First of all let me say that I am aware that this is controversial author and I fully intend to read some of his adversaries as Simon has helpfully pointed out. nevertheless I find this book so happy full of rich and varied Source material with Jewish and non-jewish that this is worth a 5-star rating simply because it is definitely a reference book that I would want to have in the original French.

Second and more importantly, I think I would probably translate this book as the essence of Judaism.
Finally , he appears to Define Judaism as a willingness to , even in the face of danger, question and use knowledge based on logic . To me this seems to fall within the idea of defining Jewish people as those who wrestle with God. I personally equate his questioning and Knowledge or Learning with the Rabbinical command to learn and to teach since the best students ore a good student must ask questions.

En fin, I do not agree with everything he said but in the case that he is making I believe he puts forth valid arguments and this book is well worth studying arguing with and learning all his Source materials . I'll be reading it again in the original French. ( )

First of all let me say that I am aware that this is controversial author and I fully intend to read some of his adversaries as Simon has helpfully pointed out. nevertheless I find this book so happy full of rich and varied Source material with Jewish and non-jewish that this is worth a 5-star rating simply because it is definitely a reference book that I would want to have in the original French.

Second and more importantly, I think I would probably translate this book as the essence of Judaism.
Finally , he appears to Define Judaism as a willingness to , even in the face of danger, question and use knowledge based on logic . To me this seems to fall within the idea of defining Jewish people as those who wrestle with God. I personally equate his questioning and Knowledge or Learning with the Rabbinical command to learn and to teach since the best students ore a good student must ask questions.

En fin, I do not agree with everything he said but in the case that he is making I believe he puts forth valid arguments and this book is well worth studying arguing with and learning all his Source materials . I'll be reading it again in the original French. ( )

Attempting to consider Judaism meeting post-holocaust modernity, Levy assumes that anti-Semitism always lurks everywhere and underneath all calm exteriors. This sounds paranoid but European Jews post WWII have been dealing with this question for some time. Anne Frank herself was not pessimistic but optimistic that once the Allies overran the German army all people could live normal free lives. She herself would become the writer that she hoped to be.

Levy says that everyone since has tried to claim their own portion of the genocidal oppression first unleashed upon the Jews in Pharaoh's Egypt. In the second part of the book he compares himself to Jonah the prophet to Nineveh. A man looking to add Judaic studies to the literature and philosophy of Western Culture's own "intensity, energy, and power."

The book is needlessly erratic and is takes on generalizations at times unworthy of a person trying to summarize so much (as in his admiration of Hegel). The audience is particularly focused toward Jewish readers but he wants others to buy the book so Levy shows how widely he has read in comparative world literature. The book is translated from the French (L'esprit du Judaisme) and this title carries a better sense of the book. It's more an essay on what can Jews hope for i the future where they must be much more cautious about the fragility of their cultural life.

Levy also struggles with the fact that the French surrendered to Hitler and thereby allowed the Jews in occupied land to be sent to the camps. Levy is Algerian with a French education but he himself struggles with the guilt of
Franco-Judaism. He says that Franco-Judaism was a dead end because it left Jews defenseless when the Nazis came to power. Levy says it was Jewish self-denial which allowed them to be rejected by the nations where they lived and were deeply interwoven. Levy is ashamed of what happened to France during the war as it related to the fate of the Jews. Camus has a similar reaction of self-disgust to France's wartime decisions in his The Fall. Camus wants to disengage, Levy to reengage.

If you are interested in Continental European Jewish essays, this is ok. If not, skip it.