This Week in The Seforim Sale Claims Jordan Peterson is a Jewish Theologian! (2/27)
David Shasha
The Seforim Sale Ends Today
I did not find out about the annual YU Jewish book sale until last Sunday.
After missing last year due to their COVID cancellation, I am happy to say that the event was completely safe – beyond what Bari Weiss wishes (though her Anti-Semitism book was available there for sale!) – with not only masks being required, but actual proof of vaccination:
They are certainly to be commended, given the abysmal track record of other parts of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Please note: In the following notes I link to the cited books not on The Seforim Sale website, but on Amazon. The website has a very poor search engine, but I assure you that the books mentioned were available for sale when I was there.
Trumpism is Alive at Seforim Sale!
Before I get to my big takeaway, I wanted to note that both David Freidman and Ben Shapiro’s books could be found there:
https://www.amazon.com/Sledgehammer-Breaking-Brought-Peace-Middle/dp/0063098113
https://www.amazon.com/Destroy-America-Three-Easy-Steps/dp/006300187X
https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarian-Moment-Weaponized-Americas-Institutions/dp/0063001829
The Friedman book was on the front table noteworthy titles, while copies of the two Shapiro books were on the table with the Jewish Mysticism books!
Also worthy of note was the primary featured title, Strauss, Spinoza, and Sinai; which points to the ongoing complexity of The Tikvah Fund and Orthodoxy:
https://www.amazon.com/Strauss-Spinoza-Sinai-Orthodox-Questions/dp/194785772X
It replaced 2020’s featured title, Chaim Saiman’s Tikvah book Halakhah:
https://www.amazon.com/Halakhah-Rabbinic-Library-Jewish-Ideas/dp/069115211X
Though there were plenty of copies of the hardcover edition still for sale.
Tikvah remains an important part of the Orthodox Jewish world.
According to the Washington Heights Machers, Jordan Peterson is Jewish Theology!
But my big takeaway was the fact that Joe Rogan BFF Jordan Peterson was included with the books on Jewish Theology!
https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0345816021
For those who might have missed, here is the SHU special newsletter linking Rogan, Peterson, and Weiss:
https://groups.google.com/g/Davidshasha/c/K7Zs4QMWhck
And for those who still might not believe that Peterson is an Alt-Right menace, just check his Amazon page and see how many different languages his despicable book has been translated into:
https://www.amazon.com/Jordan-B-Peterson/e/B001HMLIKQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
Perhaps I should not have found it strange that Peterson is considered a Jewish Theologian in YU, but I did!
I was expecting Dara Horn’s book on the Dead Jews there, but did not find it:
https://www.amazon.com/People-Love-Dead-Jews-Reports/dp/0393531562
Though it is possible that it was sold out!
In any case, going to The Seforim Sale is always an adventure, and they did have one last copy (!) of Tradition magazine’s Norman Lamm tribute issue – as if they were just waiting for me to claim it:
https://traditiononline.org/rabbi-dr-norman-lamm-memorial-volume/
It was truly an eventful trek to Washington Heights, filled with the usual ugly traffic jams, as I tried to get to the upper tip of Manhattan from Brooklyn.
Conservative Rabbi Shai Cherry is In: The New Talmudism is Still Alive and Well at YU!
I did notice that at the 2020 Seforim Sale the New Talmudists were amply represented with the following titles:
https://www.amazon.com/Socrates-Fat-Rabbis-Daniel-Boyarin/dp/0226069168
https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Divine-about-Law-Perspectives/dp/0691176256
https://www.amazon.com/Talmud-Biography-Lives-Great-Religious/dp/0691161844
For those who might still not be familiar with the ongoing decimation of the Talmudic heritage in academia, here again is my discussion of the trend:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPbxxP_kkV536tPTvMpsUE9feBgoBSa7QEP8iXXDHIk/edit
Though I did not see any of those books this year, I did see the title from Rabbi Shai Cherry, a Conservative rabbi who has made a big name for himself in the New Talmudist field:
https://www.amazon.com/Coherent-Judaism-Constructive-Theology-Halakhah/dp/1644693402
https://zeramim.org/past-issues/vol-v-issue-3/
He is a true Anti-Maimonidean:
I discussed his book Coherent Judaism in my final article on the Tikvah Fund failure Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T95UtKqVQrTZWObnxgTYMxrBYvc-6SzTpQM668sKoj4/edit
Indeed, YU is very much entrenched in its Orthodoxy, and it is extremely rare to find any non-Orthodox rabbis included in The Seforim Sale. I can recall in the past some Louis Jacobs titles, and only Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Hebrew book on the Kotzker Rebbe – I cannot think of any others from the “Conservative” world.
So, while Sephardim are ignored, the New Talmudism is very much In.
David Shasha