 previous article in this issue | next article in this issue  |
Preview first page |
Document Details : Title: Het geloof van Abel Herzberg Author(s): SIERTSEMA, Bettine Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Date: 2011 Pages: 277-297 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.51.3.3203389 Abstract : Dutch-Jewish writer Abel Herzberg grew up in an Orthodox family. He gained familiarity with Hasidism via his grandparents. In his own view, the core of Judaism lies in the ethical principle, which he reduces to the universal claims of monotheism: the notion that there is one God for all humanity, which means that ethics are universal and everyone bears personal responsibility vis-à-vis this universal legal principle. In his diary from Bergen-Belsen, he goes extensively into this idea. But meticulous text analysis shows that his notion of God as abstract principle is inadequate. Ultimately, the idea of God as judge is the one aspect of the traditional notions of God as a person that Herzberg cannot release. If there is a universal legal principle, there has to be an authority that guarantees that law. It is not surprising that he cannot side-step this, given his dearth of rights when a prisoner in a concentration camp. At the same time, the concept of an actual last judgement does not fit in with his rationalistic and socio-ethical view of monotheistic faith. Only poetic imagination can help him escape from this impasse. |
|
