Kosher Bookworm: Jewish History without myth: The Heschel - Wein legacy

The accurate portrayal of history can be a daunting task. This is especially so when the subject is faith based and dependent upon sacred literature as the source of events and personalities which are central to a faith’s historical core.
In a recently published anthology, “Patterns in Jewish History,” by Maggid Books, veteran writer, commentator and historian Rabbi Dr. Berel Wein has written a series of 14 essays dealing in depth with some crucial aspects of Jewish history, absent the myth and legend so ever present in much of the haredi-oriented histories and biographies we find all around us these days.
Many of the essays in this work deal directly with Jewish concepts of Torah study, assimilation, messianism, mysticism, bigotry and persecution.
Other issues dealt with are economics, wealth, and poverty, and health and medicine.
Rabbi Wein takes each issue and concept and gives each an analysis on the topic’s relevance in Jewish law and belief. Morality is given a high value in measuring the worth and value to anything treated in this work. Rabbi Wein in no way shies away from controversy when evaluating those issues that go to the very heart of our life’s experiences.
Throughout this work the narrative of the history of our people is an ever present factor that serves to give the book’s content a literary flavor and scenic backdrop that serves both to inform and to further reinforce the meaning and importance that historical events play in the development of our law, practice, belief and the theology of our faith.
Further, these historical factors serve to enhance the importance that our life cycle events have come to represent to us in the ritual and liturgy that we observe every day of our lives.
As to myth and legend, Rabbi Wein devotes a full final chapter to the fantasies and falsifications that misrepresent our religious heritage and national history. Of particular note is the misconception that Eastern European Jewry was spiritually enriched amid the difficult living conditions. To this Rabbi Wein is most firm in his words.