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Summary: Dershowitz in Defense of Injustice in Genesis
Review: Never underestimate Alan Dershowitz. That's a lesson I learned when I was a student of his at Harvard Law School. Just when it seemed like he was cornered, with his argument tattered to ribbons, he would emerge with a counterargument that depended on his first argument being devasted. He had just successfully set-up the other professor (who shall remain nameless here) once again. Since then, I have seen him use the same strategy successfully time and again in many of his most famous cases. He has the nerve to skirt the edge of defeat to grasp victory.So I was not surprised to see that having taken on the Book of Genesis as his client that a similar strategy prevails here. The book is based on his successful seminar on the same subject which he has recently been teaching at Harvard. He does a marvelous job of taking a religious text and examining it as a source of legal precedent both in sacred and secular terms. Few would have the nerve, but your understanding of Genesis will be greatly improved as a result. He encourages you, as well as his students, to bring your own religious beliefs to the discussion. He proposes no official interpretations, and shares a diversity of opinions from learned Rabbis and religious thinkers of the Christian and Moslem faiths. In each case, he also shares his own interpretation. If you are like me, you will not always agree with him, but you will be interested to know what he concludes. He undertakes his inquiry in the spirit of a disputatious Hebrew school student who earned rebukes for his impertinent questions about where Cain's wife came from. He also draws from the Jewish tradition of encouraging the faithful to study the texts for their meaning. He clearly confronts the contradictions within Genesis through examining 10 stories, one per chapter. In the story of Adam and Eve and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Professor Dershowitz emphasizes that God changes the deal. Having told Adam that he would die if he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam goes on to live quite a long life. Having never told Eve not to eat from the tree, God punishes her with pain of childbirth and expulsion also. He describes God as having erred in dealing with Adam and Eve. You'll have to decide for yourself what your interpretation is. The title of the chapter is "God Threatens -- and Backs Down." Here are the rest of the first 10 chapter titles. They give you a sense of the argument that Professor Dershowitz is building: Cain Murders -- and Walks God Overreacts -- and Floods the World Abraham Defends the Guilty -- and Loses Lot's Daughters Rape Their Father -- and Save the World Abraham Commits Attempted Murder -- and Is Praised Jacob Deceives -- and Gets Deceived Dina Is Raped -- and Her Brothers Take Revenge Tamar Becomes a Prostitute -- and the Progenitor of David and the Messiah Joseph is Framed -- and Then Frames His Brothers His basic points in these chapters are that bad things happen to good people and vice versa, that punishment on earth is often disproportionate and inappropriate (such as punishing descendents as yet unborn), and that the rules keep shifting. Having driven you to the brink of despair about what Genesis means, he then offers his counterargument that all of this is purposeful on God's part. In chapters 11 and 12, he argues that Genesis is there to set the stage for the Ten Commandments, so show what a world is like without firm and lasting sacred rules that apply to all people at all times. In this context, God's apparent inconsistency is not so troubling, because it is replaced with the consistency of today. In chapter 13, he argues that a meaningful set of religious rules requires that there be justice in an afterlife. Otherwise, the obvious injustices in this life would leave people disaffected from religion. In chapter 14, he connects each of the Ten Commandments to one of the stories in Genesis. These form both a precedent for principle, as well, as a background for understanding the need for a better rule. He connects these points to secular law, as well. Those with a Jewish religious education will find the material most familiar. To make the text more available to Christians and Moslems, he adopts the common English translations of the Hebrew for his usual references. Fundamentalist Christians will find an occasional nod in their direction, but will probably not find the information very helpful in many cases. Agnostics and people from religions not based on the Old Testament will find the perspective of creating a legal code primarily relevant to their interests. The modern-day examples of crime and criminals will be appealing to all. I think any reason to spend more time with God's word is good, and I applaud Professor Dershowitz for adding another useful perspective to the riot of apparent contradictions in Genesis. Those with faith will feel affirmed. Those without faith may find a pathway closer to that having faith. After you finish this book, think of your own examples of religious texts that provide confusion in your mind. Then do some reading to better understand what those texts could mean. Have faith and prosper!
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Summary: I can't-I'm laughing too hard!
Review: Oh this is rich. That indefagitable giant of the Bar Alan Dershowitz waxing eloquent on justice. Oh well, I guess this is par for the course- embrace your failings as if they were strengths.
When I stop laughing I suppose fear will set in. Fear that this master of constitutional de-construction will actually be taken seriously. Go back to chasing ambulances and defending celebrity murderers. But don't expound on justice as if justice ever meant anything before you wrote this put up job.
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Summary: A Good Introduction to the Bible
Review: Since my days as a child in Sunday school, I never paid much attention to the Bible. And as an adult, it never made that much since to me. After reading The Genesis of Justice, I now know why. I found violence glorified and deception affirmed. Dershowitz finds it necessary to clear up some of the inconsistencies in the Bible. He further introduces logic to obscene narratives that to me were always mere ribaldry. Hence my discontinuance of reading the Bible, especially to my children when they were younger. What is interesting, however, is Dershowitz's main premise. He argues that the root of today's judicial system lies in the Book of Genesis. He says that from Genesis we learn that actions and reactions derive from the nature of human beings and their Creator-not from formal codes of conduct. From that, I was left to wonder why are deterrence mechanisms set in place. Why the death penalty? Why prison sentences? If Dershowitz makes this required reading for his freshman law students -he will inevitability produce a group of reactionary liberals who will challenge the system-or not. It is just that pendulous. One could go either way when analyzing the narratives in Genesis. He reprises some interesting questions - Do you punish someone if they are ignorant of the law or of right from wrong? Do we punish a whole community to get to the evil few? Is it okay to commit a crime if it is a matter of life and death? Dershowitz assumes that whoever reads the book is well-acquainted with the Jewish interpretations and speaks to the reader as though you are on familiar grounds. Yet it is still an easy read. You enjoy his references to other rabbi's interpretations. The book has copious footnotes and the notes alone are informative. Dershowitz did a fine job in demonstrating how nothing comes from nothing...how laws have developed from a culmination of a long process of developments. The Ten Commandments, he argues, didn't just appear fully formed from the mountaintop - they were generated and came about because of events from the past or I should say events from the beginning.
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Summary: Looking Back At Ancient Morality
Review: The history of legal and judicial development goes back thousands of years. One may wonder does this justice of genesis start at the Pentetuch or does it go back further to ancient Sumeria? Are the Ten Commandments developed from the Ten Negative Eyptian questions? After all, was Moses schooled in the Egyptian methods? Well, this book does take a look at the parenting of Jehovah. It strikes out and criticizes the methods of Yahweh. However, one wonders how much of man is there in the Old Testament.. How much is God speaking? Thank God, man developed from social contract theory to a complex system of justice....but, even today is there any reinforcement of actual punishment...Sometimes, one feels there is not.
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Summary: Provides a new way to appreciate Genesis
Review: This book has a fascinating premise, and I enjoyed reading it. I was familiar with many of the stories discussed, but Professor Dershowitz places the people and events into a very interesting socio/economic/political/legal context. I am reading Genesis again because of the book, and I am enjoying it much more.
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Summary: worst book I've read
Review: This is perhaps the worst book I've ever read. Dershowitz is a fundamentalist when interpreting the Bible. Therefore, he assumes that each and every story happened just as the Bible relates it. Since this is a severe improbability, if not impossibility, the whole premise of the book is incorrect. From this, Dershowitz makes the argument that God is not omniscient, omnipotent, or even capable of making just decisions. He argues that God is fallible and that it is our responsibility to "call" God on His injustices. Had I understood this was the angle of the book, I would have never picked it up in the first place. Overall, it was a monumental waste of time because the book does not contain any new or useful information, much less any interesting viewpoints.
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