by Professor Reuven Kimelman
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
Professor Reuven Kimelman discusses the tensions in the universalism of Alenu and its relationship to Shema in this article on TheTorah.com.
God is not presented as God of the Exodus or the covenant with the patriarchs, but pointedly the God of Creation. So why is the Master of all not worshipped by all, but only by us Jews? The answer to this question comes in two steps. The first is in the prooftext of the first paragraph:
For you have come to know this day and thus should take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other (Deut. 4:39).
In other words, since no other people was made privy to such a revelation, only we (Jews), apprised of the truth of creation, are called upon to worship the one God who created all. But this answer is unsatisfying since a universal God should be worshipped universally, especially since, as the prayer has stated, only this God is real whereas all others are “emptiness” and “save not.” This tension is resolved in the vision for the future found in the second paragraph of Aleinu.
Read more at https://thetorah.com/theological-tension-of-aleinu/
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One of the founding members of the UTJ, Reuven Kimelman is a professor of classical rabbinic literature at Brandeis University, specializing in the history and meaning of Jewish liturgy.
Prior, Professor Kimelman was Joseph Shier Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, and Five College Professor of Judaic Studies at Amherst College.
He also has taught courses at numerous other educational institutions, including: Mt. Holyoke Smith, Trinity and Williams Colleges, as well as the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Yeshiva University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
A recognized scholar of Talmud, Midrash and liturgy, Professor Kimelman has written on the interaction between Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and modernity. His interest further expands to the thematic connections between Greek and Biblical literature from Homer to Plato and from Genesis to Matthew. In the field of Jewish ethics, his focus is on the ethics of war, statecraft, conflict, and genocide.
Professor Kimelman is a prolific writer whose works have been published in scholarly and popular journals. He is author of the Hebrew work, The Mystical Meaning of “Lekhah Dodi’ and ‘Kabbalat Shabbat’ (Hebrew University Press) and the forthcoming, “The Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Prayerbook.”
He also has authored two audio course books:
He also wrote the introduction to Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Mystical Element in Judaism. A list of Professor Kimelman's courses and publications can be found here.
Professional Kimelman lectures frequently at academic conferences, synagogues and national Jewish organizations. He has served as scholar in-residence for many groups, including the former UJA Young Leadership Cabinet, the Wexner Heritage Foundation, and the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.