Yaakov Weinstein returns to the podcast to give an Orthodox Jewish perspective on A Hebraic Inkling by P.H. Brazier.
S6E45: “A Hebraic Inkling” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
[It is]…to remind all us Gentile Christians – who forget it easily enough and even flirt with anti-Semitism – that the Hebrews are spiritually senior to us, that God did entrust the descendants of Abraham with the first revelation of Himself, to put us in our place…
C.S. Lewis, Letter to Mrs Johnson (May 14, 1955)
Biographical Information
Dr. P.H. (Paul) Brazier lives in Wimbledon, London, England. Since 1999, he has been the full-time caregiver for his wife Hilary, who has epilepsy. He holds a B.A in Fine Art, an M.Phil in Education, and an MA & PhD in Systematic Theology, with his doctoral work focused on the influence of Dostoevsky on the young Karl Barth’s doctrine of sin and atonement.
My research also suggested that did the graphic design work for the production of Perelandra the Opera in Oxford, and the web site and design for the Journal of Inklings Studies.
Author Biographical Information
Dr. Yaakov Weinstein was our Jewish guest last season during Ecumenism Month. He is Chief Scientist for Quantum Technologies at the MITRE Corporation. He lives in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and he blogs at Torah from Narnia.
Guest Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
- Yaakov continues to blog at Torah from Narnia, recently focussing on the creation of Narnia.
Toast
- David was drinking Bumble Beer
- Yaakov was drinking raspberry seltzer
Discussion
01. “Opening thoughts”
Q. The author of our book today, “A Hebraic Inkling”, says that his goal in writing the book was to describe what Lewis “believed and wrote about the ancient Hebrews, their scriptures, their status as God’s chosen people, and today’s Jews” I have some thoughts and questions, but I’d really like you to drive our discussion, given that the subject matter relates both to your ethnicity and your faith. The book is divided into three parts, and I would like us to look at each of these sections in turn, but before we get to that, what did you think of this book as a whole?
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02. “Part I – Revelation”
Q. So let’s turn to the first third of the book, which deals with the subject of Revelation. It speaks about the Young C.S. Lewis, and then focuses on the relationship between the Hebrews, Jews, and God, as well as the ideas of holiness and pride. What were your thoughts on that section?
The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Letter #27)
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! … 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness[a] of the olive tree, 18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Romans 11: 1, 17-24
Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
Luke 3:8
The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Chapter 2)
- Narrischkeit: Foolishness, nonsense (נאַרישקייט, narishkeyt, from נאַריש, narish, ‘foolish’ + ־קייט, -keyt, ‘ness’; cf. German: närrisch, ‘foolish’; OED)
03. “Part II – Scripture”
Q. So in Part II of the book, Dr. Brazier considers the subject of the Hebrew Scripture, focussing on their historicity and, unsurprisingly on the Psalms (For listeners who are unaware, Lewis’ chief work on the Bible can be found in a book he wrote late in life called “Reflections on the Psalms”). How did you react to what was said here?
Happy shall he be who takes your little ones
Psalm 137:9
and dashes them against the rock!
They are creatures of that miserable sort who loudly proclaim that torture is too good for their enemies and then give tea and cigarettes to the first wounded German pilot who turns up at the back door… Think of your man as a series of concentric circles, his will being the innermost, his intellect coming next, and finally his fantasy. You can hardly hope, at once, to exclude from all the circles everything that smells of the Enemy: but you must keep on shoving all the virtues outward till they are finally located in the circle of fantasy, and all the desirable qualities inward into the Will.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Chapter 6)
I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.
Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.
C.S. Lewis, Meditation in a Toolshed
04. “Part III – Family”
Q. The final portion of the book focuses on family, digging into Lewis’ relationship and marriage to Joy Davidman, who was herself of Jewish descent. What did you make of this section?
- Sarah Smith of Golders Green
- S2E29 – AH – Dr. David Clark
- Presentation of Jesus
- Pablo Christiani
- Cardinal Aron Jean-Marie Lustiger
- Jephthah sacrificed his daughter
- Job’s comforters are Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.. It is suggested that Eliphaz is the son of Esau.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, I pray, your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peni′el, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penu′el, limping because of his thigh. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh on the sinew of the hip.
Genesis 32:24
05. “Concluding Thoughts”
Q. In the few remaining minutes we have, do you have any concluding thoughts about this book, or what you would like to see addressed in any future book about Lewis on this subject?
“I was in that state of mind in which a boy thinks it extremely telling to call God Jahveh and Jesus Yeshua”
C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy (Chapter 6)
06. “Cover Graphic”
Q. Would you please share something you noticed about the Hebrew text which I chose at random for today’s episode?
22 At that time Abim′elech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do; 23 now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25 When Abraham complained to Abim′elech about a well of water which Abim′elech’s servants had seized, 26 Abim′elech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abim′elech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abim′elech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Then Abim′elech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:22-34
