Time: Why is Avrum Burg Tired of the Holocaust?

Time.com covers Avrum Burg, author of, The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from Its Ashes. [Purchase from Amazon at Tzvee's Talmudic Bookstore.]

Burg's, "Father was the deputy speaker of the first Knesset, and Burg himself later became speaker of the legislature, and a member of Israel's cabinet."

The interview with TIME.com's Tony Karon touches on his, "Critique of the Jewish State, which he claims has lost its sense of moral purpose. In his new, he argues that an obsession with an exaggerated sense of threats to Jewish survival cultivated by Israel and its most fervent backers actually impedes the realization of Judaism's higher goals."

I hope the book is better than the interview. It's hard to discern that Burg has a single substantial coherent idea, from the discussion that is online.

The book appears to be one long op-ed in which Burg says he does not like it when some Israelis place an emphasis on the Holocaust and Jewish survival. He says there is more to Jewish identity than just the Holocaust.

We say, Uh huh! We hope, but don't expect, that he has something substantial to say in the book beyond the few generalities he spews in the interview.

Talmudic analysis...

First, it's really nasty to grow tired of the Holocaust. Whether Burg likes it or not, the Shoah is a dramatic epoch of Jewish history whose lasting impact has religious and political significance for all Jews and Israelis. Second, there is much more out there for a serious student of Judaism to read and study than a long op-ed by a windy politician. [repost]