The American Jewish Literature - Essay Example

Religion and Theology-Book Review Questions ‘As a Driven Leaf’ novel analyzes the Jewish struggle of the 2nd century in reconciling Rabbinic. The elements of conflicting Judaism included cultural and philosophical dimensions of Greek Hellenistic society. The struggle of Elisha led to speculation by Steinberg about events and questions that drove the individuals to apostasy. Truth with Faith addresses self-determination questions for the Jewish and Roman Empire within the Bar Kochba Revolt (Steinberg 67). The novel illustrates the issues of interdependence for reason and faith. Even though the book draws conclusions based on Talmudic tradition in the creation of Elishas framework life, Steinberg wrote that the novel is developed from historical data .The data does not include any efforts of rigid conformity and literal confinement. The American Jewish literature is spirited and forms a classic historical explanation of ancient apostate Elisha Abuyah within the first century. An integral component of the story is a question relating to faith and loss of faith coupled with the rebellion and repression of the Jews to Palestine rule. Elisha is displayed as a leading scholar across Palestine who is elected into Sanhedrin; that is the top-most Jewish court for the land. However, two major tragedies awaken a series of doubt on Elishas mind about God (Steinberg 90). The doubt suppressed his faith. He journeyed into Antioch at Syria to start the conquest through Roman and Greek culture for fundamental truth and was declared an excommunicated and heretic from Jewish communities. The process of narrative illustrates Elisha having direct encounters of the force of the all-consuming culture in ancient Romans. Elisha also forced Rome’s power in choosing between loyalty to people or to own quest for truth. The people were rebelling against domination by the emperor. The Chosen narrates of a friendship after World War II between two Jewish boys who grow up in Brooklyn. The narrator and a protagonist are traditional Orthodox Jews. The character appears to have extreme dedication for scholarly work and humanitarianism. Other protagonists are brilliant and have photographic memory and passion in psychoanalysis. Over time, the story shows that the friendship developing between the two boys is marred with tensions arising from collision of cultures to each other. Modern American society also causes strain on the friendship (Potok 132). The literary themes in the book are inclusive of widespread references of senses like sight and pursuit of truth in the world. Reb Saunders emphasizes on the strength of friendship and the relevance of father-son bonds. The context of friendship prevails over women and children, and strong father figures are considered to be intellectual characters. On the other hand, Mr. Malter considers faith strength and validity within modern secular world as an integral determiner of faith. Mr. Malter accentuates the role of silence as media of communication. The book presents numerous instances where Reuven and Danny process and receives non-verbal information. The author explicitly introduces the topic through allusion to the relationship of Danny and his father without verbal communication. The long silence, running for two years, between Reuven and Danny, advocated by Reb Saunders, is a rich communicative interaction between friends. However, it shows constraints caused by silence between individuals (Potok 56). The contrast of modernity to tradition is presented through Reb Saunders’ insulation and isolation from modernity. The context is inclusive of modern Orthodoxy and all methods used in studying Talmud. The struggle between adhering to the traditions of an individual’s culture and the ever-changing world takes on cultures adopted by home country. The Sunflower is written by Simon Wiesenthal illustrates the Holocaust through the person’s reminisces on experiences with terminally wounded Nazi. The Sunflower remembers of the experiences of Wiesenthal in Lemberg concentration camp. The individual discusses moral dilemmas and ethics of the issue. The sin and forgiveness are derived from observation of Wiesenthal in German military cemeteries and the sight of a sunflower on the graves. Wiesenthal fear his placement within un-marked or mass graves (Wiesenthal 45). The narrative presents a symposium of diverse from various people such as former Nazis and Holocaust survivors. Seidl, a dying Nazi soldier. The warrior shares with him his willingness to have the forgiveness from the Jews for crimes that haunted him since he committed a year earlier (Wiesenthal 67). The man proceeds to confess to him for having destroyed a house with 300 Jews using fire and armaments. Seidl states that while the Jews sought to come from the windows and escape the building, he shot them down. Immediately Seidl told his story, he pleads with Wiesenthal for forgiveness. Wiesenthal leaves the room and does not speak to the soldier anymore. He poses the ethical dilemma of the essence of forgiving Seidl to the audience. I hold that the case should have been presented to the SS officer in a formalized manner as per the outlined procedures. The current book edition shows graved responses among various people. The respondents to the issue include psychiatrists, theologians, human rights activists, political leaders, jurists, writers, and Holocaust survivors (Wiesenthal 78). The dilemma focuses on former Nazis and genocides victims in Cambodia, Bosnia, Tibet and China. I hold that forgiveness could to be awarded for the sake of the victims while others would be withheld. Harris-Gershons novel presents a debut that pivots the death of his wife and friends, Ben and Marla, blown up at university cafe. Jamie survives as he had bent down under her table while retrieving a textbook. However, her intestines are punctured by a metal nut around the bomb. The story of recovery faces an interruption from by bursts of politics and that the bombing was days after the potential Hamas ceasefire skippered by the assassination of Salah Shehadeh an Israeli government militant leader (Harris-Gershon 90). The bomb’s effects are reverberating, and Jamie becomes pregnant and plan to settle in the relative safety zones of Washington DC. Psychological consequences to David are insidious and suffer from terrible insomnia while obsessing to unnatural degrees of the safety of the newborn. He experiences an emotion of suffocation that overwhelms him in a number of instances. Therapy convinces him on ways of confronting details of the attack that leads to self-discovery of the individual responsible for the bombing from a newspaper article. The question affecting David was that is the terrorist was sorry, it would mean that he was human and not a machine and agent of fate. The understanding made David set back on courses of meeting Odeh and family. The meeting would give him closure on what led to the vicious attack that killed his wife and friends (Harris-Gershon 56). The journey through trauma and reconciliation was unusual, and David’s memoirs as a victim formed an indirect solution to terrorist attacks. Harris-Gershons effort is not focused on scaling such heights. The suffering is intense and heartfelt even though it does not share the concerns of hostility in his competent and entertaining writing. The novel ‘My Fathers Paradise’ presents the eighth-century plight of the Judeans at the Babylon River. The Israelites were a different Jewish tribe and were marched from their ancient kingdom into a long exile. The Jews could spend the 3000 years isolation among the Kurdistan mountain villages unlike their Baghdadi compatriots who went on to settle in Talmud (Sabar 74). Kurdish Jewry across Iraq was soon put to an end as close to 18,000 people went to Israel to escape the backlash triggering the Jewish states conflicts. The Kurdish took Aramaic, the lingua franca and Jesus tongue from the Middle East persisting in Kurdistan and Arabic conquest over the region. While Yona faced the decline of his family’s command in Israel, his father, a prosperous merchant, was downgraded to a manual laborer. The Kurdish community members were maligned as a primitive society and preservation of a dying language as a concern. Ariel Sabar, Yona Sabaghs son, is journalist and author of his father’s biography as part of history in memoir and linguistics primer. "My Fathers Paradise" offers a personal view for one son admitting lack of understanding of his unassuming and penny-pinching father (Sabar 89). The man spent three decades with obsessive cataloging behavior of words from the moribund mother tongue. Sabar looked to his father with scornful and shame of an alien who bore scars from childhood bloodlettings. Works Cited Harris-Gershon, David. What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?: A Memoir. New York: Oneworld Publications, 2014. Print Potok, Chaim. The Chosen. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1982. Print Sabar, Ariel. My Fathers Paradise: A Sons Search for His Familys Past. New York: Algonquin Books, 2009. Print Steinberg, Milton. As a Driven Leaf. New York: J. Aronson, 1987. Print Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower. New York: Schocken Books, 1976. Print Read More