Our Best Awesome Favorite Pesach Recipe for Passover Peach Kugel

Here once again is our favorite Passover Peach Kugel recipe! Happy and Kosher Pesach to all!

Roasted Kugel

Something strange going on in the world of Jewish Studies (as if that was a new thing). The journal JQR has published several negative articles on the work of James Kugel (hence "Roasted Kugel"). And the professor was not given a platform to reply. So he posted a rejoinder on his own web site.

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, Vol.100, No.1 (Winter 2010)

• Review Forum: on James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now
• Problematizing the Bible . . . Then and Now, JOHN C. REEVES
• Two Introductions to Scripture: James Kugel and the Possibility of Biblical Theology, BENJAMIN D. SOMMER 
•  The "Real Thing": How to Read How to Read the Bible, WILLIAM KOLBRENER

We have been critical of Kugel's work for years. But he is always welcome to post his defense here.

Hat tip to Menachem Mendel.

New Hebrew Israeli Portal and Seach Site: Kosher + Google = Koogle

What took so long?

The rabbis approve of the new kosher Israeli portal and search site called Koogle, an obvious play on the words kosher and google.

You certainly won't find via this site anything like nude, naked, painted photos of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli from the cover of Esquire.

You will find a site that uses an attractive and very Zionist blue and white color scheme.

Richard Friedman Cooks James Kugel's Cholent

First Richard Elliot Friedman figuratively cooked James Kugel's cholent. Then Kugel [in BAR 34:02, Mar/Apr 2008] responded to Friedman. [Ancient Biblical Interpreters vs. Archaeology & Modern Scholars, by Richard Elliott Friedman BAR 34:01, Jan/Feb 2008.]

This exchange is painful to me to read. Friedman obviously searched high and low for a unity of method or purpose in Kugel's erudite brain dump. Frankly, Kugel does not purport to present a systematic treatise on the Bible. He honestly says in concluding his rejoinder to Friedman,

I think Friedman is wrong in supposing that his one-size-fits-all assessment is the only valid one. In any case, I have no such global solution to offer. All I tried to do was to set this question in its historical perspective by putting down almost everything I know about Scripture, its past as well as its present.

Kugel does not claim to make or prove any case. He thinks that sharing his knowledge will be of interest to others. He has every right to his vanity. As he is a celebrity professor from Harvard, indeed many readers are eager to see what he has been thinking all these years.

But this baffles Friedman and I can see why. He assumes that a book should attempt to make or try to prove some case. "Who wrote the Bible?" is a clear question and Friedman gives it an answer in his popular Bible book.

By contrast, "How to Read the Bible," is not a question. In fact, the book should be called, "How I Read the Bible" since it is not a how-to guide at all. Kugel is confessing in this tome his life story of reading the Bible along with ancient and modern sources.

Friedman picks up on this and accordingly sees the need for offering effusive praise to Kugel the man at the outset of his review. Sure you need to do this since the book is a confession of the inner musings of a special man.

But then Friedman searches for the questions that the book seeks to answer. And not surprisingly he cannot find any big ones. Puzzled, Friedman decides that Kugel must be answering a set of questions inaccessible to Friedman. He must be speaking in the code language of the Orthodox Jews.

In concluding his review, Friedman says,

We have rather moved on from their assumptions because the textual and archaeological evidence revealed that their assumptions were not correct.

I realize how hard all of this is for Orthodox Jews and possibly for fundamentalist Christians. I have sat and studied with them, not as opponents but with mutual respect. If there is any meeting point between them and the people who are persuaded by critical scholarship, it should be that both recognize the Bible’s value and both are committed to the truth. Kugel’s book can be an exceptional starting point for that discussion.

In this statement Friedman says that he does not understand the code and the discourse of the Orthodox and "possibly … fundamentalist Christians." But they seem to like the same Bible that Friedman analyzes. So they cannot be bad people. So he really does want to talk with them.

The value of Kugel's book for Friedman is to provide a window into the mentality behind that secret code of the Orthodox. I suspect the folks at Christianity Today feel the same since they want to recognize Kugel's book for its value on its own terms.

So now the question is whether this window into Kugel's thinking shows readers such as Friedman or the CT selection panel anything about how and what Orthodox Jews (as Friedman would have it) or all Jews (as Kugel would have it) think about the Bible.

Kugel appears to concede that he'd like his book to be received by the reader as, "How to Read the Bible the way we Jews Read it." And the conceit in that presumption is that somehow Kugel has reached the pinnacle of clarity on this matter because of his rich erudition.

Come to think of it, that is the underlying assumption of the class of religious leaders that we call rabbis. Due to their special knowledge, they achieve individually and as a class a special religious charisma. It's nice when rabbis speak or write in well-reasoned common sense ways to state a proposition and prove it -- which they often do. But it is not required of them. Their positions of charismatic authority allow them to take a great deal of leeway. Even the raw brain dump of a rabbi carries inspiring significance for the follower.

Kugel speaks in this rabbinic mode in his magnum opus because that is how he sees himself after all -- as a rabbi.

Ever respectful to the rabbi, Friedman speaks well of Kugel the man and his learning in his opening sections of his review. Richard more comfortably wears the robes of the academic and hence cautiously circles back around to say that he does not understand the purpose of Kugel's book, that it must be because it is written in Orthodox code, and that he would like to hear more from Kugel and the Orthodox.

I frankly have to side with Friedman. I'd like to hear more from the learned professor Kugel about how he solves the problems of scholarship and makes new knowledge for some community -- be it academic or religious.

Friedman has shown his commitment to this cause and has brought significant progress to his field of endeavor throughout his career. The solutions he posits to the questions he answers in his books and articles can be sifted through and built upon by those who come next.

Kugel has thought great thoughts and now shares them with all of us. These notions will hang in the Jewish wing of the museum of great thoughts for the appreciation of the cultured viewer.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. [repost from 3/18/08]

Kosher Food Fight in the New Jewish Food Movement

Not every progressive movement is truly grass roots. New Voices reports on the, "Culture Clash in the New Jewish Food Movement." The machlokes here seems to me to be entirely leshem shamayim - the disputants all appear to be on the same correct side of the issue... A special hat tip to Jack for bringing this to our attention.

When Ethan Genauer discovered that he couldn’t afford to attend the food activism conference hosted by the Jewish environmental group Hazon last December, he decided to make a fuss. Activist movements, Genauer reasoned, should be accessible. This one, with its expensive conference at a resort in Monterey, CA, was not. So, he published an open letter calling the New Jewish Food Movement elitist, arguing that it caters to a wealthy subset of the Jewish community while failing to confront broader social justice issues. “During a holiday season of massive economic implosion when millions of Americans are struggling just to put food on their tables,” he wrote, “what message does the comparative luxury of the Hazon Food Conference send?”

The New Jewish Food Movement has emerged as a Jewish wing of a broader movement emphasizing locally grown produce, sustainable agricultural practices, and a return to the pleasures of preparing one’s own food...more...

Who attended Barack's Amazing White House Seder?

Who attended Barack Obama's Amazing White House Seder? The Washington Post provides the answer with an official picture from the event. We heard that lots of people asked for invitations. Clearly this was a personal event for Barack and his family and some friends and close advisors, not a political opportunity.

The blogs have pored over the photo to discern that the attendees used the Maxwell House Haggadah, one that has been distributed free by the coffee company for over 50 years!

The WP article lists the attendees.

Washington Life: A Low-Key, High Profile Seder
By Garance Franke-Ruta
Last night, President Obama held what the White House believes is the first Seder to be hosted by a sitting American president at the White House. A small affair, the private event in the Old Family Dining Room was a kind of reunion for its participants, a number of whom had attended an informal Seder together a year ago in the basement of the Sheraton Hotel in Harrisburg, Penn.

Organized by Eric Lesser, a class of 2007 Harvard graduate who worked as a luggage wrangler and driver on then-candidate Barack Obama's campaign, the 2008 Seder was an impromptu marking of the annual Jewish holiday celebrating the escape from slavery in Egypt. Obama joined the dinner's young organizers in the basement, along with his close longtime friends Valerie Jarrett and Eric Whitaker, who were traveling with him at the time.

At the conclusion of the Seder, Obama and the assembled group jokingly added "Next year in the White House!" after the traditional Seder refrain "Next year in Jerusalem!"

And so it was. Lesser, a campaign legend for his dancing skills and heroic rescues of wayward press suitcases, is now a special assistant to Obama adviser David Axelrod with a West Wing office abutting the president's, and organized the traditional second night of Passover service.

The menu was traditional Eastern European: matzoh ball soup, brisket, roasted chicken, noodle kugel and macaroons for dessert. The White House chefs cooked the food but used recipes provided by the attendees' families.

Attending, beginning on the president's left and going clockwise, were: Samantha Tubman, assistant social secretary; Melissa Winter, the first lady's deputy chief of staff, Sasha Obama, Malia Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

Continuing clockwise are: associate White House counsel Susan Sher, her son Evan Moore and Michael Cohen (both obscured); Valerie Jarrett, director of the office of public liason; and Eric Whitaker, a longtime friend of the Obamas (obscured).

On the opposite side of the table, starting on the president's right and continuing counterclockwise, are: Sher's husband Neil Cohen; Laura Moser (Arun Chaudhary's wife); Chaudhary, the White House videographer; Herbie Ziskend, another 2007 college graduate and former campaign baggage handler, now an aide to Vice President Biden; Eric Lesser and his father, Martin Lesser; Lisa Kohnke, deputy director of advance; Dana M. Lewis, the first lady's personal aide; and Obama personal assistant Reggie Love.

The guests using pillows are doing so not because the White House chairs are uncomfortable, but because of the contemporary custom of using pillows to symbolize the Passover service injunction to eat the meal reclining, itself a means of symbolizing being at peace and free.

JTA: Cholent by Kugel is Top Banana

'How to Read the Bible' wins top honor

JTA- A controversial examination of biblical scholarship and literalism was named the Jewish Book of the Year.

"How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now," by James Kugel, an emeritus professor of Hebrew literature at Harvard University, earned the Everett Family Foundation honors when the Jewish Book Council announced its 2007 National Jewish Book Award winners Wednesday.

We previously have commented on this book in this blog...

NY Times Book Review: Church and State, Capitalism is Good, and How to Read the Bible

Kugel Publishes a Cholent

Kugel Publishes a Cholent

james kugel's new book How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now is a best seller.

what is the book in question? kugel simply publishes his lecture notes, adds footnotes, and then concludes that traditional bible study and modern bible criticism are not compatible (meaning that they better not get married, i presume).

800 pages to tell us that apples are not noodles. ahh but if you mix them together and add some cinnamon and bake, then you have a kugel!

i have read the kugel appendix and the orthodox pamphlet  in this confused book by this confused author. of course that has led to a confused thread of discussion. this whole mess shows again why learning should never be equated with understanding.

the pamphlet on orthodox assimilation on campuses is quite hilarious. from it you'd think that jewish studies leads to sex at the hillel; but do it quick and stay away from kiruv and stay home altogether or just go to grad school and don't forget the year in israel and if we had more time we'd write something that makes sense.

kugel actually wrote an erudite book on how not to read the bible, i.e., instead of the parsed and nuanced understandings that centuries of intelligent minds have reached on each individual book and problems inherent in them, throw all your learning into one big kugel - okay his name should be cholent - but it is not - warm it over and serve it. or as one review says "Refreshingly undogmatic and often witty, Kugel brings an intimate knowledge of the Hebrew Bible to illuminate small points as well as large." those little beans and chick peas taste just as good as those cubes of meat.... another review: "by the end of his introductory course, readers will have met all the major biblical figures" mmm aren't they tasty and spicy too?

if you are confused you ought to be. the book does not fit into a discipline. it's idiosyncrasy in 2.2 pounds of paper. granted that after 20 years of teaching at harvard kugel has the right to engage in this, and to have a bestseller and make a living. people who buy and read it have the right to enjoy it or, more likely, to be confused and intimidated by it.

finally who could disagree with the review that says, "Geared to both the specialist and the general reader, this is an indispensable guide to a complex subject"? feint praise indeed.

NY Times Book Review: Church and State, Capitalism is Good, and How to Read the Bible

Lots of good book reviews this week......

'The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West'

By MARK LILLA
Reviewed by REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN

Mark Lilla argues that the separation of church and state was not, as some would have it, a foregone conclusion.

Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism

By HARRIET RUBIN

Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,”a glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest, influenced Alan Greenspan and others.

• Times Topics: Ayn Rand | Alan Greenspan

Irreconcilable Differences in Bible’s Interpretations

By PETER STEINFELS

Published: September 15, 2007

“How to Read the Bible” is a most unusual how-to book. For one thing, it is more than 800 pages long and has 971 endnotes. It is true that all the familiar figures and events of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament are here: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets.

First Chapter: ‘How to Read the Bible’ By JAMES L. KUGEL
“In going through the Bible . . . this book will focus not only on what the text says but on the larger question of what a modern reader is to make of it, how it is to be read.”