No scholar has contributed more to our understanding of Sephardi rabbinical thought in the modern era than has Zvi Zohar, and at last, his wide-ranging study of the legal and religious creativity of Jewish spiritual leaders in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth century has appeared, not merely as a straight translation of his 2001 Hebrew original, but in a reworked and enhanced English version. With erudition and verve, Zohar convincingly shows that there was a very different response which was deeply and authentically rooted within Jewish tradition by Arabic- and Ladino-speaking scholars and communal leaders who were far more open to the modern world than were many of their Ashkenazi counterparts. The Eastern sages, rather than seeing modernity and technology as existential threats to be kept at bay by ever-more stringent regulations and increased communal isolation, saw them as challenges to be engaged calmly and creatively, but at the same time which had great potential for good. Zohar paints insightful portraits of men like Abdallah Somekh, Yitzhak Dayyan, Shaul Abbadi, Elijah Hazan, and Raphael Aharon Ben-Shim?on. He surveys their oeuvre, elucidates their thought, and explains their methodology with clarity and considerable empathy. Rabbinic Creativity in the Modern Middle East is an eloquent and salutary antidote to the all-too-widespread notion that the Judaism’s encounter with modernity was an entirely Western phenomenon. The book is a signal contribution to Judaic Studies, Religious Studies and Modern Historical Studies.
Norman A. Stillman, Schusterman/Josey Professor of Judaic History, University of Oklahoma, USA