Asceticism in Judaism
Encyclopedia
Asceticism is a term derived from the Greek
verb ἀσκέω, meaning "to practise strenuously," "to exercise." Athletes were therefore said to go through ascetic training, and to be ascetics.
In this usage the twofold application—to the mode of living and the results attained—which marks the later theological implication of the term is clearly discernible. From the arena of physical contests the word easily passed over to that of spiritual struggles, and pre-Christian
writers speak of the "askesis" of the soul or of virtue—the discipline of the soul, or the exercise in virtue. But the physical idea, no less than the moral, underlies the meaning of the term in medieval Christian parlance. The monastery, as the place where the required life of abstemiousness is lived under rigorous regulation and discipline, becomes the "asketerion," a word which to the classical Greek conveyed only the notion of a place reserved for physical exercise; while the monks were the "ascetikoi," the ascetics, under discipline attaining unto the perfect practise.
and the Jews
is, on the whole, free from ascetic aspirations. Fundamental to the teachings of Judaism is the thought that the world is good. Pessimism has no standing-ground. Life is not under the curse. The doctrine of original sin, the depravity of man, has never had foothold within the theology of the synagogue. It never held sway over the mind and the religious imagination of the Jews. In consequence of this the body and the flesh were never regarded by them as contaminated, and the appetites and passions were not suspected of being rooted in evil. The appeal to mortify the flesh for the sake of pleasing Heaven could not find voice in the synagogue.
, therefore, as well as Christianity
, leads to ascetic practices. Monasteries are institutions of Buddhism no less than of Catholic
Christianity. The assumption, found in the views of the Montanists and others, that concessions made to the natural appetites may be pardoned in those that are of a lower degree of holiness, while the perfectly holy will refuse to yield in the least to carnal needs and desires, is easily detected also in some of the teachings of Gautama Buddha
. The ideal of holiness of both the Buddhist and the Christian saint culminates in poverty and chastity; i.e., celibacy. Fasting and other disciplinary methods are resorted to curb the flesh.
Under a strict construction of the meaning of Asceticism, it is an error to assume that its history may be extended to embrace also certain rites in vogue among devotees to fetishism and nature worship. Mutilations, the sacrifice of the hair, dietary observances and prohibitions, which abound in all forms of religion at a certain stage of development, do not spring from the notion of the sinfulness of the natural instincts and of life. Nor is the sacrificial scheme in any way connected with Asceticism. The idea of privation is foreign to it. If the offering was a gift to the Deity and as such entailed upon the offerer the parting with something of value, the expectation which animated him was invariably that of receiving rich return. But whatever theory must be accepted in explanation of the various rites of mutilation, and of the sacrificial ritual, certain it is that Judaism from the beginning set its face most sternly against the one, and materially restricted the other. Mutilations for whatever purpose and of whatever character were absolutely prohibited. Funeral horrors and superstitions were not tolerated. The Levitical code restricted sacrifices to one place. The priests only were entrusted with the office at the altar. And, if the Prophets are the truest expounders of the ideals and ideas of the religion of Israel, even the sacrificial and sacerdotal system, with its implications of extraordinary and precautionary cleanliness and physical abstemiousness, was of little vital moment.
Fasting, which plays so essential a part in the practices of ascetics, classically found official recognition only in the development of the Day of Atonement
. The Prophets, again, had little patience with fasting. There are some obscure allusions to fast days of popular observance, but the Prophets of exilic and postexilic days insist on the futility of this custom. Isaiah
(lviii.), while appealing for a broader charity and deeper sense of justice, maintains that these, and not fasting, are the expression of a will sanctified unto God. It is characteristic of the attitude of later Judaism that this very chapter has been assigned for the Hafṭarah
for the Day of Atonement, the one penitential fast-day of the synagogue.
, of late date, illustrates this for the period included in the Biblical canon. Rabbinical sources prove the growing tendency to abstain from drink and food whenever memories of disaster marked the days of the synagogal calendar, or instant danger threatened the community. In the scheme of the synagogue the one fast-day of the Bible received no less than twenty-two as companions (compare Fasting in Judaism).
Still, it may be doubted whether this multiplication of fast-days can be taken as a sign of an increased tendency to Asceticism. Probably the theory of Robertson Smith (The Religion of the Semites, p. 413) still holds good to a large extent in explanation of many of the fast-observances of later Judaism, as undoubtedly it does for the voluntary and occasional fast-days mentioned in the historical books of the Bible; namely, that Oriental fasting is merely a preparation for the eating of the sacrificial meal. The rabbinical injunction, not to eat too late a meal on the eve of the Sabbath
-day, so as to enjoy all the more that of the Sabbath, tends to corroborate the theory. Perhaps this also underlies the rabbinical report that some examples of rabbinical piety fasted every Friday (in preparation for the Sabbath).
(B. M. 85a). The story continues that he abstained from drink and food for the period of one hundred days, in order that hell-fire might later have no power over him. Simon ben YoḦai is depicted as an ascetic in the traditions preserved in rabbinical literature. But exposed to persecutions under the Hadrian
régime, and often in danger of his life, his whole mind was of an exceptionally somber turn for a Jewish teacher. Moreover, his ascetic practices were not inspired by a consciousness of the futility of this life and its sinfulness, but by the anxiety to fulfill to the letter the Law, to "ponder on the Torah day and night". He begrudged the hours necessary for the care of the body as so many precious moments stolen from the study of the holy Law. He envied the generation of the desert who had been fed on heavenly manna, and were thus absolved from the care for their daily bread; an echo of this sentiment may be detected in the petition of Jesus
for daily bread (on Simon b. YoḦai, see W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. ii. 70-149).
Still, with all these seeming leanings to ascetic conduct, these rabbis did not encourage individual fasting. The community in distress did indeed proclaim a public fast, and it was the duty of the loyal member to participate. For he who would not share in the distress would have no part in the consolation of the people (Ta'an. 11a). The habitual faster was called a sinner (ib.). This judgment was enforced by an appeal to the Biblical text in connection with the Nazir
's (Nazarite's) expiatory sacrifice (Num. vi. 11). Rabbi Zeira would not permit his disciples to indulge in extraordinary practices of self-restraint, if they presumed thereby to reflect on the piety of others saner than they. The title applied to such an adept at saintly practices is characteristically deprecatory for his attitude of mind: his conduct is declared to smack of conceit, if not of hypocrisy (Yer. Ber.
ii. 5d).
The attempt has been made to explain the Biblical Nazarites as forerunners of monastic orders addicted to the practice of ascetic discipline. Pentateuchal legislation concerning them shows them to have been merely tolerated. Modern criticism explains their peculiarities as arising from motives other than those that determine the conduct of ascetics. The Biblical Nazirs, forerunners of the Nebi'im (Prophets), were Protestants against the adoption of the customs and the religious rites of the Canaanites. In their dress and mode of life they emphasized their loyalty to YHVH
, enthroned on the desert mountain. Wine and the crown of hair were sacred to the gods of the land. Their very appearance emphasized their rejection of the new deities. And in later days the number of those that took the Nazarite vow was exceedingly small. One is inclined to the opinion that no case occurred in which the Pentateuchal provisions became effective.
be classed among the order of ascetics. While some of their institutions, notably celibacy, appear to lend support to the theory that would class them as such, their fundamental doctrines show no connection with the pessimism that is the essential factor in Asceticism. They were political indifferentists; they were but little, if at all, under the sway of national aspirations. They stood for a universal fellowship of the pure and just. They set but little store by the goods of this earth, and were members of a communistic fraternity. But it is inadmissible to construe from these elements of their hopes and habits the inference that in them is to be found a genuine Jewish order of monks and ascetics.
A stronger case against the theory that Judaism is a very uncongenial soil for the growth of Asceticism might be made out by an appeal to the later Jewish mystics, the Ḥasidim
and Cabalists of various forms, all ecstatic fantastics, and—this is a point that must not be overlooked—more or less strongly under the influence of distinctly non-Jewish conceits. See below, Examples of Jewish Asceticism.
Looking upon this life as essentially good, according to Gen. i. 31; upon the human body as a servant of the spirit, and therefore not corrupt; upon the joys of earth as God-given and therefore to be cherished with gratitude toward the divine giver; having a prayer for every indulgence in food and drink; a benediction for every new experience of whatever nature, gladsome or sad—the Jew partook with genuine zest of the good cheer of life, without, however, lapsing into frivolity, gluttony, or intemperance. His religion, that taught him to remember his dignity as one made in the image of God, and to hold his body in esteem as the temple of God's spirit within, a dwelling of the Most Holy, "a host," as Hillel
put it, "for the guest, the soul," kept the Jew equidistant from the pole of self-torturing pessimism, from the mortification of the flesh under the obsession of its sinfulness and foulness, and from the other pole of levity and sensuousness.
Never intemperate in drink or food, he sought and found true joy in the consecration of his life and all of its powers and opportunities to the service of his God, a God who had caused the fruit of the vine to grow and the earth to give forth the bread, a God who created the light and sent the darkness, a God who, as a Talmudical legend—one of the many with Elijah for their subject—has it, reserves paradise "for them that cause their fellows to laugh" (Ta'an. 22a). The most beautiful saying of the rabbis about Asceticism is: "Man will have to give account in the future for every lawful enjoyment offered to him which he has ungratefully refused" (Rab
in Yer. Ḳid., at the close); compare TanḦ., end, "The wicked in his life is considered as one dead," etc.
is optimism, faith in a God who delights in the happiness of His creatures and expects their grateful appreciation of His bounties—see Abstinence in Judaism
—there have, nevertheless, been prevalent in Jewish life certain ascetic tendencies of which the historian must take account.
13b), and there was an unmistakable element of austerity in the teaching of many a Shammaite that favored asceticism (compare II Esdras iv. 12). While one teacher would say, "The Shekinah rests on man only amid cheerfulness that comes from duty well performed" (Pes. ii. 7a), another held the view that "there should be no unrestrained laughter in this world" (Ber.
31a).
But it was particularly with the view of fitting the soul for communion with God, or for the purpose of keeping the body sufficiently pure to allow it to come into contact with sacred objects, that many strove to avoid things that either cause intoxication or Levitical impurity, the drinking of wine (Lev. x. 9; Num. vi. 3; Amos
ii. 12; Judges
xiii. 14), or sexual intercourse, which was forbidden to the people of Israel, in preparation for the Sinai Revelation (Ex. xix. 15), and to Moses
during the life of communion with God (Deut. ix. 9, 18; I Sam. xxi. 5; Shab. 87a).
According to this principle the life of the ancient Ḥasidim or Perushim (Pharisees
) and Ẓenu'im (Essenes
) was regulated. At the same time these devotees of holiness, making "askesis" (the practise of fortitude) their special object of life, were naturally led to view sensual life as contaminating. F. C. Conybeare says: "Philo's ideal was to die daily, to mortify the flesh with fasting; he only insisted that the seclusion from social life should take place at the age of fifty, the time when the Levites retired from the active duties of the Temple service".
This was exactly the view of the Essenes and Therapeutæ also, in whatever connection they stood to Jonadab ben Rechab and the Kenites (see Mek., Yitro, 2, regarding "the water-drinkers" (shote mayim), as some of these are called). Banus, the eremite saint with whom Josephus
passed three years of his life (Josephus, Vita, § 2), was certainly an ascetic. Likewise were John the Baptist
(Matt.
iii. 4 and parallels) and the early Christians, Jesus
and Paul included, insofar as they shunned marriage as a concession to the flesh (Matt. xix. 10-12; I Cor. vii. 28-38), imbued with ascetic views. It was exactly in opposition to this tendency, so marked in early Christianity
, that the Talmudists denounced fasting and penitence (Ta'anit
11a, b) and accentuated the duty of cheerfulness in the Elijah legend (Ta'anit 22a). Upon the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
in the year 70, a veritable wave of asceticism swept over the people, and in tribute to the national misfortune various ascetic rules were instituted (see B. B.
60b; Tosefta
Soṭah
, end; II Esdras ix. 24; compare W. Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, i. 164).
(Pes. 68b). For the sake of communing with the upper world, the lower one was despised by the elect few who preserved the tradition of the gnosis
and the apocalyptic mysteries.
So did the followers of Obadiah Abu-Isa, the Isawites, and of Judah Yudghan, the Yudghanites, at the close of the 7th century and at the beginning of the 8th, the forerunners of the Karaites, and many prominent Karaites themselves lead ascetic lives; abstaining from meat and wine, and spending much of their time in meditation and devotion, partly in order to obtain a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures, partly as mourners over Jerusalem (see Shahrastani, Book of Religions and Philosophical Sects, Haarbrücker's translation, i. 254-257; H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, iii. 417 et seq., 446 et seq.; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, ii. 350 et seq.).
To some extent, therefore, all the mystics of the Middle Ages
were Ascetics, assuming or accepting for themselves the title of "Nazarites," or being called by their contemporaries "saints." This is especially true of Abraham ben David of Posquières and his circle in the 13th century, whose relation to the beginnings of the Kabala
can hardly be denied. Further, the currents of thought which, emanating from India, created Sufism
in Persian and Mohammedan circles in the 12th and 13th centuries, exerted considerable influence upon Jewish thinkers, as may be learned from BaḦya, whose ethical system, Ḥobot ha-Lebabot, oscillates between asceticism and Jewish optimism, with a decided leaning to the former (see below).
Nevertheless, Abraham b. Ḥiyya claims a higher rank for the saint who, secluded from the world, leads a life altogether consecrated to the service of God. He goes even so far as to advocate the state of celibacy in such cases, referring to the example of Moses
—who had to abandon intercourse with his wife when receiving the laws on Sinai—to the majority of the prophets (who were, as he thinks, unmarried), and to Ben Azzai (according to Yeb. 63b). Like BaḦya, he considers that the ascetic, while leading a purer and holier life, requires less legal restraint (see his Hegyon ha-Nefesh, ed. Reifman, 16a, 32a, 37a; Rosin, Ethik des Maimonides, pp. 15, 16; Moritz Güdemann
, in Monatsschrift, 1900, pp. 196–216).
Of Asher, the son of Meshullam ben Jacob
in Lunel
, Benjamin of Tudela
(Travels, ed. Asher, 3b) relates as eye-witness that he was an ascetic ("parush") who did not attend to any worldly business, but studied day and night, kept fasts, and never ate meat. His brother Jacob bore the title of Nazarite, having also been an ascetic abstaining from wine (see Zunz
's note in Asher's Benjamin of Tudela, ii. 11, 12; H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, vi. 240, 241).
Also the whole family of Judah the Ḧasid of Regensburg, of the 12th century, his father, Samuel, and his grandfather, Kalonymus of Speyer, grandson of Eliezer the Great of Worms, seem to have been a family of Ascetics (see H. J. Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, Nos. 433, 990, 1174, 1200).
The subsequent development and growth of the Kabala
produced other forms of asceticism. In fact, the Ḥasid and the Ẓanua' of the medieval apocalyptic literature being a survival of Essenism, ablutions and fasting were resorted to by the adepts of the Cabala as means of attaining communion with the upper world. Some of these Ḥasidim
would spend the whole week—without or with interruption, according to their physical endurance—in fasting, rendering only the Sabbath a day of comfort and joy. The object of their penitences and fastings was to bring about the time of divine favor, the Messianic
era. Every Messianic movement had therefore Ascetics as leaders, such as were the Shabbethaians (see H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, iii. 307) and others (see Abraham ben Samuel Cohen of Lask
). Others would refrain from eating animal food—'eber min ha-Ḥay—and, like the Buddhists or the Pythagoreans of old, live on vegetarian diet. The same is related by Epiphanius
of the Dosithean sect.
raised his powerful voice, and his sober view maintained the upper hand. He admits the wholesome influence on those needing much discipline of the soul of fasting and vigils, of sexual and social abstemiousness, the self-torture of the hermit, and of the penitent who dwells in deserts and uses only coarse haircloth for the covering of his flesh; but he declares the constant use of what can at best be only a remedial measure in abnormal and unsound conditions of life to be a great folly and injurious extravagance.
Maimonides, while adopting the Aristotelian
maxim of the golden middle way in all things, finds in the various restrictions of the dietary and marriage laws of the Torah a legislative system of training the people to a sobriety which makes superfluous such asceticism as the monks and the saints of other nations indulge in; nay, sinful indeed, according to the rabbinical interpretation of Num. vi. 11, which says that the priest shall "make an atonement for him [the Nazir] for that he has sinned against the person [in making his vow of abstinence]" (see Ned. 10a; Maimonides, Yad, De'ot, iii. 1, vi. 1).
Jewish hermits, living in a state of celibacy and devoting themselves to meditation, are still (circa 1906) found among the Falashas. They claim that Aaron
the high priest was the first Nazarite who from the time of his consecration separated from his wife to live only in the shadow of the tabernacle. Accordingly they join the monastic order after they have been married and have become fathers of children (Halévy, Travels in Abyssinia, p. 230). According to Flad (Abyssinische Juden, pp. 32 et seq.), the order founded by Abba Sabra
(Halévy, Abba Sura) consists altogether of eunuchs. This would indicate non-Jewish influence, of which the Falashas show many traces.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
verb ἀσκέω, meaning "to practise strenuously," "to exercise." Athletes were therefore said to go through ascetic training, and to be ascetics.
In this usage the twofold application—to the mode of living and the results attained—which marks the later theological implication of the term is clearly discernible. From the arena of physical contests the word easily passed over to that of spiritual struggles, and pre-Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
writers speak of the "askesis" of the soul or of virtue—the discipline of the soul, or the exercise in virtue. But the physical idea, no less than the moral, underlies the meaning of the term in medieval Christian parlance. The monastery, as the place where the required life of abstemiousness is lived under rigorous regulation and discipline, becomes the "asketerion," a word which to the classical Greek conveyed only the notion of a place reserved for physical exercise; while the monks were the "ascetikoi," the ascetics, under discipline attaining unto the perfect practise.
Asceticism not encouraged in Judaism
Both the term "Asceticism" and the idea which the term expresses are of non-Jewish origin and implications. Judaism is of a temper which is fatal to asceticism; and the history of both JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and the Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
is, on the whole, free from ascetic aspirations. Fundamental to the teachings of Judaism is the thought that the world is good. Pessimism has no standing-ground. Life is not under the curse. The doctrine of original sin, the depravity of man, has never had foothold within the theology of the synagogue. It never held sway over the mind and the religious imagination of the Jews. In consequence of this the body and the flesh were never regarded by them as contaminated, and the appetites and passions were not suspected of being rooted in evil. The appeal to mortify the flesh for the sake of pleasing Heaven could not find voice in the synagogue.
Torture of the flesh
Asceticism is indigenous to the religions which posit as fundamental the wickedness of this life and the corruption under sin of the flesh. BuddhismBuddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, therefore, as well as Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, leads to ascetic practices. Monasteries are institutions of Buddhism no less than of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Christianity. The assumption, found in the views of the Montanists and others, that concessions made to the natural appetites may be pardoned in those that are of a lower degree of holiness, while the perfectly holy will refuse to yield in the least to carnal needs and desires, is easily detected also in some of the teachings of Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. The ideal of holiness of both the Buddhist and the Christian saint culminates in poverty and chastity; i.e., celibacy. Fasting and other disciplinary methods are resorted to curb the flesh.
Under a strict construction of the meaning of Asceticism, it is an error to assume that its history may be extended to embrace also certain rites in vogue among devotees to fetishism and nature worship. Mutilations, the sacrifice of the hair, dietary observances and prohibitions, which abound in all forms of religion at a certain stage of development, do not spring from the notion of the sinfulness of the natural instincts and of life. Nor is the sacrificial scheme in any way connected with Asceticism. The idea of privation is foreign to it. If the offering was a gift to the Deity and as such entailed upon the offerer the parting with something of value, the expectation which animated him was invariably that of receiving rich return. But whatever theory must be accepted in explanation of the various rites of mutilation, and of the sacrificial ritual, certain it is that Judaism from the beginning set its face most sternly against the one, and materially restricted the other. Mutilations for whatever purpose and of whatever character were absolutely prohibited. Funeral horrors and superstitions were not tolerated. The Levitical code restricted sacrifices to one place. The priests only were entrusted with the office at the altar. And, if the Prophets are the truest expounders of the ideals and ideas of the religion of Israel, even the sacrificial and sacerdotal system, with its implications of extraordinary and precautionary cleanliness and physical abstemiousness, was of little vital moment.
Fasting, which plays so essential a part in the practices of ascetics, classically found official recognition only in the development of the Day of Atonement
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
. The Prophets, again, had little patience with fasting. There are some obscure allusions to fast days of popular observance, but the Prophets of exilic and postexilic days insist on the futility of this custom. Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
(lviii.), while appealing for a broader charity and deeper sense of justice, maintains that these, and not fasting, are the expression of a will sanctified unto God. It is characteristic of the attitude of later Judaism that this very chapter has been assigned for the Hafṭarah
Haftarah
The haftarah or haftoroh is a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im of the Hebrew Bible that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Jewish religious practice...
for the Day of Atonement, the one penitential fast-day of the synagogue.
Fasting
Nevertheless, fasting among the Jews was resorted to in times of great distress. The Book of EstherBook of Esther
The Book of Esther is a book in the Ketuvim , the third section of the Jewish Tanakh and is part of the Christian Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
, of late date, illustrates this for the period included in the Biblical canon. Rabbinical sources prove the growing tendency to abstain from drink and food whenever memories of disaster marked the days of the synagogal calendar, or instant danger threatened the community. In the scheme of the synagogue the one fast-day of the Bible received no less than twenty-two as companions (compare Fasting in Judaism).
Still, it may be doubted whether this multiplication of fast-days can be taken as a sign of an increased tendency to Asceticism. Probably the theory of Robertson Smith (The Religion of the Semites, p. 413) still holds good to a large extent in explanation of many of the fast-observances of later Judaism, as undoubtedly it does for the voluntary and occasional fast-days mentioned in the historical books of the Bible; namely, that Oriental fasting is merely a preparation for the eating of the sacrificial meal. The rabbinical injunction, not to eat too late a meal on the eve of the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
-day, so as to enjoy all the more that of the Sabbath, tends to corroborate the theory. Perhaps this also underlies the rabbinical report that some examples of rabbinical piety fasted every Friday (in preparation for the Sabbath).
Ascetics in Talmud
Among the Rabbis some are mentioned as great and consistent fasters. Rabbi Zeira especially is remembered for his fondness of this form of piety. Yet to make of him an ascetic would transcend the bounds of truth. He fasted that he might forget his Babylonian method of teaching before emigrating to PalestinePalestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
(B. M. 85a). The story continues that he abstained from drink and food for the period of one hundred days, in order that hell-fire might later have no power over him. Simon ben YoḦai is depicted as an ascetic in the traditions preserved in rabbinical literature. But exposed to persecutions under the Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
régime, and often in danger of his life, his whole mind was of an exceptionally somber turn for a Jewish teacher. Moreover, his ascetic practices were not inspired by a consciousness of the futility of this life and its sinfulness, but by the anxiety to fulfill to the letter the Law, to "ponder on the Torah day and night". He begrudged the hours necessary for the care of the body as so many precious moments stolen from the study of the holy Law. He envied the generation of the desert who had been fed on heavenly manna, and were thus absolved from the care for their daily bread; an echo of this sentiment may be detected in the petition of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
for daily bread (on Simon b. YoḦai, see W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. ii. 70-149).
Still, with all these seeming leanings to ascetic conduct, these rabbis did not encourage individual fasting. The community in distress did indeed proclaim a public fast, and it was the duty of the loyal member to participate. For he who would not share in the distress would have no part in the consolation of the people (Ta'an. 11a). The habitual faster was called a sinner (ib.). This judgment was enforced by an appeal to the Biblical text in connection with the Nazir
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or nazarite, , refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in . The term "nazirite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated"...
's (Nazarite's) expiatory sacrifice (Num. vi. 11). Rabbi Zeira would not permit his disciples to indulge in extraordinary practices of self-restraint, if they presumed thereby to reflect on the piety of others saner than they. The title applied to such an adept at saintly practices is characteristically deprecatory for his attitude of mind: his conduct is declared to smack of conceit, if not of hypocrisy (Yer. Ber.
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berachot is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim, a collection of the Mishnah that primarily deals with laws relating to plants and farming...
ii. 5d).
The attempt has been made to explain the Biblical Nazarites as forerunners of monastic orders addicted to the practice of ascetic discipline. Pentateuchal legislation concerning them shows them to have been merely tolerated. Modern criticism explains their peculiarities as arising from motives other than those that determine the conduct of ascetics. The Biblical Nazirs, forerunners of the Nebi'im (Prophets), were Protestants against the adoption of the customs and the religious rites of the Canaanites. In their dress and mode of life they emphasized their loyalty to YHVH
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
, enthroned on the desert mountain. Wine and the crown of hair were sacred to the gods of the land. Their very appearance emphasized their rejection of the new deities. And in later days the number of those that took the Nazarite vow was exceedingly small. One is inclined to the opinion that no case occurred in which the Pentateuchal provisions became effective.
Essenes not ascetics
Nor may the EssenesEssenes
The Essenes were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests...
be classed among the order of ascetics. While some of their institutions, notably celibacy, appear to lend support to the theory that would class them as such, their fundamental doctrines show no connection with the pessimism that is the essential factor in Asceticism. They were political indifferentists; they were but little, if at all, under the sway of national aspirations. They stood for a universal fellowship of the pure and just. They set but little store by the goods of this earth, and were members of a communistic fraternity. But it is inadmissible to construe from these elements of their hopes and habits the inference that in them is to be found a genuine Jewish order of monks and ascetics.
A stronger case against the theory that Judaism is a very uncongenial soil for the growth of Asceticism might be made out by an appeal to the later Jewish mystics, the Ḥasidim
Hasidim
Hasidim/Chasidim is the plural of Hasid , meaning "pious". The honorific "Hasid" was frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. In classic Rabbinic literature it differs from "Tzadik"-"righteous", by instead denoting one who goes beyond the legal...
and Cabalists of various forms, all ecstatic fantastics, and—this is a point that must not be overlooked—more or less strongly under the influence of distinctly non-Jewish conceits. See below, Examples of Jewish Asceticism.
Looking upon this life as essentially good, according to Gen. i. 31; upon the human body as a servant of the spirit, and therefore not corrupt; upon the joys of earth as God-given and therefore to be cherished with gratitude toward the divine giver; having a prayer for every indulgence in food and drink; a benediction for every new experience of whatever nature, gladsome or sad—the Jew partook with genuine zest of the good cheer of life, without, however, lapsing into frivolity, gluttony, or intemperance. His religion, that taught him to remember his dignity as one made in the image of God, and to hold his body in esteem as the temple of God's spirit within, a dwelling of the Most Holy, "a host," as Hillel
Hillel the Elder
Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud...
put it, "for the guest, the soul," kept the Jew equidistant from the pole of self-torturing pessimism, from the mortification of the flesh under the obsession of its sinfulness and foulness, and from the other pole of levity and sensuousness.
Never intemperate in drink or food, he sought and found true joy in the consecration of his life and all of its powers and opportunities to the service of his God, a God who had caused the fruit of the vine to grow and the earth to give forth the bread, a God who created the light and sent the darkness, a God who, as a Talmudical legend—one of the many with Elijah for their subject—has it, reserves paradise "for them that cause their fellows to laugh" (Ta'an. 22a). The most beautiful saying of the rabbis about Asceticism is: "Man will have to give account in the future for every lawful enjoyment offered to him which he has ungratefully refused" (Rab
Abba Arika
Abba Arika was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the 3rd century who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud...
in Yer. Ḳid., at the close); compare TanḦ., end, "The wicked in his life is considered as one dead," etc.
Examples of Jewish asceticism
While the dominant note of JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
is optimism, faith in a God who delights in the happiness of His creatures and expects their grateful appreciation of His bounties—see Abstinence in Judaism
Abstinence in Judaism
Abstinence is the refraining from enjoyments which are lawful in themselves. Abstinence in general can be considered a virtue only when it serves the purpose of consecrating a life to a higher purpose...
—there have, nevertheless, been prevalent in Jewish life certain ascetic tendencies of which the historian must take account.
Shammaites and Hillelites
The two great rabbinical schools of the first pre-Christian century, the Shammaites and the Hillelites, debated the question whether life was worth living or not—"ṭob le-adam shenibra mishelo nibra" (Er.Moed
Moed is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people . Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of Moed consists of 12 tractates:# Shabbat: or Shabbath deals with the 39 prohibitions of "work" on the Shabbat...
13b), and there was an unmistakable element of austerity in the teaching of many a Shammaite that favored asceticism (compare II Esdras iv. 12). While one teacher would say, "The Shekinah rests on man only amid cheerfulness that comes from duty well performed" (Pes. ii. 7a), another held the view that "there should be no unrestrained laughter in this world" (Ber.
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berachot is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim, a collection of the Mishnah that primarily deals with laws relating to plants and farming...
31a).
But it was particularly with the view of fitting the soul for communion with God, or for the purpose of keeping the body sufficiently pure to allow it to come into contact with sacred objects, that many strove to avoid things that either cause intoxication or Levitical impurity, the drinking of wine (Lev. x. 9; Num. vi. 3; Amos
Book of Amos
The Book of Amos is a prophetic book of the Hebrew Bible, one of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, was active c. 750 BCE during the reign of Jeroboam II, making the Book of Amos the first biblical prophetic book written. Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah...
ii. 12; Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
xiii. 14), or sexual intercourse, which was forbidden to the people of Israel, in preparation for the Sinai Revelation (Ex. xix. 15), and to Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
during the life of communion with God (Deut. ix. 9, 18; I Sam. xxi. 5; Shab. 87a).
According to this principle the life of the ancient Ḥasidim or Perushim (Pharisees
Pharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
) and Ẓenu'im (Essenes
Essenes
The Essenes were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests...
) was regulated. At the same time these devotees of holiness, making "askesis" (the practise of fortitude) their special object of life, were naturally led to view sensual life as contaminating. F. C. Conybeare says: "Philo's ideal was to die daily, to mortify the flesh with fasting; he only insisted that the seclusion from social life should take place at the age of fifty, the time when the Levites retired from the active duties of the Temple service".
This was exactly the view of the Essenes and Therapeutæ also, in whatever connection they stood to Jonadab ben Rechab and the Kenites (see Mek., Yitro, 2, regarding "the water-drinkers" (shote mayim), as some of these are called). Banus, the eremite saint with whom Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
passed three years of his life (Josephus, Vita, § 2), was certainly an ascetic. Likewise were John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
(Matt.
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
iii. 4 and parallels) and the early Christians, Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and Paul included, insofar as they shunned marriage as a concession to the flesh (Matt. xix. 10-12; I Cor. vii. 28-38), imbued with ascetic views. It was exactly in opposition to this tendency, so marked in early Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, that the Talmudists denounced fasting and penitence (Ta'anit
Ta'anit
A ta'anit or taanis or taʿanith in Classical Hebrew is a fast in Judaism in which one abstains from all food and drink, including water...
11a, b) and accentuated the duty of cheerfulness in the Elijah legend (Ta'anit 22a). Upon the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
in the year 70, a veritable wave of asceticism swept over the people, and in tribute to the national misfortune various ascetic rules were instituted (see B. B.
Bava Batra
Bava Batra is the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law...
60b; Tosefta
Tosefta
The Tosefta is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the period of the Mishnah.-Overview:...
Soṭah
Sotah
Sotah deals with the ritual of the Sotah - the woman suspected of adultery as described and prescribed in the Book of Numbers in...
, end; II Esdras ix. 24; compare W. Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, i. 164).
Mysticism and asceticism
Still, mysticism, which goes hand in hand with asceticism, always had its esoteric circles. Judah ha-Nasi, called "the saint," was an ascetic (Ket. 104a). Mar, the son of Rabina, fasted throughout the whole year with the exception of the holy days and the eve of the Atonement DayYom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
(Pes. 68b). For the sake of communing with the upper world, the lower one was despised by the elect few who preserved the tradition of the gnosis
Gnosis
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
and the apocalyptic mysteries.
So did the followers of Obadiah Abu-Isa, the Isawites, and of Judah Yudghan, the Yudghanites, at the close of the 7th century and at the beginning of the 8th, the forerunners of the Karaites, and many prominent Karaites themselves lead ascetic lives; abstaining from meat and wine, and spending much of their time in meditation and devotion, partly in order to obtain a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures, partly as mourners over Jerusalem (see Shahrastani, Book of Religions and Philosophical Sects, Haarbrücker's translation, i. 254-257; H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, iii. 417 et seq., 446 et seq.; Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, ii. 350 et seq.).
To some extent, therefore, all the mystics of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
were Ascetics, assuming or accepting for themselves the title of "Nazarites," or being called by their contemporaries "saints." This is especially true of Abraham ben David of Posquières and his circle in the 13th century, whose relation to the beginnings of the Kabala
Kabala
Kabala can refer to:*Kabbalah, system of Jewish mysticism*Kabala, Sierra Leone, town in Sierra Leone*Kabala, Estonia, village in Türi Parish, Järva County, Estonia*Kabala, Mardin a town in Mardin Province of Turkey*Ka-Bala, 1967 fortune telling board game...
can hardly be denied. Further, the currents of thought which, emanating from India, created Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
in Persian and Mohammedan circles in the 12th and 13th centuries, exerted considerable influence upon Jewish thinkers, as may be learned from BaḦya, whose ethical system, Ḥobot ha-Lebabot, oscillates between asceticism and Jewish optimism, with a decided leaning to the former (see below).
Abraham ben Ḥiyya
Even such thinkers as opposed the ascetic view could not extricate themselves entirely from the meshes of Neoplatonic mysticism, which beheld in the flesh or in matter the source of evil. Thus Abraham ben Ḥiyya strongly refutes the Neoplatonic conception of evil as being identical with matter, and maintains against BaḦya that indulgence in fasting and other modes of penitence is not meritorious, since only he who is ruled by his lower desires may resort to asceticism as the means of curbing his passion and disciplining his soul, whereas the really good should confine himself to such modes of abstinence as are prescribed by the Law.Nevertheless, Abraham b. Ḥiyya claims a higher rank for the saint who, secluded from the world, leads a life altogether consecrated to the service of God. He goes even so far as to advocate the state of celibacy in such cases, referring to the example of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
—who had to abandon intercourse with his wife when receiving the laws on Sinai—to the majority of the prophets (who were, as he thinks, unmarried), and to Ben Azzai (according to Yeb. 63b). Like BaḦya, he considers that the ascetic, while leading a purer and holier life, requires less legal restraint (see his Hegyon ha-Nefesh, ed. Reifman, 16a, 32a, 37a; Rosin, Ethik des Maimonides, pp. 15, 16; Moritz Güdemann
Moritz Güdemann
- Life :He was educated at Breslau , and took his rabbinical diploma at the Jewish Theological Seminary of that city. In the latter year he was called to the rabbinate of Magdeburg; in 1866 he went to Vienna as preacher, where he became rabbi in 1868, and chief rabbi in 1890.- Works :Güdemann...
, in Monatsschrift, 1900, pp. 196–216).
Of Asher, the son of Meshullam ben Jacob
Meshullam ben Jacob
Rabbeinu Meshullam son of Jacob also known as Rabbeinu Meshullam hagodol was a Franco-Jewish Talmudist of the twelfth century CE...
in Lunel
Lunel
Lunel is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. Lunel is located east of Montpellier and southwest of Nîmes .-History:The ancient Roman site of Ambrussum is located nearby. The troubadour Folquet de Lunel was from Lunel....
, Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...
(Travels, ed. Asher, 3b) relates as eye-witness that he was an ascetic ("parush") who did not attend to any worldly business, but studied day and night, kept fasts, and never ate meat. His brother Jacob bore the title of Nazarite, having also been an ascetic abstaining from wine (see Zunz
Zunz
Zunz, Zuntz is a Yiddish surname: , Belgian pharmacologist* Leopold Zunz , German Reform rabbi* Gerhard Jack Zunz , British civil engineer- Zuntz :* Nathan Zuntz , German physiologist...
's note in Asher's Benjamin of Tudela, ii. 11, 12; H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, vi. 240, 241).
Also the whole family of Judah the Ḧasid of Regensburg, of the 12th century, his father, Samuel, and his grandfather, Kalonymus of Speyer, grandson of Eliezer the Great of Worms, seem to have been a family of Ascetics (see H. J. Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, Nos. 433, 990, 1174, 1200).
The subsequent development and growth of the Kabala
Kabala
Kabala can refer to:*Kabbalah, system of Jewish mysticism*Kabala, Sierra Leone, town in Sierra Leone*Kabala, Estonia, village in Türi Parish, Järva County, Estonia*Kabala, Mardin a town in Mardin Province of Turkey*Ka-Bala, 1967 fortune telling board game...
produced other forms of asceticism. In fact, the Ḥasid and the Ẓanua' of the medieval apocalyptic literature being a survival of Essenism, ablutions and fasting were resorted to by the adepts of the Cabala as means of attaining communion with the upper world. Some of these Ḥasidim
Hasidim
Hasidim/Chasidim is the plural of Hasid , meaning "pious". The honorific "Hasid" was frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. In classic Rabbinic literature it differs from "Tzadik"-"righteous", by instead denoting one who goes beyond the legal...
would spend the whole week—without or with interruption, according to their physical endurance—in fasting, rendering only the Sabbath a day of comfort and joy. The object of their penitences and fastings was to bring about the time of divine favor, the Messianic
Jewish Messiah
Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...
era. Every Messianic movement had therefore Ascetics as leaders, such as were the Shabbethaians (see H. Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, iii. 307) and others (see Abraham ben Samuel Cohen of Lask
Abraham ben Samuel Cohen of Lask
Abraham ben Yechiel-Michel Catz Ha Cohen of Lask . Abraham was a Jewish ascetic who flourished at the end of the 18th century...
). Others would refrain from eating animal food—'eber min ha-Ḥay—and, like the Buddhists or the Pythagoreans of old, live on vegetarian diet. The same is related by Epiphanius
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
of the Dosithean sect.
Moses Maimonides
Against all these ascetic views and tendencies MaimonidesMaimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
raised his powerful voice, and his sober view maintained the upper hand. He admits the wholesome influence on those needing much discipline of the soul of fasting and vigils, of sexual and social abstemiousness, the self-torture of the hermit, and of the penitent who dwells in deserts and uses only coarse haircloth for the covering of his flesh; but he declares the constant use of what can at best be only a remedial measure in abnormal and unsound conditions of life to be a great folly and injurious extravagance.
Maimonides, while adopting the Aristotelian
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
maxim of the golden middle way in all things, finds in the various restrictions of the dietary and marriage laws of the Torah a legislative system of training the people to a sobriety which makes superfluous such asceticism as the monks and the saints of other nations indulge in; nay, sinful indeed, according to the rabbinical interpretation of Num. vi. 11, which says that the priest shall "make an atonement for him [the Nazir] for that he has sinned against the person [in making his vow of abstinence]" (see Ned. 10a; Maimonides, Yad, De'ot, iii. 1, vi. 1).
Jewish hermits, living in a state of celibacy and devoting themselves to meditation, are still (circa 1906) found among the Falashas. They claim that Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
the high priest was the first Nazarite who from the time of his consecration separated from his wife to live only in the shadow of the tabernacle. Accordingly they join the monastic order after they have been married and have become fathers of children (Halévy, Travels in Abyssinia, p. 230). According to Flad (Abyssinische Juden, pp. 32 et seq.), the order founded by Abba Sabra
Abba Sabra
Abba Sabra was an Ethiopian Orthodox monk, and the teacher of the children of Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia. Abba Sabra tried to convert the Beta Israel , but was instead converted by them to Judaism...
(Halévy, Abba Sura) consists altogether of eunuchs. This would indicate non-Jewish influence, of which the Falashas show many traces.
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia articles on Asceticism and Ascetics, by Kaufmann KohlerKaufmann KohlerKaufmann Kohler was a German-born U.S. reform rabbi and theologian.-Life and work:Kaufmann Kohler was born into a family of rabbis...
and Emil G. Hirsch.