Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

[caption id="attachment_119024" align="alignright" width="100"] Rabbi Israel Drazin[/caption]

Dr. Israel Drazin served for 31 years in the US military and attained the rank of Brigadier General. He has a PhD in Judaic Studies and a Masters Degree in psychology and a Masters Degree in Jewish Literature. He is an attorney and a rabbi.

He developed the legal strategy that saved the military chaplaincies when its constitutionality was attacked in court, and received the Legion of Merit for his service.

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He was the scholar who recognized that the Aramaic translation Targum Onkelos took hundreds of items from the Tannaitic Midrashim, which were edited around 400 CE; therefore, the Targum must have been composed after that date, a period much later than had been widely accepted.

He is the author of more than 50 books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, and a series of books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, a history of the legal case he handled, and dozens of books on the Bible.

His works, available on Amazon, include:
*A Rational Approach to Judaism and Torah Commentary
*Can’t Start Passover Without the Bread (Children’s Literature) ***
*For God and Country: The History of a Constitutional Challenge to the Army Chaplaincy
*Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets
*Maimonides: Reason Above All
*Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind
*Mysteries of Judaism (Maimonides and Rational)
*Mysteries of Judaism II: How the Rabbis and Others Changed Judaism
*Nachmanides: An Unusual Thinker
*Onkelos on the Torah Understanding the Bible Text (5 Volume Set)**
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 1: Genesis) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 2: Exodus) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 3: Leviticus) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 4: Numbers) **
*Onkelos on the Torah (Book 5: Deuteronomy) **
*Sailing on Moti’s Ark on Sukkoth (Children’s Literature) ***
*Stories that Teach the Truth: Ecclesiastes, Tobit, Susanna, and Other Stories.
*Studies in Onkelos (Hebrew edition)
*Targum Onkelos to Exodus [2]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*Targum Onkelos to Leviticus [3]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*Targum Onkelos to Numbers [4]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
Targum Onkelos to Deuteronomy [5]: An English Translation of the Text with Analysis and Commentary
*The Authentic King Solomon
*The Tragedies of King David
*Understanding Onkelos
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Five Books of Moses (Maimonides and Rational)
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Hosea
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Jonah and Amos
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Joshua
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Judges
*Unusual Bible Interpretations: Ruth, Esther, Judith
*What’s Beyond the Biblical Text? **
*Who Really Was the Biblical David?
*Who Was the Biblical Prophet Samuel?

** Co-Authored with Stanley Wagner
** Co-Authored with Leba Lieder
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Biblical Shavuot and its practice today

The current observance of Shavuot has no relationship to its biblical ancestor and doesn’t even occur at the same time. Very few people know the truth about this day. Most Jews think Shavuot recalls the day the Torah was revealed to the Israelites during the days of Moses. This is not true. This significance was given to the holiday in the middle ages when the holiday had lost one of its original purposes; the sacrifice prescribed for the day was discontinued when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. I am not advocating that Jews should not observe Shavuot. Judaism today is not Torah Judaism. It is Rabbinic Judaism. Jews observe the Torah as it is interpreted by the rabbis. I observe Shavuot. The purpose of this article is simply to reveal its historical development. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion

On ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’

In “The Devil and Daniel Webster” Benet depicts Daniel Webster saving a New Hampshire farmer from the Devil and from Hell. In the story, the farmer Jabez Stone was impoverished; every effort he made on his farm turned out bad. Exacerbated, he agrees to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for ten years of great prosperity. His request is granted. At the end of the ten years, Jabez rushes to the famed orator and lawyer Daniel Webster to come and save him. The Americanized Devil, who calls himself Scratch, comes to collect the farmer’s soul. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Does God have emotions: anger, hate, and love?

I was asked to explain the verse in Malachi 1:3, “Esau I hated.” He wrote: “This is one of the few verses in the Bible that truly disturbs me…. I believe everyone who has ever lived … will attain supreme, lasting happiness….  What exactly does it mean that God hated him, I don’t know?” A similar question can be asked about Malachi 1:2 where the prophet chastises the Judeans for not loving God despite God loving them. Does God feel hatred and love? [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

What was the Spanish Flu?

Between, January 1918 and December 1920 more people were killed by the Spanish flu than all the people who died during World War I soldiers and civilians, 50 million, about a tenth of the world population of 500 million at that time. The flu struck just prior to the end of World War I (1914-1918) when conditions in the US and world-wide were terrible: weak, hungry, overworked people living in overcrowded conditions. There were lots of movement of people around the world, such as soldiers moving from country to country. There was no concept of mitigation and isolation. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

In defense of Epicurus

Epicurus was not as bad as he is portrayed. Judaism describes a non-believer in God as an Apicorus, a name most likely derived from the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BCE), as Professor Marcus Jastrow states in his famed Dictionary, although Maimonides in his essay “Chelek” states it is an Aramaic word. The rabbis thought that Epicurus denied the existence of God and was a hedonist who stressed that people should pursue happiness. According to the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin chapter 10, an Apicorus would have no life after death. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Ancient ideas about heaven and hell

Many people today, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, as well as people of other religions, are convinced that good people go to heaven when they die, while people who acted improperly go to Hell. But the notion that these places exist is pagan and entered Judaism only in the late second temple period, probably round 320 BCE. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

An excellent revelation of the style of the Torah

Rabbi Dr. Joshua A. Berman is a brilliant scholar, writer, and speaker. In his new book Ani Maamin, words that mean “I believe,” he answers questions that bothered Bible readers – Jews, Christians, and Muslims – for centuries, and answers them in an interesting, readable, eye-opening, and engaging way. Why was the Bible written? How do we explain the biblical writing style? How do we reply to Bible critics? And much more. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Does the Torah speak in divine or human language?

In the classic Torah Min Hashamayim Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) masterly tells the methodology of Rabbi Akiva and the difference between him and Rabbi Ishmael. Gordon Tucker translated the work into English as Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations. The two Talmudic sages lived around 130 CE and disagreed on how to interpret the Bible. Rabbi Akiva won out, and Rashi, Nachmanides, and most ancient Bible commentators as well as most Midrashim and most rabbinical sermons today follow his view. Others, such as Rashi’s grandson Rashbam, ibn Ezra, and Maimonides interpret the Torah along the lines of Rabbi Ishmael. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Rabbi salutes his father, the rabbi who resisted white flight from Baltimore

Today is my dad’s yahrzeit.  My dad, Rabbi Dr. Nathan Drazin was born on March 16, 1906 and passed away in Israel on 28 Nisan 1976. He is well-known as a brilliant man, a scholar with a beautiful personality. He was also a hero. It is proper to remember him today. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, USA

The remarkable thinking of Maimonides

Micah Goodman’s Maimonides is an important book. The following are some major points in it. The quotes are from the book. Maimonides’ God: Goodman states that Maimonides’ God is transcendental, meaning God is not involved in the daily activities of the world. God placed in the world the laws of nature, and then withdrew entirely from it…. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Addressing Bible difficulties

It is only in recent times that Yeshivas (post-high-school religious schools) began again to teach Bible. The problem that the rabbis faced was that enlightenment scholars raised multiple questions about the Bible, questions that seemed to show that God did not write or inspire the Bible, but that it was composed by many different authors with different agendas, some of whom made mistakes. The Yeshiva rabbis did not know how to respond to the attacks. So, the rabbis stopped teaching Bible and told students that if they wanted to study the Torah they should do so on their own. Instead, the rabbis taught only Talmud and ethical books. This situation existed when I attended a prominent Yeshiva in the 1950s. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion