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Dec. 16, 2005
A light-hearted romp
Jewish-themed essays both amuse and educate.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Always wishing you had more time to read? Eager to learn new things?
Well, the perfect book has arrived. Ask Now of the Days that
are Past (University of Calgary Press) by Prof. Eliezer Segal
is a collection of short essays, none of which is longer than six
(small) pages, but all of which are replete with fascinating, impress-your-Jewish-friends
information.
Segal is a professor at the University of Calgary in the religious
studies department. He has published numerous articles and books
on Jewish subjects and the bulk of the material in Ask Now of
the Days was originally published in Calgary's Jewish Free
Press between 1998 and 2002. Other articles were contributions
to Ha-Atid, the magazine of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation
in Australia, and some were actually written to accompany advertising
supplements.
Intended for a general audience, but likely to be most appreciated
by Jewish readers, the essays in Ask Now of the Days provide
novel and often grin-inducing glimpses into various topics in Jewish
history and traditional religious literature, discussing the social
and political forces that have brought the Jewish community together
in the past and which are still relevant. Segal tackles free speech,
women's position in Judaism, Jews in politics, economic theories
of pricing, whether to play tennis on Shabbat and many other issues.
He does so by always connecting contemporary experiences to the
rich heritage of Jewish civilization.
Segal obviously has an extensive and broad knowledge of ancient
and medieval Jewish social and religious traditions, but he writes
in a way that's enlightening and entertaining: i.e. this is an easy-to-read
book that educates. For people wanting more information than Segal
provides, each chapter includes notes on sources for further reading.
The description on the book's back cover is truthful when it says
that Ask Now of the Days is "equally suited to those
after a light-hearted romp or those on a serious quest for knowledge."
Take, for example, the article called "Service Interruption."
Apparently, it was once accepted practice for individual congregants
to interrupt a synagogue service in order to give public expression
to their grievances against community leaders. Segal provides examples
of this custom that goes back to talmudic times, but which fell
into disuse because of overuse and unwarranted delays of the service.
He cites Rabbi Ephraim Luntshitz in 17th- or 18th-century Poland,
"who argued that the practice was offensive to God and brought
ridicule upon the Jewish community."
Segal's sense of humor becomes evident when he notes that, today,
local synagogues would be hesitant to "reinstate this venerable
relic of populist democracy, not so much because our congregants
are so satisfied with their communal leaders, but principally out
of fears that undue prolongation of the services would scare away
worshippers.
"Come to think of it, it might produce the opposite result.
A parade of disgruntled congregants airing their complaints against
each other and against their leaders might be just what we need
to fill our pews and compete with the television talk shows."
In another article, "Pushing Torah," Segal begins by examining
the ancient sages' admonitions about drugs, both illicit and prescribed.
Then he introduces Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, who noted that, in the
verse "And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children
of Israel," (Deuteronomy 4:44) the Hebrew verb that is translated
as "set" is sam, a homonym of the noun for "drug."
"This wordplay becomes the basis for a bold analogy,"
writes Segal. "If the one who receives it is deserving, then
the Torah becomes a life-giving medicine. If, however, the person
is not deserving, then it becomes a poison [literally: "a drug
of death"] (Yoma 72b)." What follows is a discussion of
Torah study and the need to approach it properly, or suffer the
consequences.
Segal concludes the essay with a reference to Karl Marx's assertion
that "religion is the opiate of the people," adding that,
"Of course, the militant atheist had no idea how close his
words came to capturing the rabbis' profound insights into the power
and perils of spiritual learning."
It is with such scholarship, mixed with a little irreverence, that
the 45 essays in Ask Now of the Days are written. It would
make a great Chanukah gift.
For order information about Ask Now of the Days, contact
Georgetown Terminal Warehouses, 34 Armstrong Ave., Georgetown, Ont.,
L7G 4R9; telephone 905-873-9781 or toll free 877-864-8477; fax 905-873-6170
or toll free 877-864-4272; e-mail [email protected].
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