FROM 1941, when he published his first book,Modern Philosophies of Judaism(originally his Harvard Ph.D. dissertation), until the end of his life, Jacob Agus continually wrestled with and reflected on modern Jewish thought in all its many variations.

The following selections, chosen to accompany David Novak’s essay “Jacob B. Agus as a Student of Modern Jewish Philosophy” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New York, 1996), are drawn from Jacob Agus’Modern Philosophies of Judaism: A Study of Recent Jewish Philosophies of Religion(New York, 1941), 325—51; andHigh Priest of Rebirth: The...

HAVING SCRUTINIZED in detail the philosophies of Cohen, Rosenzweig, Buber and Kaplan, we turn now to the task of obtaining the necessary perspective in which they may be viewed as a whole. There is little direct influence that these four exponents of modern Jewish philosophy of religion exerted upon each other. Yet, there are certain basic ideas that are common to them all. These ideas are more important by far than the numerous points of difference between them.

Together, the four systems constitute the typical trends of modern Jewish philosophy of religion. Outside of the Orthodox and neo-Orthodox philosophies, there...

CHIEF RABBI KUK was essentially a mystic. His claim that “man is by nature a mystic”¹ may or may not be applicable to the generality of mankind, but it was certainly an accurate reflection of his own state of mind. His posthumous works, in particular, reveal him as a mystic of rare profundity and scope. All the facets of his fascinating personality become understandable only when they are related to the mystical experiences that were the central events in his psychic life. His bold metaphysical speculations and his radical reinterpretations of Kabbalistic concepts derive their significance and value from the...

IT IS STILL too early to essay an estimate of Kuk’s place in the history of Jewish life and thought. As these lines are being written, ten years after his death, some of his manuscript material is still unpublished and the full impact of his thought is just beginning to be felt. The influence which his personality exerted on the minds of numerous friends and disciples has not yet crystallized into definite literary creations. Certain it is that he belonged to the class of men whose stature grows with the passage of the years. Nevertheless, it is high time that...

RABBI AGUS was a lifelong and informed student of medieval Jewish thought in both its philosophical and mystical modes. Though an ardent admirer of the former and a severe critic of the latter, he wrote intelligently on both.

The following selections, chosen to accompany David R. Blumenthal’s essay “Jacob B. Agus as a Student of Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Mysticism” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New York, 1996), are drawn from Jacob Agus’Evolution of Jewish Thought(New York, 1959), 193–203 and 276–90....

HAVING ESTABLISHED the validity of the general belief in prophecy, Maimonides proceeded to reassert the Orthodox dogma that only the Torah of Moses could be regarded as true revelation. Many Jewish sectarians, including the Qaraites, had accepted the belief that both Jesus and Mohammed were “true prophets.” Unwilling to risk the dangers of complete tolerance, Maimonides insisted that Christianity was only one step above idolatry, and Mohammed was just “insane.” How could one pretend to be a prophet who has not even learned to despise the pleasures of the senses? “Holiness is the repudiation of sexual relations.”¹

Nevertheless, both Christianity...

IT WAS in the eighties of the thirteenth century that the classic text of Qabbalistic literature, theZohar,appeared. The scholar, Rabbi Moses de Leon, is now presumed to have written the major portion of theZohar,which is not really one systematic work, but a collection of many books and brochures, varying in clarity and emphasis and held together by an inner unity of theme and ideology. This vast compendium of esoteric lore is a pseudo-epigraphic composition, attributed by its editor to Rabbi Simon Bar Yohai and a coterie of his “illuminated” disciples. This second-century Palestinian rabbi was believed...

DEEPLY SENSITIVE to the inseparable historical and theological connections between Judaism and Christianity, and well aware of the evils that Christian anti-Semitism had legitimated, Rabbi Agus was an unwavering advocate of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

The following selections, chosen to accompany Eugene J. Fisher’s essay “Jacob B. Agus and Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A View from the Christian Side” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New York, 1996), are drawn from Jacob Agus,The Jewish Quest(New York, 1983), 205–22 and 239–48; andJewish Identity in an Age of Ideologies(New York, 1978), 1–36....

FATHER FLOROVSKY summed up the challenge of an interfaith dialogue in these well-chosen words—“It is delicate and painful, but not hopeless.” The subject of this paper illustrates the aptness of his judgment. The long centuries of historic hostility demonstrate the anguish, yet the essence of both testaments, as Paul understood it, was precisely hope (Acts 28:20; Eph. 2:12).

Judaism and Christianity meet theologically on the following common ground: the Hebrew Bible, reverence for Wisdom, and the genius of prophetic inspiration. Beginning with the last element, we note that rabbinic Judaism maintained that biblical prophecy had come to an end....

THE FAITH and career of Paul are generally regarded as marking the tragic break between Judaism and Christianity. While many Jewish scholars maintain that Jesus lived and taught within the ambience of Judaism, they argue that Paul was responsible for the separation of the two faiths and their mutual hostility. So, Joseph Klausner can find in the case of Jesus only the “seed” of denationalized piety. Kaufmann and Buber include Jesus completely within the sphere of Judaism.

But as to Paul, Klausner blames his alienation on the fact that he was a Jew from the Diaspora, hence inauthentic and anguished...

EVER SINCE Christianity was born, a dialogue has been under way between its followers and the defenders of Judaism. Since both Jews and Christians interpreted every aspect of life in terms of their respective central beliefs, this dialogue expanded in time to include nearly every phase of culture. In essence, the same arguments have been repeated, as if every generation were called upon to justify its position anew. But there were always fresh nuances, reflecting the particular bias of the age. Most of the time the antagonists were not present in the flesh, only in the imagination of the disputant....

RABBI AGUS was an admirer of the United States and an ardent advocate of Jewish participation in all facets of American life. He was, of course, not unaware of the challenge such participation posed to the maintenance and continuation of Jewish communal and individual life. Indeed, this challenge was a lifelong practical and ideological preoccupation for Agus.

The following selections, chosen to accompany Milton R. Konvitz’ essay “Jacob Agus’ Ideology of American Judaism: American Jews or Jewish Americans?” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New York, 1996), are drawn from Jacob Agus’The Jewish Quest...

EVERY HISTORIC community establishes its specific character by reflecting on three aspects of its life—its self-image, its attitude to the universal values of culture and religion, its posture toward other groups and humanity generally. Naturally, these phases of culture interact and affect one another. But, as a rule it is easy enough to study them separately.

In the case of the Jewish people, each of the three orientations of collective consciousness is problematic.

The relationship of the Jewish people to God was affirmed to be unique by the Jews themselves and in the Christian world. Their metaphysical status was...

IN OUR FAST-MOVING world one must be inordinately clairvoyant or narrowly fanatical to risk any predictions concerning the future. The Jewish situation anywhere in the world is always sensitive to a variety of social pressures and to the shifting winds of the spiritual climate. There is scarcely a social phenomenon on the international scene that does not in some way affect the balance of forces determining the status and hopes of world Jewry. On any rational basis, it is possible for us to take account of presently visible factors only and to admit that all our conclusions are tentative, for...

IN THEIR STRUGGLE for the fullness of emancipation, the Jews relied most heavily on the help of liberals and they redefined their identity in terms of individual freedom. The ideals and the temper of liberalism were ranged solidly on the side of Jewish people, as they struggled to overcome the effects of religious prejudices and ethnic zealotry. The conservative mood, apart from party platforms, resented any kind of change, and esteemed highly the worth of prejudice, as a helpful brake against the changing and disintegrating forces that operate in modern society.

In the case of Zionism, however, liberalism was ambivalent....

A KEEN STUDENT of theology, Rabbi Agus was sensitive to the criticisms raised against traditional notions of God. In response, he attempted to think through for himself the complex issues connected with this elemental metaphysical notion.

In chapter 4 ofGuideposts in Modern Judaism,titled “The Idea of God,” Agus offers his most elaborate treatment of his conception of God. Basing his reasoning on the principle of polarity enunciated by the American philosopher Morris R. Cohen, Agus argues that because life, mind, and purpose are the polar correlatives of space-time and the mechanical laws of nature, we can reasonably infer...

THERE IS NOTHING that we do or think which does not in some way impinge upon the idea of God. For this idea is the most fundamental and all-embracing of concepts in the range of thought. How then shall we begin to explore the nature of God and arrive at any understanding of His essence? It is commonly believed that every argument must begin with definitions. Indeed, classical Greek philosophy followed this pattern. But in the case of God, we cannot define without begging the question. Was it not pointed out long ago that every definition constitutes a delimitation in...

THE ISSUE OF JEWISH identity, involving the perennial questions of what it means to be a Jew, especially in our time (i.e., after the Holocaust), the rebirth of the State of Israel, and the remarkable growth of American Jewry, was one that continually occupied Rabbi Agus. In his various writings on Jewish history, theology, and American Jewry, this concern was never far from the center of the discussion.

The following selections, chosen to accompany Neil Gillman’s essay “Jacob B. Agus on the Meaning of Jewish History and Experience” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New...

THE EMANCIPATION of the Jews of western Europe, proceeding apace from the first decade of the nineteenth century, brought the individual Jew to the fore, liberating him from the pressure of enforced communal loyalties. In the course of time the bonds of communal loyalty were weakened; the congregation, a voluntary association of free individuals, came to take the place of the overall community which one entered by birth and left by death or an act of conversion. As a result all the cleavages in Jewish life were widened and deepened.

In the nineteenth century the meaning of the term “Jewish...

ISRAEL IS AT ONCE the name of a people, a state, a religious community, and an ethereal ideal. A certain ambiguity characterized the term “Israel” from the very beginning. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel in order to indicate his elevation to a high cosmic status. He was on a par with angels, “for thou hast struggled with God and men, and hast prevailed.”¹ Philo interprets Israel to mean “he who sees God,” that is, the man of Divine visions.² Certain it is that from the moment of its historic genesis, the people of Israel considered itself to be “covenanted”...

FOR FOUR DECADES Rabbi Agus was an active presence within the Conservative movement. In addition to his work on the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, he served, among other positions, as chairman of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly’s Continuing Conference on Conservative Ideology and as a member of the editorial board of the journalConservative Judaism(as well as being a frequent contributor to that journal). Almost no significant aspect of the movement between 1946 and 1986 escaped his attention or failed to elicit his response.

The following selections, chosen to accompany Mordecai Waxman’s essay “Jacob B. Agus and...

AN EVALUATION of the actual consequences of any one decision by the Law Committee is exceedingly difficult.

Its positive impact in the direction of a reacceptance of a Sabbath synagogue attendance program has been counteracted by several factors. The responsum was designed to be part of a national, massive Sabbath Revitalization Effort. The revitalization campaign could be launched and sustained only by the central agencies of the Conservative movement. No single rabbi could possibly command the staff and the resources for any such enterprise. Our central agencies ignored this effort altogether, with the result that the Sabbath Revitalization Effort remained...

I DISSENT from the line of reasoning pursued in this responsum. It is forced, contrived, inconclusive, and beside the point. It does not deal, on the personal plane, with the rightness of sex in marriage as an expression of love, and on the global front, it does not take account of birth control as an ideal.

1. From the standpoint of Jewish law, as it was developed in keeping with the literal interpretation of verses and with due regard for Qabbalistic and proto-Qabbalistic notions, birth control is prohibited in normal circumstances, the chief reason being precisely the implied “interference” with divine...

THE CONCEPTION of revelation, outlined in the first part of this essay, has many points of contact with the opinions and judgments of diverse philosophic luminaries in the past. However, we do not lay claim on its behalf for the designation, orthodox. The subjective acceptance of the Law, as the way of serving God, we maintain to be the fundamental quality in the Jewish pattern of piety. But, we also allow room for the objective analysis and consideration of various aspects of the Law, in terms of the universal values of piety and in the light of the actual results...

A PHILOSOPHY of Halachah is an integral portion of one’s worldview in general. At least, it is so in my case. I beg the reader’s indulgence for the outline form of exposition, which necessarily raises more questions than it answers.

I believe in God as the Ultimate Reality of the Cosmos, the unifying and harmonizing Principle of existence. The philosophic school which most nearly reflects my views is that ofpanentheism,where the cosmos is viewed as beinginGod. I consider that this school represents the “perennial philosophy” at which Aristotle and Maimonides aimed; Bergson reconciled it with the...

GIVEN HIS TRADITIONAL talmudic training and extensive talmudic erudition, aligned with his sense that the halakah (Jewish law) required some modification to be meaningful in our time, it is not surprising that Rabbi Agus was an active participant in the discussion over the development of a distinctively Conservative philosophy of Jewish law. He officially joined the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly in 1946 and was a member of its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards from 1948 to 1986.

The following selection, chosen to accompany Elliot N. Dorff’s essay “Jewish Law as Standards” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob...

In point of organization and the official crystallization of ideology, the Conservative group is the most recent alignment on the American scene. While the Jewish Theological Seminary, the focal point of the movement, was first organized in 1887, largely as a protest against the adoption of the Pittsburgh Platform, the institution virtually ceased to function following the death of its founder and first president, Sabato Morais. Later, as the massive tide of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe brought into being a large, inchoate Jewish population that was not yet integrated into the pattern of American culture, the social gulf...

RABBI AGUS made his career as a communal rabbi first in Chicago, then in Dayton, Ohio, and then for more than thirty years in Baltimore at Congregation Beth El. The role of communal rabbi was one that he took very seriously and from which he gained great personal satisfaction.

The following selections, chosen to accompany Mark Loeb’s essay “Jacob B. Agus as Pulpit Rabbi” inAmerican Rabbi: The Life and Thought of Jacob B. Agus(New York, 1996), are from Jacob B. Agus’The Meaning of Jewish History(New York, 1963), 1:11–31; andThe Jewish Quest(New York, 1983),...

ANYONE WHO SETS out to study the history of the Jew concludes very soon that at all times the factors of both nationalism and religion were involved in the makeup of the Jewish community. Whether the unity of descent or the unity of faith was more dominant at any period is frequently a matter of judgment and controversy. But that both factors were involved in the structure of the Jewish mentality, the historian can hardly doubt. The point that students of the subject, however, are most prone to overlook is not the potency of either one of these factors but...

IN A DRAFT STATEMENT by a group of rabbis attending an interfaith seminar, the following sentence occurred: “It must be emphasized that the traditional Jew cannot conceive of God entering into a covenant with another special group of humans”.

Since the statement was tentative, the authors asking that it “notbe reproduced or printed”, we do not here identify the source. But the harsh exclusiveness of this sentence is so painfully clear that it may well serve as an introduction to our theme.

Naturally, the term “the traditional Jew”, can be taken in the sense of the average person, the...