About the Rabbi
Hello! I am presently working for the Quad-Cities and I am currently in my fifth year at the Tri-City Jewish Center. My synagogue is about 200+ families and we are quite active for a small but traditional-egalitarian congregation.
My background is somewhat unusual. I was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area. I am the child of a Holocaust survivor. My father Leo Samuel z”l came from a long line of rabbis and he lived in what use to be known as Czechoslovakia. My father continues to be my inspiration and mentor — even as I grow older each day. I recently discovered my mother was related to some of the most famous rabbis of the 19th century (e.g., R. Yisrael Salanter, R. Yitzchak Elchanan). I suspect most of us probably have more rabbinic lineage than we realize. Ultimately each of us must establish our own lineage, and become worthy ancestors for the future generations.
Without going into too much detail, I have studied in a variety of Orthodox seminaries, but graduated from the Lubavitcher Seminary with advanced rabbinical degrees in Yoreh Deah and in Yadin Yadin, where I became a rabbinical judge in 1980. I have worked both as a Talmud and Bible teacher at various different Torah Umessorah Day schools in New York and New England. In 1988, I finally became a full time pulpit rabbi having served in both Orthodox and Conservative/egalitarian congregations. In 1995, I completed my doctoral degree in pastoral counseling at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. I have been a rabbi for over two decades.
As a personal philosophy, I believe that Judaism is capable of enduring the harshest critiques of science, anthropology, linguistics, history, not to mention “common sense.” Judaism honors the great questions humankind has asked since the dawn of civilization. All traditions deserve to be questioned, if they are ever going to be properly understood. I do not believe that God placed us in this world to be mere pious automatons; the human mind is a wonderful gift. To properly worship God, we must engage in critical thought and self-reflective thinking. My experience has taught me that a strong faith can be integrated with modernity, without having to give in to blind faith, dogma and narrow-mindedness.
In addition I have been a very strongly involved in many Zionistic organizations, and I spent many years living in Israel where I studied in rabbinical school. I believe that it is very important to be an articulate spokesperson for Israel–especially now as enemy nations plot her destruction. I believe that a strong Israel is essential for Jewish identity in the Diaspora; all of us must do our part to keep Israel strong.
One of the great problems of our times is the tendency to subordinate our capacity for religious expression to the forces of denominationalism that governs modern Judaism. This is not just an issue that adversely affects the Orthodox communities, it is also afflicts the Conservative, Traditional, Reform and Reconstructionist brands of Judaism. All denominations of Judaism must learn to purge themselves of the political intrigue and lust for power that governs so much of its infrastructure. We need to become authentic and take personal ownership of our faith so that we might instill this enthusiasm to our children and those around us. Before we can become a light unto the nations, we first have to rekindle that light of faith within ourselves.
Today’s Judaism must reclaim its sense of heart and soul. We possess a wonderful tradition that reflects diversity and creativity. The humanistic element of Judaism that celebrates the gifts of the human spirit, abound everywhere. I am convinced that such an approach will do much to heal the wounds we have suffered as a community since the time of the Holocaust.
My philosophy of Halacha is similar to the Israeli thinker David Hartman, and I think the innovative spirit of Halachic reasoning can be creatively employed to make our world into a better place.
I have always enjoyed writing immensely since my days as yeshiva student in Israel. I wrote my first book, The Lord is My Shepherd — the Theology of a Caring God. (See Amazon.com) about thirteen years ago, which was published by Jason Aronson. The book represents a modest attempt to reconstruct a new exposition of metaphorical theology based upon the ancient shepherd imagery of the 23rd Psalm.
Over the last decade I have completed a new fourteen volume commentary on the Pentateuch. Volume 1 will be coming out in the summer of 2009. The name of the book is: Birth and Rebirth Through Genesis: A Timeless Theological Conversation.
I am available for speaking engagements, whether it be at a synagogue, university, church, or school. If you are interested in considering me as a scholar-in-residence, please contact me at my telephone number at 563-505-7363 or at my email address [email protected].
Unlike most commentaries that have appeared in the last 100 years, this new work promises to engage the reader on a myriad of different levels. Volume 1 is a 500+ page commentary that covers the origins of biblical interpretations and its permutations, along with a theological/exegetical exposition of Genesis 1-3. In addition to the commentary, there are also 30 excursuses that deal with a variety of modern theological themes. Here is the Table of Contents (please forgive the spacing problems, they are hard to fix for this website!) along with a partial list of the excursus articles. Enjoy the materials
Rabbi Michael Samuel
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Introduction
1. The Mythos of Genesis
§ Reading through the Eye of Imagination
§ Genesis as Myth
§ Where Genesis and Homer Differ
§ Who Is the Protagonist of Genesis? God or Humanity?
§ Genesis as a Spiritual Journey
§ Contrasting Shadow with Light
2. Conversing with Genesis
§ Finding One’s Own Interpretive Voice
§ What exactly is a Conversation?
§ A Timeless Theological Conversation
§ The Playful Subtlety and Nuance of Language
§ Ben Bag-bag’s Wisdom: Deconstructing the Torah’s Message
3. The Living Text
§ What exactly is a Text?
§ An Intricate Web of Intertexuality
§ The Original Biblical Exegetes: Intrabiblical Commentaries
§ Philo of Alexandria as the Godfather of PaRDeS
§ PaRDeS: The Four Layers of Rabbinic Interpretation
§ Archaeology as a Pathway to Peshat
§ How We Read a Text Matters—Exegesis versus Eisegesis
§ Rediscovering and Recovering the Heavenly Dimension of the Torah
4. Theology & Authorship of Genesis
§ Why Begin the Torah with Genesis?
§ More on the Theology of Genesis
§ Creation and its Existential Implications
§ The Power of One Family
§ The Authorship of Genesis
§ Genesis and the Documentary Hypothesis
§ Reductionistic and Holistic Approaches to the Pentateuch
§ Newer Critical Approaches
A. Form Criticism
B. Traditional Criticism
C. Redactional Criticism
D. Literary Criticism
E. Canonical Criticism
F. Narrative Criticism
G. Structural Criticism
H. Psychological Criticism
I. Theological Criticism
Day 1 of Creation (Gen. 1:1-5)
§ Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
§ The First of Two Creation Stories
§ Day One of Creation (Gen. 1-5)
§ Creation as Kenosis
§ Wisdom’s Role in Creation
§ From My Flesh, I Behold God
§ Creation as Novelty
§ The Meaning of “Elohim”
§ “Heaven and Earth” as Totality
§ The Significance of Seven
§ The Real Meaning of Töºhû and Böºhû
§ Chaos in Other Mythical Cosmogonies
§ An Existential Interpretation of Genesis 1:2
§ Intimations of the Cosmic Egg?
§ From Primal Speech to Revelation
§ A Mystical Intimation Concerning Light
§ Creation as Seen Through the Eyes of Science
§ The Union of Opposites
§ View One: “Day” as a Segment of Time
§ View Two: A Literal Reading of “One Day”
Days 2-4 of Creation (Gen. 1:6-19)
§ Day Two of Creation (Gen. 1:6‑8)
§ “Heaven” as Metaphor
§ Day Three of Creation (Gen. 1:11-13)
§ The Art of Wonderment: Is Life a Miracle?
§ Day Four of Creation (Gen. 1:14–19)
§ The “Goldilocks Effect”
Days 5-6 of Creation (Gen. 1:20–31)
§ Day Five of Creation (Gen. 1:20–23)
§ Animals Have Sentience and Soul
§ From Where Does Human Morality Derive?
§ Day Six of Creation (Gen. 1:26–31)
§ Verbal Archaeology: Image and Likeness
§ The Participation Mystique of the Image
§ The Principle and Ideal of “Image” and “Likeness”
§ Ontological Implications
§ The Meaning of “Dominion”
§ The Biblical Roots of Vegetarianism
§ The Experience of Divine Exuberance
§ Perfecting Creation
§ A Structuralist Summary of Genesis 1:1-2:1
Day 7 of Creation (Gen. 2:1-4a)
§ The Seventh Day: The Sabbath (Gen. 2:1–4a)
§ The Sabbath and Cosmic Harmony
§ God’s “Resting” as Paradigm
§ Why is the Sabbath Not Mentioned by Name?
§ When exactly did God “Rest” from Work?
§ Defining “Work”
§ Is the Biblical Concept of Time Linear or Cyclical?
§ “A Sanctuary of Holy Time.”
A Second Creation Story (Gen. 2:4b-17)
§ Differentiating between YHWH and ’Elohim
§ Canonizing Scribal Errors
§ Last in Deed, First Conceived!
§ A Divine Aesthetic in Motion
§ The Origin and Meaning of “Adam”
§ The Genetics of Mice and Men
§ The Soul as Divine Breath
§ A World that Speaks
§ Ibn Ezra’s Secret
§ The Yearning for Edenic Peace
§ The Cosmic Tree and the Axis Mundi
§ No Ordinary Tree
§ Locating Eden
§ The Mythical Significance of the Number Four
§ Protecting Eden: Ecological Implications for Today
§ Respecting the Boundaries of Creation
§ Did God Intend for Humankind to Live Forever?
Creation of the First Human Couple (2:18-24)
§ One is the Loneliest Number
§ Companion and Adversary
§ Even As the Strings of a Lute are Alone
§ Discovering the Animal World
§ The Biblical Origin of Taxonomy
§ Philo of Alexandria: Adam’s Myopia
§ The Trouble with Trible
§ “Lady of the Rib” – The Sumerian Eve?
§ “Your God is a Thief . . .”
§ Searching for Wholeness
§ Eros Awaits
§ Keeping the Flame of Love Alive
§ Original Innocence
The End of Dreaming Innocence (3:1-7)
§ Deciphering the Contours of Mythic Thought
§ Unearthing the Archaeology of Consciousness
§ Our Primal Longing for Life
§ The Serpentine Trickster of Eden
§ Determining the Serpent’s Motivation
§ Eden’s First Attorney
§ The Dangers Implicit in “Knowing Evil”
§ From Where Does Evil Derive?
§ Telling the Serpent’s Side of the Story—Rashi and the Gnostics
§ Omitting to Mention the Fine-Print
§ Stolen Waters are Sweet . . .
§ Paradise Lost: Adam’s Undying Devotion for Eve
§ From “Shrewd” To “Nude”
§ Like the Hands that Write a Torah Scroll . . .
§ Further Reflections on Shame, Nakedness, and Fleeing
§ Identifying the Forbidden Fruit
§ Postscript for a Possible Future Era:
The Moment of Truth (3:8-13)
§ The Shekhinah’s Heavenly Ascent
§ God in Search of Man
§ The Eternal Question: Where Art Thou?
§ When the Soul Feels Stirred, God is calling . . .
§ A Comic Midrash
§ The Real “Original Sin” of Our Primal Parents
§ Etiological Explanations and Their Limitations
The Consequences of the Fall (3:14-24)
§ The Nexus of Creativity, Work, and Love
§ Are Infants “Born in Sin”?
§ Sexism is not Pre-ordained
§ Should Death be Construed as a Punishment?
§ The Semantics of Bread and War
§ The World’s First Designer Wear
§ From “Garments of Ethereal Light” to “Garments of Skins”
§ The Existential Meaning of Adam’s Expulsion
§ An Edenic Postscript
Excursuses
Excursus 1: The Nature of Biblical Interpretation
A. In Praise of Textual Fluidity
B. Expanding Our Hermeneutical Horizons
C. Entering the Hermeneutical Spiral
D. Implications for Biblical Exegesis
E. Derrida and the Midrash
F. Exegesis vs. Eisegesis: Concluding Remarks
Excursus 2: The Dynamics of Textual Criticism
Excursus 3: Discerning the Purpose of Creation
Excursus 4: Romantic Theology: Creation Flows from Love
Excursus 5: A Re-Reading of Genesis 1:1
Excursus 6: The Mystery of Divine Personhood
Excursus 7: Further Reflections on Chaos
Excursus 8: Further Reflections on Creatio ex Nihilo and the Nature of Time
Excursus 9: The Power of the Word in Pre-Biblical Cultures
Excursus 10: Time, Creation, and Biblical Theology
Excursus 11: Creation Through “Tsimtsum” — A Divine Kenosis
Excursus 12: Anthropocentric Theology and Its Contemporary Permutations
Excursus 13: A Theological View of Evolution
Excursus 14: The Image of God in Early Hellenistic Thought
Excursus 15: The Image of God in Medieval Rabbinic Thought
Excursus 16: Reflections on Genesis 1:21: Do Animals Have a “Soul”?
Excursus 17: Examining the Biblical Concept of “Dominion”
Excursus 18: When Precisely did the Six Days of Creation End?
Excursus 19: Holiness of Time vs. Holiness of Space
Excursus 20: The Documentary Hypothesis in the Creation Narratives
Excursus 21: The Meaning of “Clinging” (Genesis 2:24)
Excursus 22: Adam’s “First Wife” — Lilith in Jewish Folklore: Past and Present
Excursus 23: Prelude to “The Awakening”: Modern Theological Perspectives
Excursus 24: Thomas Merton: The Birth of the “False Self”
Excursus 25: Augustine of Hippo vs. the “Judaizing” Pelagius
Excursus 26: The Serpent as a Psychological Metaphor
Excursus 27: Why Did God Create Evil? – A Parable from the Zohar
Excursus 28: Intimations of “Original Sin” in Early Rabbinic Sources
Excursus 29: The Curse of Eve: Con-versing with Paul of Taurus on Genesis 3:16
Excursus 30: Eden as a Paradigm of Sacred Space