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This 5 page paper discusses the book As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg and compares the way Jews are treated in the book to the treatment they faced in reality. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KV32_HV683723.rtf
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listed below. Citation styles constantly change, and these examples may not contain the most recent updates. As a Driven Leaf
Inc. by K. Von Huben 12/2010 Please Introduction In 1939, conservative rabbi Milton Steinberg published an historical novel entitled As a
Driven Leaf. The book is a fictionalized account of the life of a real person, Elisha ben Abuyah, an early Talmudic scholar whose relentless search for truth left him without
a home or a faith. This paper discusses the way Jewish, Greek and Roman civilization is portrayed in the book, and how it compares to life as it really was
lived in the period shortly after Christs ministry. Discussion The book is unusual in that the author, a conservative rabbi, has chosen a heretic for his protagonist. His fictionalized Elisha
was born to a man who refused to accept the Jewish religion and made his displeasure known. In the very first chapter, when the child is circumcised (without anesthetic), Abuyahs
reaction is very modern: "A merciful custom," he muttered resentfully, "the ordinance of a God of mercy" (Steinberg 20). Because Abuyah cannot bring himself to believe in or support Jewish
ritual, he hires a Greek tutor for his son; but Abuyah dies while Elisha is still a boy, leaving him to the not-so-tender mercies of his uncle, Amram. Amram
can only be called a zealot. He believes in Jewish teachings implicitly as the exact word of God; he asks not questions; he has no doubts; and worst of all,
he wont allow Elisha to question his faith either. Thus, the characters internal conflict is set up early in the book: his fathers unorthodox, questioning mind versus his uncles rigid
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