contemporary ideas as if they reflect the biblical text. In this way Korach was characterized as a wealthy person, since Korach was a symbol of a heretic Jew or someone who did not want to obey the sages. Describing Korach as a wealthy person was a way of saying that those who did not obey the rabbis were often rich people and that the rabbis wished them an end in accordance with the biblical figure, the first who rebelled against the rabbis’ rule, the rule of “Moshe Rabeinu.”
In different circumstances there were others who claimed that Moses himself was a rich man. Bar-Ilan shows that this statement was polemical, against rabbis who used their money to promote themselves. In all, wealth was attributed to biblical figures to explain contemporary unethical behavior; money corrupts.
Gregg E. Gardner is author of the second chapter, “Care for the Poor and the Origins of Charity in Early Rabbinic Judaism.” Gardner begins by observing that poverty relief has long been a central concern of the Jewish tradition. W