Who Was Heinrich Graetz? Jewish Biography as History by Dr. Henry Abramson
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) was the first encyclopedic historian of the Jewish people, and his massive 10-volume History of the Jews had a phenomenal impact on the way Jews saw themselves as a nation living in the diaspora.
I must thank you very much, Dr. Abramson, for bringing Heinrich Graetz to my attention. I looked up his books and discovered that they were readily available, with no great costs, on amazon and with other dealers. One can even get them for free (digital) at the Gutenberg project. I decided to give it a try. To my immense pleasure, Graetz is very readable, thought this is a writer who wrote more than 100 years ago. I’m now halfway the second volume and fully intend to read all six. It is astonishing that so good a writer is not read more (at least not in Belgium). That’s a great loss. I’m recommending this excellent work to all my friends (together with your lecture, I might add!).
Dear Dr Henri Abramson
There are so many points one can respond positively to in this stimulating lecture you have presented once again but none so great as the immense power behind your shared words about the study of the Torah. I was extremely fortunate to have been given the gift of a genuine spiritual calling which was literally mentally electrifying and after a period of time this awoken state of divinity began to reveal the higher purpose of having received such divine intimacy. Any intimacy as any deep eternal love takes tremendous time and patience to bear the necessary fruits that are delivered powerfully or switched on and after a decade or more did I receive the greatest insight by being led to the Torah.
When you shared commentary about the Torah I wonder how many listeners fully appreciate what a magnificent divine gift to the whole human race the Torah is?
Every time I go to peruse the glorious texts from my Chagall Torah I purchased twice from the Sydney Jewish Museum I am overwhelmed y its magnificence. Being able to fully appreciate the true delight within each written word I now completely understand why people are encouraged to spend a lifetime studying it.
Just the thought of indulging myself with such divine ecstasy for the life of my intellect has me quivering with the richest anticipation as I make my way to privately celebrate these texts down at Cafe 21 in Double Bay Sydney when I pretend I am celebrating the tradition of Shabbat which could be any day of the week because the immensity of pure intellectual pleasure I am immediately transported to reveals so many dimensions and layers to what is truly Divine Manna for the mind, heart and soul and when one is able to tap into this state of intimacy that the Torah is divinely inspired with every individual has at their fingertips the TRUE LIVING INTIMATE CORRESPONDENCE DIRECTLY FROM YAHWEH TO THE I AM BEING AWOKEN SPIRITUALLY INTO THE LIFE OF THEIR UNIQUE MIND.
The spiritual fusion is completely manifest in the Torah which I still have not perused in detail as its magnificence is so profound but I used enormous discipline once just to check before I loudly proclaimed the interior joy I received from Genesis' few chapters that the five books of the Torah were equally as spellbinding and although they are indeed supremely rich which of course I knew 100% they would be as the Power of Our Divine Father has proven to be 100% accurate in all that I receive from this direct channel of communication which took years to clearly understand enough to actually explain the steps should anyone be curious enough to enquire from a complete loner so to speak or an outsider who was prepared to receive this otherwise miraculous gift of being able to enter these heightened states of liberally developed spiritual acuteness that are possible to achieve and you cannot imagine the unmatched joy my heart received the day I had an oven valet come to my home as I was planning to sell the abode where my spiritual birth was fully awoken and this gentleman probably close to my age (late fifties/early sixties) had me follow him around like I was a young puppy trying to ask him some questions about Judaism.
When he uttered that one must receive the promised gift (of the Saviour) whilst on Earth no one could possibly know what he had fully revealed to me who understood this better than anyone else I know because he literally described in a sentence what I had experienced in my spiritual state of full consciousness decades after having being gifted to a spiritual awakening which another Jewish man spoke to me earnestly and soberly about for an extraordinary brief interlude but the potency of that conversation was that his intellectual capacity was able to grasp my straightforward statement/question and for it not to have been misunderstood and was fully respected as a logical statement and although this individual; had not received their own intimate spiritual awakening his big logical and reasoning brain understood I was enquiring and sharing from a position of knowing or having a personal experience based on enormous understanding of the topic or he would never have responded truthfully like he did to such a deep topic which he was fully aware of from that perspective.
Can you imagine if I spoke to him a decade later when what was still crystallising about what my intellect had been struck with back then many decades after my spiritual awakening what I would ask this individual's acute mind today?
The greatest beauties and the most subtle yet sublime I have ever experienced have been through the soaring or resonance within the life of my soul's mind that once opened can never be closed. This spiritually divine channel is one with everything. That is because the Divinity of Yahweh is lit in the cavern of the awoken mind. The whole organic universe can disappear but not the eternal spark that has no ending and why infinity mathematically carries on.
A heartfelt thank you Dr Henri Abramson for helping me prepare for what was going to be an an emotionally difficult day that no longer feels mentally exhausting. Yahweh who works in truly mysterious ways channels his energies through great souls so that their intellectual current empowers our minds and hearts and souls with the rich resources contained within the developed and delivered wisdom of the academic who strives to deliver so that we are enlightened on so many spheres or fields depending on our personal progress and experience and the concentrated active mind that expresses itself through the divine gift of the meaning within language inspires and expands the pupil or the listeners world to greater depths and heights.
The power of the LIVING WORD is a greater force than we immediately recognise and when divine texts that are prophetically inspired how super abundant our understanding and vision becomes with a deliberate purpose in mind.
Once again, a heartfelt THANK YOOU Dr Henri Abramson for the mental refreshment.
I am glad you find the videos meaningful!
Intersting topic, thanks
Good, but again could use an upgrade from a technical point of view. Turn out the lights so we can see the slides! Focus on the map, maybe even zoom in so we can see where Pozen was, etc., rather than the lecturer! Thank you!
Start with a compliment, then go to criticism. I love that you are doing all this for free. It is very gratifying to learn in depth what one has come to value in later life, too late, say, to flip out and be a full-time yeshiva bochur as though worries about money were no concern. I think you do a great disservice to Geiger, not least of all which is blameworthy for the fact that the guy has had a huge influence on the later development of Judaism, with Reform being by far the largest movement in America. Reform admits of criticism, but no more so than Orthodoxy, Zionism, or any other movement that presumes to have all the answers. What is needful above all is to recognize that Geiger knew his sources, as did so many of his peers at the time with whom he shared a modernizing agenda. No one sought to breed illiterates such as myself. I do take comfort in the fact that the average Jew in the old country might very well also have had only a smattering of knowledge and knew strictly the vernacular. Also, in defense of sophisticated ignoramuses, you mention New York and Alexandria in the same breath in another lecture. The difference is that they set about reconciling that the differences between one another which were better sharpened then apologized for. If Geiger is to be criticized, it is for the presumption of having taken ordination. One does not meld theology and philosophy.
Thanks for the feedback.
Great lecture, I have the 8 volume 'The Hirsch Hertage' by Feldheim, book five includes a 200 page response - 'A Critical Examination of Dr. H. Graetz's History of the Jews From Destruction of the Jewish State Until the Conclusion of the Talmud'! Rabbi Hirsch argues on many points with Graetz!
What is the origins of the name Graetz?
Don't know.
It's a German name. But I think it may be derived from Latin Gratia. Perhaps a nickname of somebody grateful. I read some of Heinrich Graetz works and there are some creative phrases and terms in the text in German. It also gives good historical overview including about the feelings and sentiments at the time.
Hi I listen to all your lectures..What is the differences between Hirsch & Mendelsonn?How did Hirsch start a movement & Mendelsonn's family fell away? Thank You
Graetz contacted Hirsch in 1836 when Graetz was 19 and Hirsch was living in Oldenburg not Frankfurt.
Reading Graetz I am a bit surprised how much he had disdain for Ostjuden(Jews from eastern Europe). I guess an Ashkenazi idenitity did not exist much until the mid/late 20th century.
Shalom Rabbi hows it going?
Wow! יישר כח
Top notch!