Reviewing: “The Formation of a Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Viennese Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek” by Samuel Joseph Kessler. Brown Judaic Studies. 2022. English. Hardcover. 244 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1951498924.
This book is an intellectual biography and study of the Moravian-born Adolf (Aharon) Jellinek (1821—1893). In his time, Jellinek was a prominent rabbi and scholar who made significant contributions to the development of contemporary Judaism.
Jellinek was born in Drslavice, a small, traditional town in Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was raised in a traditional Jewish family and received a traditional Jewish education. His father was a respected rabbi, and his mother came from a prominent rabbinical family. Like other children in his time and place, Jellinek’s early education focused on traditional Jewish studies (Torah, Talmud, and Halacha), but he also studied secular subjects, such as German, mathematics, and history, which was fairly uncommon for Jewish children at the time.
After completing his primary education, Jellinek went on to study at the yeshivas in Ungarsich-Brod, Prostějov, Nikolsburg and Prague, where he became known for his exceptional intellect and his ability to memorize large amounts of material. He was also deeply interested in Jewish history and theology, and began to develop his own ideas about the nature of Jewish faith and practice. Despite his traditional upbringing, Jellinek began to question some of the traditional practices of Judaism, particularly the emphasis on ritual and the strict adherence to Jewish law. In doing so, he began to explore new ways of thinking about Judaism that would be more compatible with the modern world, and would eventually become a leading figure in the Reform movement, serving the communities of Leipzig and later of Vienna.
In framing the rise of Reform Judaism, the author unfortunately chose to present these liberalizing and secularizing trends as simply the inevitable result of Jewish urbanization. The way he presents it, as Jews moved to bigger cities and towns, they became increasingly less concerned with the sorts of religious considerations that their forefathers had meticulously ekpt for generations. In doing so, the author ignores the many counterexamples in Eastern Europe where Jews also flocked to big cities like Krakow, Lublin, and Warsaw, yet mostly continued to remain traditional until the interwar period. Instead, the truth is that these “enlightened” liberalizing trends are the direct results of antinomian agitators in Western Europe, who deliberately attempted to water down Judaism as a religion to make it more acceptable to their German Protestant neighbors. The author obfuscates this point in order to paint Reform Judaism in a better light and show Jellenik’s contribution to Judaism in general.
One of Jellinek’s major contributions to Reform Judaism was his emphasis on ethical monotheism, which emphasized the ethical principles of Judaism over the traditional rituals and practices. He believed that the Jewish faith should evolve and adapt to modern society, while still maintaining its essential values and beliefs. This emphasis on ethical monotheism and cultural expression influenced the thinking of many other Jewish scholars and leaders, and helped to shape the direction of the Reform movement.
As the author demonstrates, Jellinek also promoted the idea of Jewish worship as a form of cultural and spiritual expression, rather than a strict adherence to traditional religious practices. In doing so, Jellinek advocated for the use of vernacular languages in prayer services, rather than the traditional Hebrew, to make the services more accessible to congregants. Jellinek’s ideas and writings had a significant impact on the development of Reform Judaism, particularly in Europe.
Under Jellenik’s influence, the major space in which Judaism was practice moved from the home to the synagogue. It was in his times that the prevailing paradigm developed in which a rabbi is attached to a particular synagogue, instead of to a particular community at large. This paradigm is the modus operandi of Reform and Conservative synagogues and even influences the Orthodox communal model.
Moreover, in a precedent set by Jellenik, it became the synagogue rabbi’s role to deliver a weekly sermon that serves to present a “Jewish spin” on ideas discussed in current events. Previously, the rabbi’s role was focused on issuing rulings on Halachic matters and dealing with other community affairs, while special preachers were assigned to giving sermons. Yet, with the Reform jettisoning of Halachah, the role of the rabbi had to be redefined if it was to remain relevant. So instead of confining the rabbi’s sermons to special events (like Shabbos HaGadol or Shabbos Shuvah), the rabbi’s sermon became increasingly more prominent and frequent. These developments continue to be standard in many denominations of Judaism nowadays, but were considered innovative in Jellenik’s time.
Jellenik’s sermons often broached the same general topics that were in vogue in liberal circles during his time, like truth, freedom, and justice. In doing so, he taught about the notion of a universal moralism shared by all of mankind, the ideal of loving the stranger, and called for more robust interfaith relations (by embracing Christianity as Judaism’s daughter religion to diffuse the animosity that came from centuries of Christian persecutions). He also preached about the need to show loyalty to the government (the Habsburg Empire in his case) and the importance of the Hebrew language and Jewish sacred texts.
In addition to the theological musings expressed in his sermons, Jellinek was also a prolific writer and scholar. Despite his Reform tendencies, he appreciated rabbinic literature—especially Midrash—and often used those teachings as springboards for discussion in his sermons. In his capacity as a scholars of rabbinics, Jellenik authored numerous works on Jewish history, theology, and philosophy, including a commentary on the Book of Psalms and a biography of the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His most famous work is the six-volume set Beis HaMidrash (published between 1853—1878), which is an eclectic compendium comprised of a number of smaller Midrashim, ancient and medieval homilies, and folk stories. Some of those works were later reproduced by J. D. Eisenstein in his work Otzar Midrashim (New York, NY, 1915).
In one his more daring statements, Jellenik wrote: “Judaism is not just a religion of the gray antiquity, but even more a religion of the future.” Indeed, Jellinek helped shaped what would become the future of Reform Judaism by emphasizing Modern ideas like ethical monotheism, cultural expression, and the role of the synagogue rabbi, while deemphasizing normative Jewish Law and dogma. Nonetheless, this watering-down of the religion does not seem robust enough to withstand the pressures of post-Modernity, and will likely lead to the eventual downfall of heterodox denominations, while orthodoxy will continue into the Messianic Era.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein is the editor-in-chief of The Rachack Review, an online forum for book reviews on Jewish Books. He is also the author of highly-popular work Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew (Mosaica Press), and the Jewish Press’s “Fascinating Explorations in Lashon Hakodesh” column. He can be reached via email to [email protected]
