Solovyov Vladimir - The Burning Bush: Writings on Jews and Judaism

THE BURNING BUSH

THE BURNING BUSH

WRITINGS ON JEWS AND JUDAISM

VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV

Edited, translated, and with commentary by
Gregory Yuri Glazov

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

Copyright 2016 by University of Notre Dame

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich, 18531900, author. | Glazov, Gregory Yuri, translator, editor, writer of added commentary.

Title: The burning bush : writings on Jews and Judaism / Vladimir Solovyov ; edited, translated, and with commentary by Gregory Yuri Glazov.

Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016007508 | ISBN 9780268029890 (hardcover) | ISBN 026802989X (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: JudaismPhilosophy. | Philosophy, Russian19th century.

Classification: LCC B4263 .B8715 2016 | DDC 296dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007508

ISBN 9780268093044

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at .

To the Sophias of my life: my wife, Regina, sister, Elena, and mother, Marina

CONTENTS

PART I
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
Solovyov and the Origins of This Work

CHAPTER 2
Texts, Annotations, Key Terms, and Translation

CHAPTER 3
The Life and Thought of Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (1989) by Fr. Alexander Men

CHAPTER 4
Jewish History in Russia up to the End of the Nineteenth Century

PART II
COMMENTARY AND PORTRAIT OF SOLOVYOVS ENCOUNTERS WITH JEWS AND JUDAISM

CHAPTER 1
Solovyovs Writings on Judaism in Light of His Notes, Letters, and Other Testimonies

CHAPTER 2
Solovyovs Unique Respect for Judaism and His Philosophy of History

CHAPTER 3
Judaism and Christ: The Testimony of Family and Friends

CHAPTER 4
Judaism, Christ, and Conscience: The Testimony of Colleagues

CHAPTER 5
18751877: Judaism and Sophia in Solovyovs Journey with the Magi

CHAPTER 6
18781881: Lectures on Godmanhood and A Critique of Abstract Principles

CHAPTER 7
18781881: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Getz

CHAPTER 8
18811883: The Break with the Slavophiles and Critique of Dostoevsky

CHAPTER 9
1884: Jewry and the Christian Question

CHAPTER 10
18851886: Joseph Rabinovich and The Talmud

CHAPTER 11
18871890: Getzs Journal and the Gestation of the Protest

CHAPTER 12
1890: Tolstoy, Ezekiel 3:18 and 33:8, and the Launch of the Protest

CHAPTER 13
1891: The Foreword to Getzs The Floor to the Accused

CHAPTER 14
1891: The Central Committee for the Organization of Jewish Emigration, Diminsky, Bakst, and the Encyclopedic Dictionary

CHAPTER 15
October 1891: The Lecture The Fall of the Medieval Worldview

CHAPTER 16
18921894: Final Correspondence with Tolstoy

CHAPTER 17
18941896: Gintsburg, Arseniev, Leskov, and the Articles on the Kabbalah

CHAPTER 18
18981899: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The Tale of the Antichrist

CHAPTER 19
18991900: The Obituary of Joseph Rabinovich and The Tale

CHAPTER 20
July 1900: Last Days and Burial

PART III
PRIMARY TEXTS

CHAPTER 1
Jewry and the Christian Question (1884)

CHAPTER 2
The Israel of the New Covenant (1885)

CHAPTER 3
The Talmud and Recent Polemical Literature about It in Austria and Germany (1886)

CHAPTER 4
The Jews(,) Their Religious and Moral Teachings(.) The Study of S. Y. Diminsky (1891)

CHAPTER 5
When Lived the Hebrew Prophets? Review of Ernest Havets La modernit des prophtes (1896)

CHAPTER 6
The Kabbalah, from the Encyclopedic Dictionary (1896)

CHAPTER 7
Foreword to Kabbalah: The Mystical Philosophy of the Jews, by David Gintsburg (1896)

CHAPTER 8
Obituary of Joseph Davidovich Rabinovich 5 May 1899

CHAPTER 9
Letters to Faivel Meir Bentsilovich Getz

CHAPTER 10
The Sins of Russia (1887)

CHAPTER 11
Correspondence with Tolstoy

CHAPTER 12
The Protest Letter, London Times (December 10, 1890)

CHAPTER 13
Solovyovs Protest Letter in the Memoirs of Korolenko (1909)

CHAPTER 14
Letter to Konstantin Konstantinovich Arseniev

CHAPTER 15
Letters to Baron David Goratsievich Gintsburg

CHAPTER 16
Letters to Nikolai Yakovlevich Grot

CHAPTER 17
Letters to Moskovskie vedomosti (October 1891)

CHAPTER 18
Six Poems

CHAPTER 19
Appendix: The Protest Letter of Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, London Times (December 10, 1890)

SOLOVYOVS WORKS

THE BIBLE

Unless specified, biblical texts are usually cited from the RSV text.

RABBINIC WORKS

Mishnaic tractate titles are preceded by m. The initial b. or no initial indicates tractates of the Babylonian and the initial j., the Jerusalem Talmud. All translations of the Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash, unless stated otherwise, are taken from the Soncino Talmud and Midrash via Kantrowitzs Judaic Classics CD-ROM collection.

TRANSLITERATION

Russian is romanized following the GOST 2002 (B) system; however, cz following this system is usually rendered ts, and e' is rendered either as e or as , while in names, ya is frequently rendered ia and the terminations ej, ij, oj as ei, y, oy, respectively. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian.

EMPHASES AND INTERPOLATIONS

All emphases in citations of Solovyovs works are in the original source, unless indicated otherwise. Interpolations in translated material are denoted by square brackets.

My interest in Solovyov and his Jewish oeuvre was sparked by my father, Yuri Glazov, who inherited it from our godfather, Alexander Men, who was murdered in 1990, shortly after confiding to my mother, Marina Glazov, that he was receiving death threats. The interest was inflamed by a lecture on Solovyov by Pietro Modesto. I perceived wisdom and truth in Modestos articulations of Solovyovs thought and became eager to study it. This study was energized by Jonathan Sutton when he introduced me to colleagues who were interested in Solovyov at conferences he organized in Leeds and Cambridge on Russian religious philosophy and the issues of civil rights in Russia. At that point, reading Solovyovs Jewish writings, I began translating excerpts for my classes on the Old Testament at Blackfriars in Oxford. Two old friends of the family, Natalya Trauberg and her daughter, Marija Chepaityte, visited me at the time, and we spoke of Solovyov. Marija followed up on these conversations by sending me Sergei Solovyovs biography of his uncle and the volume of memoirs edited by Boris Valentinovich Averin, both of which figure prominently in this study. Subsequently, my friend Stratford Caldecott, codirector with his wife, Leonie, of the Centre for Faith and Culture, introduced me to Paul Valliere and, later, Michael Waldstein. Michael commissioned me to translate the loci classici of Solovyovs Jewish writings and then invited me to present a weeklong seminar on these texts (the first five works in Russia anthologies of Solovyovs writings on Judaism and the books by Getz, and then, at a reunion at the home of my sister Elena and her husband, Kevin Corrigan, again helped me prepare a translation of Solovyovs Talmud and Life of Muhammad (the latter is not part of this project). Once described by Rachel Polonsky as a walking encyclopedia, my mother remained always at hand with advice on biographical, topographical, literary, and translational matters, and helped me correct the proofs. My sister Elena brought from Russia the centenary two-volume work edited by Yevgeniya V. Borisova and Anna P. Kozyreva and in the stages of responding to the readers reviews helped bring my translation of Solovyovs poetry closer to the original. I also owe Elena and Kevin thanks for connecting me with Russian and Ukrainian religious thinkers and figures for whom the issues raised by this book are a matter of lifelong importance. Of these individuals, I became most engaged with Yakov Krotov, not only via his electronic archive, but also through his generous and informed responses to my questions about Solovyov that provided important insights pertaining to Solovyovs relationship with Getz, Baron Gintsburg, and Tolstoy. On a broader level, I would also like to thank Kevin Corrigan and my brother, Jamie Glazov, for providing opportunities to publish and engage with scholars in the fields of patristics and biblical studies and contemporary forms of Jew hatred and Holocaust denial, all of which lent both material and moral inspiration.