The Gift Of The Jews By Steven Cahill Summary

Book Review: The Gift of The Jews
Yvonne Cintron
Bristol Community College
Page Break At first glance it seems that Steven Cahill's The Gift of The Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, would be about just that "gifts." Upon further reading it becomes known that while Cahill does speak about the importance of these "gifts" the book is also filled with accounts in history, brief stories found in the Hebrew Bible, which depict the history of the Jewish people and their development of their relationships to God. This book may certainly be difficult to follow at times. In fact, I would say I had a love/hate relationship with the book. The language was hard to follow at times and required a few reads
before understanding the material. I did find it a relief when the author introduced his own opinions on topics in which allowed a brief insight on his personality. In the old "religions" life was seen as an endless cycle of birth and death, time was like a wheel constantly spinning.
"There is no future as we have come to understand it, only the next revolution of the wheel" (p.94) If life is just a circle, then not only what we do has no meaning but none of us nor life matters, because it'll all repeat itself. One can't talk about monotheism without mentioning Avraham. He could be considered the father of monotheism, he was a model for his rejection of idol worship. The new monotheistic point of view believed that life moved on as opposed to repeating itself, this allowed for an individual to have value in their life. For our lives to matter we need to have the ability to influence the future. In the same token this is why the individual holds so much importance. Each individual is valuable because they are the same as all the others, but in the same breath no one person is more important than the
other. Cahill states "When a human being arrogates himself the role of God, he must fail miserably." The example he provided was with the demi-god Pharaoh.
Yaweh demanded that the Israelites be let go. "Who is Yaweh?" (p.113) was Pharaoh's response, to which was returned by the ten plagues, each plague destroying an Egyptian god. Humans are made in God's image, we are taught to be "God-like" but we are to do so without actually being God. We are promised that along our journey in being "God-like" the sins we fall short of are to be forgiven. But if we don’t try we will be held accountable and judged by God. Pharaoh, still had no faith even as each of the plagues swept across Egypt, it wasn’t until his own child was killed that he agreed to release the Israelites. Soon after Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after Moshe and the Israelites. "Do not be afraid! Stand fast and see Yaweh's deliverance which he will work for you today." (p.119) God parted the sea and the people made it to dry ground. The people gained faith in Yaweh, essentially becoming "the people of Yaweh." This was their God, the God of Surprises, and they were his people."
(p.121) Faith plays a large role in believing, Cahill gives many examples of them. A prime example would be when Avrham was told to use his first born Yitzhak as a human sacrifice.Yitzhak knew he was to be sacrificed when he noticed the lamb missing. Just as Avrham was to go through with the sacrifice he was stopped. Both Avrham and Yitzhak had to have faith that God was doing what was in the best interest. The Jews changed the way in which everyone looks at the world in one way or another. They provided us with a spiritual life, with a concept of future and present, and that our lives should pursue justice for all of those that are around us. Let's discuss some of these "gifts." Moshe wrote the Ten Commandments . "Humans were offered a code without justification. Because this is God's code no justification is required." (p.140) The Israelites "who were the first to live psychologically-in real time, also became the first to value the New and to welcome Surprise." (p.128) The understanding that the world changes in real-time and that humans can be instruments in that change, and the idea that new is a positive thing. Another thing in which they gave was a day of rest "The God who made the universe and rested bids us to do the same, calling us to a weekly restoration of prayer, study and recreation." The Torah, which ends in the words, "Yhwh our God, Yhwh (is) One!" may have led to "the possibility to modern science." (p.156) The examples of things taken from the Jews are certainly apparent as Cahill clearly demonstrates.
In closing, I can confidently say that I did learn hand-in-hand with reading and doing a review on this book. Before reading this I would never have known how much the views of today were shaped by events tied to the history of the Jews. Although as previously stated Cahill allows the reader to understand the "gifts of the Jews" by sharing accounts, and stories from the Jewish bible. This successful tact allows for a better understanding of the gifts we utilize even today that were given to us long ago.