For decades, Rabbi Larry Hoffman has guided rabbinical and cantorial students at Hebrew Union College, probing them to think more deeply about liturgy, theology, Jewish history, and how these disciplines might be translated to the layperson. In honor of his immense impact on the Reform movement and the Jewish people as a whole, over thirty of his former students, colleagues, and friends have come together in this new Festschrift to reflect on some of his most important teachings.
Divided into twelve sections, Communities of Meaning includes short excerpts from Hoffman’s essays and talks, as well as response essays by some of contemporary Judaism’s most distinguished scholars, all of whom were shaped in their own way by Hoffman. These sections form a good cross-section of Hoffman’s most important ideas. They include his observation that prayer is a “sacred drama”; his examination of new avenues to spirituality; the importance of synagogues as places of moral discourse; the need to embrace non-Jews in the Jewish institutional space; and the benefits of having rabbis ask new questions in new ways.
All of the response essays draw on a variety of sources and disciplines to make their points. This is no accident: Hoffman was one of the first voices in the Jewish world to take seriously the link between liturgy and anthropology, and to read Jewish sources through the lens of thinkers as diverse as Mary Douglas, Susan Sontag, and Clifford Geertz. Taking after Hoffman, the contributors to this anthology are as comfortable with Rashi and Maimonides as they are with poetry theorists, sociologists like Peter Berger, and feminist thinkers like Judith Plaskow.
If there is a criticism of the book, it is that the essays often feel too short. Hoffman is a great writer, and one finishes the excerpts of his works wanting more. The same goes for the response essays, each of which could double in length and still have more to say. Hoffman is a capacious thinker who wrestles with the grand themes and challenges of Jewish life. His questions cannot be answered in only a few pages.
One surprising feature of the book is that it includes powerful Christian voices. Although Hoffman made a career out of teaching future Jewish leaders, his writings address universal questions and philosophical musings that transcend religious lines. They examine how prayer functions, why we pray, and what prayer does for us and our communities — questions that are equally salient to believers of any faith. As a result, Hoffman has earned the respect of many, and it shows in the careful way that the pastors and reverends in this volume speak about his influence on them.
Communities of Meaning introduces readers to an important yet sometimes underappreciated scholar. It raises questions that will stay with us long after we finish reading.
Rabbi Marc Katz is the Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ. He is author of the book The Heart of Loneliness: How Jewish Wisdom Can Help You Cope and Find Comfort (Turner Publishing), which was chosen as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
