More than one hundred years ago, German scholar Louis Ginzberg compiled a multi-volume collection of legends, tales, and stories found in the Jewish Bible. Although originally written in German and translated into English and Hebrew, the English translation of the Legends of the Jews is the better known version. This thin volume comprised of seven rich chapters was published on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Ginzberg’s first volume of Legends of the Jews in English and the second volume in Hebrew.
The relatively short essays approach interpretive analyses of Ginzberg’s massive work from different scholarly perspectives. The seven noted international scholars celebrate the brilliance of the work. Several themes drawn from the texts are repeated in some of the essays. One is the notion of nation; the texts compiled by Ginzberg serve to assert the nationhood of the Jewish people. Also posited by a number of contributors is how the Legends of the Jews is a personal projection of Ginzberg’s own history and his relationship to the Vilna Gaon, from whom Ginzberg thought he was descended. The duality of Ginzberg’s life as an educated Jew whose work was influenced by contemporary folklore scholarship is also expressed by several of the authors. Perhaps what all contributors hold in common is their desire to bring insight into the life and milieu of Ginzberg, the collector, an approach often lacking in analyses of established collections.
Schorsch’s introduction places Ginzberg’s six volumes of narratives into a number of contexts, one of which is the burgeoning Jewish immigrant populations of the United States. Interestingly, Sabel’s final chapter also points out that Ginzberg’s work made the material accessible to a more popular Jewish American audience. While this monumental work draws upon Rabbinic traditions, it also comes from popular traditions to confirm a strong basis for Jewish identity. Through Ginzberg’s reliance upon Jewish traditions, Jewish history, especially the cultural history which has been a mainstay of Jewish life, can be better understood.
Golinkin addresses three interesting points about Ginzberg’s milestone publication. First is a summary history of Ginzberg’s life in America and the evolution of the work. Second, he writes about how The Legends was received by both Jewish and non-Jewish clerics and scholars. He observes the lack of contemporary reviews of the work. Finally, Golinkin considers Ginzberg’s own response to his lifelong work from the point of view of his other works. Golinkin concludes that at least one other of his writings, the commentary on the Yerushalmi Talmud, held much more personal significance because it linked directly to his personal heritage and the Vilna Gaon.
An analysis of the Legends of the Jews from the point of view of the Church is contributed by Newman. He traces the origins of Ginzberg’s magnum opus to his dissertation, which addressed the appearance of aggadah in writings by the Church. Ginzberg, unlike previous scholars who had taken this approach, sought to find the Talmudic sources of aggadah through his analysis of the Church literature. While he did not achieve the goal he set for himself, Ginzberg compiled an impressive collection of Christian sources that were useful in creating the Legends volumes.
Boyarin takes a controversial stand to consider the contexts from which the Legends emerged, the Greek Christian world and the world of Babylonian Jewry. He presents a convincing argument about the pluralistic nature of the intellectual environment at the time and the need to interpret the context. Boyarin writes of diffusion of literature and cultural and religious sharing at the rabbinic level which led to the creation of a Hellenistic Judaism and shows that the writings of the Rabbis were influenced by traditional sources. Jews did not live in isolation; their works were also influenced by non-Jewish sources. Boyarin also places his discussion into the context of folklore creation and nationalism. He suggests that Ginzberg might have considered the Legends of the Jews to be similar to the Kalevala, Finland’s constructed national folk epic. Both compilations justify the existence of a nation.
Elbaum looks at the very unique nature of Ginzberg’s anthology as a research tool to access the Hebrew Bible at a certain point of time. He then compares Ginzberg’s work to other anthologies of aggadic and midrashic literature to understand the unique contribution of Ginzberg. One of the essences of Jewish scholarship is the analysis and reanalysis of written sources. A number of anthologies drawing from the Hebrew Bible predate Ginzberg. Elbaum’s summary of the history and roles of two precursors includes the references Ginzberg made to previous texts. In addition, to fully understand Ginzberg’s impact, Elbaum invites scholars to place his work into the context of contemporaneous non-Jewish anthologies.
Another theme emphasized by several contributors to this volume is Ginzberg’s knowledge of both elite and folk literature. Hasan-Rokem looks at early folklore research at the time when the Legends was first being assembled. She considers approaches to genre studies as well as the comparative method in vogue at that time. After all, she points out, Ginzberg considered the literature with which he was working to be “the Hebrew folktale.” Her contribution provides a perspective to the study of the history of the discipline and places Ginzberg’s work solidly within the work of contemporary folklorists.
Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews was originally written in German and subsequently translated into English. In the final chapter, Sabel returns to the original manuscript, which has never been critically studied or archived, to dissect the genesis and writing process of the Legends of the Jews. He refers to the tradition of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century anthologies, written about by Elbaum in this volume, which were predominantly German Jewish. The overall goal of nineteenth-century works was to assert the status of Jews in the new European society. As already noted, according to Sabel, Ginzberg’s large-scale projects made the material accessible to a more popular Jewish American audience.
This thin volume is rich in content. The authors bring different approaches to the same material using historic analysis, folklore scholarship, and deep studies of the texts. This book, which marks the publication of the still very relevant Legends of the Jews, is essential for any Jewish folklore class. Other Jewish studies, literature courses, and world folklore courses should use it as a means to enter the huge anthology lovingly compiled over the expanse of many years by Louis Ginzberg.
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[Review length: 1059 words • Review posted on May 4, 2016]