Founding God's Nation: Reading Exodus

by Leon R Kass

Overview

In this long†‘awaited follow†‘up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself.  Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt through their liberation under Moses’s leadership to their covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events begin the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people.  The Israelites ultimately found their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose.  These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300256116
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	01/05/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Leon R. Kass is the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the College and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His books include The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. Kass lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

About the Text xvii

Introduction 1

Part 1 Out of Egypt: Slavery and Deliverance

Exodus 1-15

1 Into the House of Bondage 21

2 The Birth and Youth of the Liberator 38

3 Moses Finds God and (Reluctantly) Accepts His Mission 59

4 Egyptian Overtures: Hitting Bottom 97

5 To Go Against Pharaoh: Ordering the Team 117

6 The Contest with Egypt 130

7 Exodus 160

8 "Who Is Like You Among the Gods?" The Lord, Egypt, and Israel at the Sea of Reeds 193

Part 2 From the Mountain: Covenant and Law

Exodus 15-23

9 The Murmurings of Necessity 221

10 "Is the Lord Among Us or Not?": The Battle with Amalek 243

11 Jethro's Visit: Justice and the Need for Law 262

12 Covenant from the Mountain: A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation 283

13 Principles for God's New Nation 306

14 Ordinances for God's New Nation: Justice and the Civil Law 339

15 Beyond Civil Law, Beyond Justice 378

Part 3 To the Tabernacle: Worship and Presence

Exodus 24-40

16 Strange Goings-On: "Blood of the Covenant" and "Seeing God" 429

17 "Let Them Make Me a Sanctuary" 451

18 "That I May Dwell Among Them": God's Prime Ministers and the Tent of Meeting 475

19 Beyond Animal Sacrifice: Human Art, Divine Rest 507

20 The Covenant on Trial: The Golden Calf 529

21 The Forgiving God and the Glorious Moses 550

22 The Completion(s) of the Tabernacle 574

Epilogue 599

Notes 607

Acknowledgments 703

Index 705

Editorial Reviews

11/09/2020

Kass, professor emeritus of Social Thought at the University of Chicago, follows up his book on Genesis, The Beginning of Wisdom, with this exploration of Exodus’s “teachings regarding a worthy life for an individual and a community.” Kass argues Exodus is “the foundational political text” of Western civilization, and of the three stories he examines—divine revelation, Moses’s life, and the “process of people formation”—it is the last that produces what Kass sees as the three pillars of the Jewish people: slavery and exodus, covenanting and law, and ritual enactment. Taking a line-by-line approach, the analysis will be accessible even to those unfamiliar with Exodus, as Kass argues this pivotal book of the Hebrew Bible allowed for original ways to conceptualize the building of a nation that still resonate today. However, having been invited to explore universal questions, many readers may struggle with Kass’s answers, both in the conclusions and lessons he sees reflected in Exodus: that “the condition of slavery generally produces ‘slavish people’ who have no taste for freedom,” that atheism dehumanizes and endangers humanity, or that shared history and identity is vital for a nation to flourish. Despite this, general readers interested in the Hebrew Bible will get much from Kass’s trenchant work. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Accessible . . . General readers interested in the Hebrew Bible will get much from Kass’s trenchant work.”—Publishers Weekly

"Kass draws from Exodus’ record of the founding of Judaism timely—even urgent—universal lessons about twenty-first-century preconditions for human flourishing in any community. Compelling modern reflections on ancient wisdom.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)

"Using the techniques of close reading and ‘living with the text’ that have made him such a revered teacher, Kass has come to understand Exodus as more than a narrative of national formation."—Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon

“Despite its many confusions, our era has somehow contrived to produce the ideal teacher in Leon Kass . . . Out of [an] open-minded reading of Exodus, a familiar story takes on fresh meaning: Now, through Kass’s commentary, Exodus offers us a profound reflection on what it means to be a true people, not merely an aggregate of individuals or a network of families.”—George Weigel, First Things

"Leon Kass invites believer and unbeliever alike to read the book of Exodus alongside him . . . [His] remarkable commentary provides insights on every page, from which to learn and with which to wrestle."—James R. Rogers, Law & Liberty

"Leon Kass’ brilliant new book provides an opportunity for professors of political philosophy to add the book of Exodus to the canon of works that they assign to their students. . . . At last, someone has done for Exodus what so many political philosophers have done for Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, and a host of secular works."—, Christians in Political Science

"Exodus wants not merely to be heard but to be heeded—understood in soul-forming ways. Kass responds to this imperative with a keen sense of the spiritual and political drama of Exodus. He registers in warm, clear prose the rich resonances and emotional and intellectual tones of the book’s essential events and themes."—Jacob Howland, Jewish Review of Books

“Kass’s book asks important questions of the text, and offers sensible and sometimes innovative answers. If the book is translated into Hebrew, it will live forever as a commentary on the text alongside other philosophic commentaries. . . . Everyone who aims to think about the text will do well to consult Kass.”—Michael S. Kochin, Claremont Review of Books

“By reading the Bible as a significant political teaching, Kass illuminates a critical yet neglected … dimension of the account and begins making the case for its compelling wisdom.”—Steven H. Frankel, Interpretation

“This is an extraordinary book.”—L. J. Greenspoon, Choice

“Offers endless possibilities for considering Exodus and its teachings. . . . intellectually stimulating, philosophically nuanced, and spiritually edifying.”—Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern, Yeshiva University Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought

“A wondrous achievement of humanistic scholarship at its very best, making Exodus’s ancient words live again as a source of political wisdom and spiritual inspiration for our time.”—Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

"What Leon Kass describes as living with the book over two decades enabled him to glean from it insights into the deepest existential questions, what Kass himself calls 'longings of the soul.' His greatest achievement is to give readers a glimpse of these insights and suggest to us the possibility—and profound value—of exploring them ourselves."— Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

"Leon Kass maps the Book of Exodus with unmatched intelligence. We have known the book through the interpretations of generations of sages, but here he reads it as though for the first time to see the Jewish nation emerging from slavery and taking its civilizing shape. This is the most exciting book I’ve read in years"—Ruth Wisse, professor emerita of Yiddish Literature, Harvard University

"Building on his earlier insightful study of the family in Genesis, Leon Kass turns to the formation of the Israelite nation in Exodus, with an openness to discovery sparked by perceptive observations and guided by fundamental questions."—Ronna Burger, Catherine & Henry J. Gaisman Professor of Philosophy, Tulane University

“To be guided through Exodus by Leon Kass is to discover in those familiar stories a font of political wisdom and a provocation to reflection on the meaning of human flourishing.”—Mary Ann Glendon, author of A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

From the Publisher

12/04/2020

In this follow-up to The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, Kass (emeritus, social thought, Univ. of Chicago) maintains that a major theme of the Book of Exodus is God's forging a confederation of families within the Nation of Israel. A national identity requires a common history, provided in the story of God's deliverance of Israel. Following a shared story is a set of communal values as found in the Torah. Finally, a nation needs to be oriented to something beyond itself, which Kass locates in the theophany at Sinai and instructions for the Tabernacle. The author states that in this time of national strife, Exodus is a blueprint for national unity that is accessible for everyone, including atheists. Perhaps so, but his interpretive decisions might give biblical scholars pause. Rather than parsing out sources, Kass reads Exodus as a single, tightly composed work with no attempt to locate the original audience. Are we to imagine Exodus to be very early or much later? If later, would not Exodus be an idealized history, giving no indication of what actually forged an enslaved people into that unique nation that continues to flourish after so many others have fallen forgotten? VERDICT Primarily for readers seeking a conclusion to the author's previous work.—James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

Library Journal

2021-02-16
Expansive commentary on the book of Exodus.

Humanist scholar Kass, who has spent much of his life studying the Hebrew Bible, follows up The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis(2003) with this exploration of Exodus. In these massively important scriptural passages, Kass sees a primary document about “people formation, freedom and order, law and morality, the leader and the led.” The story follows the Hebrew slaves as they are led out of Egypt, under the leadership of Moses, to Mount Sinai, where they received the law that, in many ways, formed the basis of Judaism as we know it. As such, Exodus is not merely a foundational book of history and ethics, but also a work of political philosophy. Indeed, Kass argues that the text must be read “philosophically,” meaning with a view toward gaining wisdom, as one would read any other prominent work of antiquity. His commentary, therefore, is not an academic study exploring the text line by line, nor a religious investigation seeking divine revelation. Instead, Kass meticulously examines the text with the goal of discovering new truths; these may or may not be religious, but they have lessons for any society as it develops. Throughout, the author uncovers intriguingly political angles to age-old biblical tales. For instance, as Moses and Aaron first approach Pharaoh with their demands, Kass sees the encounter as a moment of failed diplomacy. Kass also offers lesser-known or even radical interpretations of Scripture. For instance, he reads the story of the golden calf not as a simple example of disobedience but as a moment orchestrated by God, allowing an opportunity for collective sin. “The Israelites’ first true act of national freedom,” he writes, “was their disobedient demand that Aaron make them gods.” This act, writes Kass, helped shape a formally servile peoples’ sense of freedom of will.

Kass delivers another thought-provoking volume about a seminal work of Scripture.

Kirkus Reviews