Rating: 
Summary: An Ancient Look Back at a Current Problem Facing Modern Jews
Review: "As a Driven Leaf" is a magnificent work of historical fiction. Brings to life a little know time of ancient Israel. Steinberg paints a picture of life in ancient Israel during the time of the Roman occupation just prior to the final days of the Judean War that answers so many questions of those of us who only knew the period through religious readings. The dilemma that faces the novel's protagonist is a problem that is as current in today's assimilated society as it was in the days when Jews were facing the pull toward Hellenism. Unwilling to accept Judaism's blind faith in God, the protagonist returns to the Hellenistic roots of his childhood, only to find that he loses his place in either world. Great book that should be the subject of discussion groups in synagogues across the country. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An Ancient Look Back at a Current Problem Facing Modern Jews
Review: "As a Driven Leaf" is a magnificent work of historical fiction. Brings to life a little know time of ancient Israel. Steinberg paints a picture of life in ancient Israel during the time of the Roman occupation just prior to the final days of the Judean War that answers so many questions of those of us who only knew the period through religious readings. The dilemma that faces the novel's protagonist is a problem that is as current in today's assimilated society as it was in the days when Jews were facing the pull toward Hellenism. Unwilling to accept Judaism's blind faith in God, the protagonist returns to the Hellenistic roots of his childhood, only to find that he loses his place in either world. Great book that should be the subject of discussion groups in synagogues across the country. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A bracing, if poignant, tale of estrangement and Truth
Review: Although this tale is somewhat wooden in execution and its characters never come fully to life, and while the thrust of the tale, itself, is an intellectual rather than a visceral one, I was greatly moved by it. There is a tradition in the Talmud that four great sages sought to go beyond the realm of man's knowledge. One died. One went insane. One became a heretic. And only the great Akiba came out of it whole, only to be tortured to death by the Romans in the aftermath of the third abortive rebellion against the Empire. Well, Elisha ben Abuyah, the central character of this tale, is the one who became a heretic. He is recalled in the Talmud as a member of the Rabbinate who forsook his faith and people for the Greek way, thereby condemning himself, in life and memory, to excommunication and the label of heretic. This tale attempts to visualize what might have driven such a man and where it would have taken him in the end. The actions of the story are really quite commonplace until one gets to the final Roman war against the Jews in Palestine. But even these events are seen only from a distance. The real crux of this tale is the seeking and the life-events which might have underlay the tale of Elisha and help explain why he did what he did. His is the tale of the child of a Hellenized father, wrested at his father's death from the larger, intellectual Greek world and shoe-horned into a realm of orthodoxy in keeping with the narrow prejudices of his deceased mother's brother. His Greek learning aborted, Elisha becomes an enthusiastic student of his people's traditions rising, in time, to membership in the revered Sanhedrin. But the Greek seeds (or something else) have been planted and in time take root, pushing out the superimposed shrubbery of orthodxy. And Elisha begins to doubt and question. Unable to reconcile his restless questioning to the blind teachings of orthodxy, he seeks wider knowledge, causing a rift with the community of the orthodox. Driven into exile in Antioch he begins a life of study and inquiry, trying always to use his reason to erect an edifice in which he can wholeheartedly believe. But events catch up with him even as his understanding increases. There is a very fine rendering here of that process by which we try to understand the underpinnings of the world in which we exist and one sees clearly the metaphysical problems and Elisha's burden in grappling with them. He does seem a bit simple at times and one can't help thinking that this, in some sense, is the author's own tale, writ into a fable about a first century Jew in the Roman world. But it's all very compelling and, at times, riveting, especially as it captures the hellenistic world and its thought. But it's a book of ideas, in the end, rather than people. Ideas which tear at all of us in the end. -- Stuart W. Mirsky
Rating:
Summary: As A DRiven Leaf
Review: As A Driven Leaf is a novel about Elisha Ben Abuya, a character in the Talmud who became a heretic, a non-believer, an apikoras to Judaism. He was one of the most learned rabbis of his generation who nevertheless lost faith, who abandoned the Jewish community, who denounced the Jewish religion and way of life as false, and who sought to find the absolute truth of the universe in the Graeco-Roman world around him.Elisha dies a lonely, isolated, and tragic man, not at ease in either the Jewish or Graeco-Roman world. As I read this beautifully written novel, I felt empathy for Elisha Ben Abuya, for as a committed Jew, I too am on a personal quest. Abraham Joshua Heschel once defined the purpose of Judaism as "seeking answers to ultimate questions of existence." When I engage in Jewish life, I often feel compelled to look inside myself and to search for answers to life's ultimate questions. On the other hand, I feel alienated from Elisha Ben Abuya in that I have a different starting point in my search and a different area where I am searching. Elisha Ben Abuya was born and educated in an isolated Jewish community. He chose to abandon that community and to search for answers to life's ultimate questions in another world. I, conversely, have been born and have been educated in an open, secular world. I have not necessarily chosen to abandon that world. I have chosen to explore Judaism, however, and to seek answers to life's ultimate questions through that exploration. Milton Steinberg's As A Driven Leaf is a book which has helped me in that intellectual and spiritual search. I am sure it has helped others who feel they are living in two worlds simultaneously to search on that path as well. Elliot Fein teaches Jewish religious studies at the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine, California.
Rating:
Summary: As A DRiven Leaf
Review: As A Driven Leaf is a novel about Elisha Ben Abuya, a character in the Talmud who became a heretic, a non-believer, an apikoras to Judaism. He was one of the most learned rabbis of his generation who nevertheless lost faith, who abandoned the Jewish community, who denounced the Jewish religion and way of life as false, and who sought to find the absolute truth of the universe in the Graeco-Roman world around him. Elisha dies a lonely, isolated, and tragic man, not at ease in either the Jewish or Graeco-Roman world. As I read this beautifully written novel, I felt empathy for Elisha Ben Abuya, for as a committed Jew, I too am on a personal quest. Abraham Joshua Heschel once defined the purpose of Judaism as "seeking answers to ultimate questions of existence." When I engage in Jewish life, I often feel compelled to look inside myself and to search for answers to life's ultimate questions. On the other hand, I feel alienated from Elisha Ben Abuya in that I have a different starting point in my search and a different area where I am searching. Elisha Ben Abuya was born and educated in an isolated Jewish community. He chose to abandon that community and to search for answers to life's ultimate questions in another world. I, conversely, have been born and have been educated in an open, secular world. I have not necessarily chosen to abandon that world. I have chosen to explore Judaism, however, and to seek answers to life's ultimate questions through that exploration. Milton Steinberg's As A Driven Leaf is a book which has helped me in that intellectual and spiritual search. I am sure it has helped others who feel they are living in two worlds simultaneously to search on that path as well. Elliot Fein teaches Jewish religious studies at the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine, California.
Rating:
Summary: As A Driven Leaf ....
Review: As A Driven Leaf is about Elisha Ben Abuyah, ... and howhestruggles trying to find his place in the world. Eventually, he isexcommunicated from Palestine, his mother country, then is disliked inAntioch, where he settled after his excommunication. .... I give... As A Driven Leaf 4 .... END
Rating:
Summary: Very open-minded
Review: As a Driven Leaf is not a good example of how to write fuild prose and dialogue, but it is a good example of how an interesting story can overcome some stylistic limitations.
Written by Jewish Milton Steinberg in 1939, As a Driven Leaf is surprisingly open-minded. I emphathized with the main character, Elisa Ben Abuyah, because he (like myself) was raised to be a Jew and ended up going on a search for truth that he could not find in religion. I was expecting that this would be a piece of propaganda, that Elisha would discover by the end of the book the way of the Lord, yada yada yada, and would go back to the Jews and be welcomed with open-arms and live happily ever after. Suffice to say that did not happen.
The characters, beyond Elisha, are not developed terribly well and the dialogue is often perfucntory and merely serving to announce a character's feelings or advance the plot, but this is still a commendable book. The ending is very good and in keeping with the spirit and tone of the novel (although based upon historical characters and times this is a piece of fiction), the historical setting is vividly depicted, and as mentioned, the book is very open-minded and worthy of a read. 8/10
Rating:
Summary: a lesson to live by
Review: everyone should strive to live life as elisha has done. although he was unable to reconcile his differences with the faith he was born into, his unswerving search for the truth is an inspiration. Furthermore, this novel paints a vivid and clear portrait of life in a world occupied simultaneously by those with unending faith in religion and those with unending faith in civilization.
Rating:
Summary: HE CAME FULL CIRCLE
Review: For clarification, it should be understood that any action or thought that I attribute to Elisha ben Abuyah refers to Milton Steinberg's ben Abuyah. I fully understand that ben Abuyah is a fairly obscure historical figure and that he has been fleshed out in this work of fiction loosely based on history. I personally relate to the central philosophical question of AS A DRIVEN LEAF. Since childhood, and still continuing today, I've always had a problem with the concept of "The Beginning" as in "In the Beginning God created. . . ." My thinking is that there had to be a time when there was absolutely nothing, yet how can nothing become something, and what is "nothingness?" Religionists say that God created something from nothing. This leads me to ask: "Where did God come from?" Scientists say that primordial gasses came together and that there was a "Big Bang." Again, I ask: "Where did the primordial gasses come from?" I can't conceive of nothingness but I can't comprehend there always having been something. In any system of logic there doesn't seem to be an answer, and accepting it on faith doesn't work for me. It is a form of this question that causes ben Abuyah to lose faith and begin his all consuming search for an answer based on pure logic. Elisha ben Abuyah was a religious Jew who, early in life, had been exposed to Greek thought. After some years as a Rabbi and leader of the Jewish community, he was re-exposed to Greek thought and to Euclidian Geometry. Absolute faith no longer worked for him, and he replaced his faith with the belief that everything could be proven logically, this logic based on Euclidian Geometry and that faith was unnecessary. He dedicated his life to studying and trying to prove this approach and was branded as guilty of heresy, and, as a result, lost his home, his place in the community, and his wife. He finally became disillusioned when, as an old man, many years later, still in search of the final proofs, he came to understand that even in Euclidian Geometry, the first "given" had to be accepted by faith. It's truth couldn't be proven. What sadness when he realized that his whole lifetime's work and its associated losses had been for naught. He had come full circle, back to his starting point. All of which leaves me just where I started too. No logic explains "The Beginning." It has to be accepted on faith, and I can't. I guess that if you can't accept it on faith, you're better off forgetting about the whole thing. This, at least, was the final lesson learned by Elisha ben Abuyah.
Rating:
Summary: HE CAME FULL CIRCLE
Review: For clarification, it should be understood that any action or thought that I attribute to Elisha ben Abuyah refers to Milton Steinberg's ben Abuyah. I fully understand that ben Abuyah is a fairly obscure historical figure and that he has been fleshed out in this work of fiction loosely based on history. I personally relate to the central philosophical question of AS A DRIVEN LEAF. Since childhood, and still continuing today, I've always had a problem with the concept of "The Beginning" as in "In the Beginning God created. . . ." My thinking is that there had to be a time when there was absolutely nothing, yet how can nothing become something, and what is "nothingness?" Religionists say that God created something from nothing. This leads me to ask: "Where did God come from?" Scientists say that primordial gasses came together and that there was a "Big Bang." Again, I ask: "Where did the primordial gasses come from?" I can't conceive of nothingness but I can't comprehend there always having been something. In any system of logic there doesn't seem to be an answer, and accepting it on faith doesn't work for me. It is a form of this question that causes ben Abuyah to lose faith and begin his all consuming search for an answer based on pure logic. Elisha ben Abuyah was a religious Jew who, early in life, had been exposed to Greek thought. After some years as a Rabbi and leader of the Jewish community, he was re-exposed to Greek thought and to Euclidian Geometry. Absolute faith no longer worked for him, and he replaced his faith with the belief that everything could be proven logically, this logic based on Euclidian Geometry and that faith was unnecessary. He dedicated his life to studying and trying to prove this approach and was branded as guilty of heresy, and, as a result, lost his home, his place in the community, and his wife. He finally became disillusioned when, as an old man, many years later, still in search of the final proofs, he came to understand that even in Euclidian Geometry, the first "given" had to be accepted by faith. It's truth couldn't be proven. What sadness when he realized that his whole lifetime's work and its associated losses had been for naught. He had come full circle, back to his starting point. All of which leaves me just where I started too. No logic explains "The Beginning." It has to be accepted on faith, and I can't. I guess that if you can't accept it on faith, you're better off forgetting about the whole thing. This, at least, was the final lesson learned by Elisha ben Abuyah.
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